This extension allows users to report issues with datasets in a CKAN instance. It helps users to contribute in maintaining the data portal, and allows administrators to quickly discover problems, tracks them inside the portal and fix them

The extension works with the latest CKAN version, 2.9+.

For those of you not already familiar with CKAN, it is an open-source tool for creating data websites. It allows you to publish, share, manage and visualize data. It comes with a wide set of extensions that you can use to add additional features to your existing data portal, and ckanext-issues is just one of more than 200 available extensions. 

Installation

To install the plugin, enter your virtualenv and install from pip or source:

pip install ckanext-isssues

Or

pip install -e git+http://github.com/keitaroinc/ckanext-issues

Create the necessary tables:

ckan -c path-to/ckan.ini issuesdb

This will also register a plugin entry point, so you now should be able to add the following to your CKAN .ini file:

ckan.plugins = issues

After you clear your cache and restart the web server, the Issues extension should be available.

Upgrade from older versions

When upgrading ckanext-issues from older code versions, you should run the issues upgrade command, in case there are any model migrations (e.g. 11th Jan 2016):

ckan -c path-to/ckan.ini issuesupdate

What it does

Once installed and enabled, the issues extension will make available a per- dataset issue tracker. The issue tracker user interface can be found at:

/dataset/{dataset-name-or-id}/issues

You can add an issue at:

/dataset/{dataset-name-or-id}/issues/new

Issues API

The issues extension also exposes its functionality as part of the standard CKAN Action API: Specifically:

/api/3/action/issue_show
/api/3/action/issue_create
/api/3/action/issue_update
/api/3/action/issue_delete
/api/3/action/issue_search
/api/3/action/issue_count
/api/3/action/issue_comment_create
/api/3/action/issue_report
/api/3/action/issue_report_clear
/api/3/action/issue_comment_report
/api/3/action/issue_comment_report_clear

Configuration

To switch-on notifications, you should set the following option in your configuration, and all users in the group will get the email.

ckanext.issues.send_email_notifications = true

If you set max_strikes then users can ‘report’ a comment as spam/abuse. If the number of users reporting a particular comment hits the max_strikes number then it is hidden, pending moderation.

ckanext.issues.max_strikes = 2

Activation

By default, issues are enabled for all datasets. If you wish to restrict issues to specific datasets or organizations, you can use these config options:

ckanext.issues.enabled_for_datasets = mydataset1 mydataset2 ...
ckanext.issues.enabled_for_organizations = department-of-transport health-regulator

Alternatively, you can switch issues on/off for particular datasets by using an extra field:

'issues_enabled': True

and you can set the default for all the other datasets (without that extra field):

ckanext.issues.enabled_without_extra = false

For the extra field to work you must not set enabled_per_dataset or enabled_for_organizations options.

Testing with Postgres

To run full production tests on postgres run. These are the tests that Git actions will run

pytest --ckan-ini=test.ini ckanext/issues/tests

Final thoughts

If you followed the steps above, the ckanext-issues extension is now working on your data portal and you can start tracking issues reported by users. If you have any questions about the extension or need help installing it, contact us, we’d be glad to help you out. 

About Dusko Bogdanovski

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