CKAN is an open-source data portal platform for sharing data, developed by Open Knowledge International. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the process of installing CKAN on MXLinux Latest.
Before you start, you will need the following:
First, you need to install some packages required for CKAN installation. Open the terminal and enter the following command:
sudo apt-get install postgresql libpq5 libpq-dev python-dev python-pip python-virtualenv git-core solr-jetty openjdk-11-jdk redis-server
This command will install PostgreSQL database, its development libraries, Python development tools, Git, Solr for search, JDK, and Redis server on your system.
Virtualenv is used to create isolated Python environments. We will create a new virtual environment for CKAN. Enter the following command to create a new virtual environment:
sudo virtualenv -p /usr/bin/python2.7 /usr/lib/ckan/default
This will create a virtual environment named "default" in /usr/lib/ckan directory.
Enter the following command to activate the virtual environment:
source /usr/lib/ckan/default/bin/activate
This will activate the virtual environment and change your command prompt to (default).
Now we are ready to install CKAN. Enter the following command:
sudo pip install -e git+https://github.com/ckan/ckan.git#egg=ckan
This will clone the CKAN source code and install the required packages into the virtual environment.
Next, we need to configure CKAN. Enter the following command to create a new CKAN configuration file:
sudo mkdir -p /etc/ckan/default
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /etc/ckan/
sudo ckan -v config /etc/ckan/default/ckan.ini
This will create a new configuration file at /etc/ckan/default/ckan.ini.
CKAN has many extensions that extend its functionality. You can install any extension that meets your requirements. For this tutorial, we will install two extensions: DataPusher and DataStore.
Enter the following command to install DataPusher:
sudo pip install datapusher
Enter the following command to install DataStore:
sudo pip install -e git+https://github.com/ckan/ckanext-datastore.git#egg=ckanext-datastore
Now we need to configure the extensions we just installed.
Open the CKAN configuration file /etc/ckan/default/ckan.ini using the text editor of your choice.
Add the following lines to the [app:main] section of the configuration file:
ckan.plugins = datastore datapusher
Add the following lines to the end of the configuration file:
[datapusher]
url = https://demo.ckan.org/
Save and close the file.
Enter the following commands to create a new PostgreSQL database and user:
sudo -u postgres createuser -S -D -R -P ckanuser
sudo -u postgres createdb -O ckanuser ckan_default
This will create a new user ckanuser and a database ckan_default.
Enter the following command to initialize the database:
cd /usr/lib/ckan/default/src/ckan
paster db init -c /etc/ckan/default/ckan.ini
This will create the necessary tables in the PostgreSQL database.
Enter the following commands to start the Solr and Redis services:
sudo service jetty start
sudo service redis-server start
Enter the following command to run CKAN:
paster serve /etc/ckan/default/ckan.ini
This will start the CKAN development server. Open your web browser and navigate to http://localhost:5000. You should see the CKAN homepage.
Congratulations! You have successfully installed CKAN on MXLinux Latest. You can now start using CKAN to manage and share your data.
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