How to Install CKAN on Manjaro

In this tutorial, we will demonstrate how to install the Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network (CKAN) on Manjaro.

CKAN is an open-source data portal that provides us the ability to search, manage, and publish datasets. It is an excellent framework for developers and organizations that want to create data-driven solutions.

Manjaro, on the other hand, is an Arch Linux-based operating system that is user-friendly and packed with features. It is one of the popular Linux distributions that come with pre-installed software that makes it perfect for developers.

So, let's get started.

Step 1: Update your system

The first step is to make sure your system is up-to-date. You can do this by running the following command:

sudo pacman -Syu

Step 2: Install the prerequisites

CKAN requires some prerequisites to work correctly. We need to install those prerequisites before we can install CKAN. To do that, run the following command:

sudo pacman -S python python-pip python-virtualenv git postgresql redis

Step 3: Create a virtual environment for CKAN

Now that we have installed the prerequisites, we need to create a virtual environment for CKAN. A virtual environment is an isolated environment where you can install Python packages without affecting the global packages. To create a virtual environment, run the following command:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/lib/ckan/default
sudo chown -R your-username /usr/lib/ckan
virtualenv --no-site-packages /usr/lib/ckan/default

Step 4: Activate the virtual environment

After creating a virtual environment, we need to activate it. To activate the virtual environment, run the following command:

source /usr/lib/ckan/default/bin/activate

Step 5: Install CKAN

To install CKAN, we need to clone the source code from GitHub. To do this, run the following command:

cd /usr/lib/ckan
git clone https://github.com/ckan/ckan.git
cd ckan

Now we need to install CKAN with pip. To do this, run the following command:

pip install -r requirements.txt
python setup.py develop

Step 6: Install the CKAN extensions

CKAN has many extensions that provide additional functionalities. Here we will install a few necessary extensions.

To install the datastore extension, run the following command:

pip install -r requirements.txt
pip install -e git+https://github.com/ckan/ckanext-datastore.git#egg=ckanext-datastore

To install the datapusher extension, run the following command:

pip install -e git+https://github.com/ckan/datapusher.git#egg=datapusher

Step 7: Set up the database

CKAN requires a database to store its data. We recommend using PostgreSQL for the database. To create a database, run the following command:

sudo su - postgres
createdb -O ckanuser ckan -E utf-8
createuser -S -D -R ckanuser
psql -c "ALTER USER ckanuser PASSWORD 'mypassword';"

To set the database URL, run the following command:

export CKAN_SQLALCHEMY_URL=postgresql://ckanuser:mypassword@localhost/ckan

Step 8: Start the CKAN server

Finally, you can start the CKAN server by running the following command:

paster serve /etc/ckan/default/development.ini

Conclusion

CKAN is a powerful data portal that provides many essential tools for data-driven solutions. In this tutorial, we demonstrated how to install CKAN on Manjaro. We hope this tutorial helped you install CKAN on your Manjaro system.

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