ZNRR CKAN Project

This repository contains the CKAN-based implementation for the Zambia National Research Repository (ZNRR). CKAN is an open-source data management system for powering data hubs and portals. For more information, see the official CKAN documentation.

Project Structure

The main components of this repository are:

• ckanext-zarr/ — Custom CKAN extension for ZNRR functionality.
  • plugin.py — CKAN plugin implementation
  • actions.py — Modified CKAN actions
  • helpers.py — Template helper functions
  • presets.json — ckanext-scheming extension presets
  • profiles.py — RDS-compatabile DCAT profile logic for Dublin Core Schema
  • upload.py — Giftless upload logic
  • validators.py — Custom validators
  • assets/ — Static CSS and JS assets
  • public/ — Public static images
  • react/ — React frontend components: file uploader only
  • schemas/ — DCAT-compatible Dublin Core Metadata Schema definitions
  • templates/ — Jinja2 templates
  • tests/ — Unit and integration tests
• Dockerfile — Containerization for reproducible deployments.
• bootstrap.sh, ckan-entrypoint.sh — Shell scripts for environment setup and container entrypoint.
• Pipfile, Pipfile.lock — Python dependency management using Pipenv.
• .env — Environment variable configuration (not committed; see below).
• .github/ — CI/CD and development environment configuration.
• Submodules (3rd party):
  • ckan/ — Core CKAN source code and configuration files.

Dependency Management

• Python dependencies are managed with Pipenv (Pipfile, Pipfile.lock). This ensures reproducible environments and easy dependency updates using Pipenv.
• Node.js dependencies (for frontend assets in ckanext-zarr/ckanext/zarr/react) are managed via package.json in relevant directories.
• Docker is used for containerized deployments, ensuring consistency across environments.

Environment Variables

It is unlikely you will need to use these (as they are largely requried for automatic tests) but environment variables are loaded from the .env file (not committed to version control). Key variables typically include:

• CKAN_SITE_URL — The base URL for the CKAN instance.
• CKAN_SQLALCHEMY_URL — Database connection string.
• CKAN_SOLR_URL — Solr search engine URL.
• CKAN_REDIS_URL — Redis cache URL.
• CKAN_DATASTORE_WRITE_URL — Datastore write connection string.
• CKAN_DATASTORE_READ_URL — Datastore read connection string.
• Other extension-specific variables as required.

Refer to the CKAN configuration documentation for a full list of supported environment variables.

Code Best Practices

• Follow CKAN extension development guidelines: See CKAN Extension Development.
• Use Pipenv for Python dependency management: Run pipenv install to set up the environment.
• Linting and formatting: Use .flake8 for code style enforcement.
• Testing: Use pytest and CKAN's built-in test framework. Configuration files like test-core.ini are provided.
• Documentation: Update README.md and extension-specific README.md files regularly.

Useful Links

• CKAN Documentation
• CKAN API Guide
• CKAN Extension Development
• CKAN Configuration

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For questions or contributions, please refer to the individual extension README.md files or open an issue in this repository.