OpenData CKAN VM for Microsoft Azure

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OpenData CKAN VM for Microsoft Azure

Installation / First Steps

Stand: 26.11.2015

Version: 1.2

Status: translated



1 Disclaimer Thank you for using CKAN and Microsoft Azure for your Open Data project.

This document provides you with an overview on how to install, how to set up and how to use the Azure

based CKAN image provided by Teleport.

This system software is provided „as is“ and any expressed or implied warranties, including, but not limited

to, the implied warranties, including, but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantibility and

fitness for a particular purpose are disclaimed.

In no event shall the copyright owner or contributors be liable for any direct, indirect, special, exemplary

or consequential damages (including, but not limited to procurement of substitute goods or services; loss

of use, data or profits; or business interruption) however caused and on any theory of liability, whether in

contract, strict liability, or tort (including negligence or otherwise) arising in any way out of the use of this

software, even if advised of the possibility of such damage.

2 Installation Notes

2.1 Web Server The CKAN Server is ready to use right after the installation on the Azure-based virtual machine. The CKAN

front-end can be reached via the URL that is provided by Azure (http://yourdomain.cloudapp.net/) or a

customised URL respectively.

CKAN will be delivered by an Apache web server via an Nginx-Proxy. Respective standard directories are

used for applications and configuration. For administration purposes it is needed to establish a CKAN

system administrator account (se also chapter 2.4).

2.2 Access via SSH By default, SSH access is possible via port 22 using the specified password. User name and password can

be chosen when configuring the virtual machine (VM).

2.3 Setting up the Firewall When delivered, a firewall is configured on the system. This firewall exclusively enables those connections

which are necessary for operating the CKAN server (Port 80 and 22). If you plan to operate additional

services on the virtual machine you need to configure the firewall respectively.

2.4 Setting up the System Administrator Account The CKAN administrator account is needed for operating the CKAN server. Its set up is part of the basic

installation and uses the following log-in data:

http://yourdomain.cloudapp.net/



Benutzername (Account): admin

Kennwort (Password): abc1234

Important Note:

For security reasons, please use the initial account for logging into the front-end and change the initial

password immediately!

If you need further system admin accounts, you need to set them up via command line interface and ssh

respectively. After having logged in via ssh, you need to execute the following commands:

This example establishes a second system admin with the name ckanadmin2. Using the system admin

account you can specify users, datasets and organizations.

. /usr/lib/ckan/default/bin/activate

cd /usr/lib/ckan/default/src/ckan

paster sysadmin add ckanadmin2 -c /etc/ckan/default/production.ini



2.5 Changing Site Title and Logo Editing the standard configuration file /etc/ckan/default/production.ini the following components can be

edited and substituted respectively:

Site title (ckan.site_title)

Site description (ckan.site_description)

Site logo (ckan.site_logo)

CSS and Templates (extra_public_paths)

A more comfortable option provides the web interface that can be accessed choosing „Sysadmin-

Einstellungen“ > „Konfiguration“ („Sysadmin-Settings“ > „Configuration“)

Using this interface, you can also maintain information provided via the web page „Über uns“ (“About”).

Also, you can edit the text of the start page.

Hint: the file path for the site logo is /usr/lib/ckan/default/src/ckan/ckan/public

2.6 Site Language Multi-language support is provided for the CKAN server. You can choose the language in the lower part of

the browser window.



As of today, German language is supported. If you want to change the standard language or to extend the

set of languages, you can edit the configuration file /etc/ckan/default/production.ini.

Therefore, you need to connect via SSH with the command line interface of the CKAN Server.

3 First Steps This chapter describes the basic elements of CKAN. Using a step-by-step approach, specific test data will

be generated. These test data are already established on your CKAN installation – you can simply delete

them, if not needed.

For the first steps you need to log into the system.

3.1 Organizations and Users Each dataset that is published via CKAN belongs to an organization. Datasets can be edited by users, each

user belongs to an organization. One or more users can be administrators for an organization. These

organizational administrators can set up new users within their organizations and configure data and

publishing parameters.

Within CKAN, multiple organizations with organization-specific publishing guidelines can be set up. That

way, public service structures and responsibilities can be modelled and administrated.

Step one: Set Up an Organization First, log in as system administrator. Choose “Organization hinzufügen” (“Add Organization”) in the Area

“Organisationen” (“Organizations”) and fill the form.



Using „Organisation erstellen“ („Add Organization“) a new organization account will be created, stored in

the data base and subsequently will be listed in the “Organisationen” (“Organizations”) overview.

Step two: Editing Organisation’s Settings and Adding Users

Choose the newly created organization from the list on the organization page. You will see the organization

page. Using the option “Bearbeiten” (“Edit”) you can edit general data and add new users.



Within an organization, users can have three different roles:

a) Administrator: set up, edit and delete datasets; administrate organization’s users b) Editor: set up, edit and delete datasets c) User (Mitglied): can see datasets of his/her organization, cannot set up datasets

Now, add a new user (Mitglied) with the role ‚editor‘ (Bearbeiter). All following steps will be performed

with this newly added user.

Important hint:

The test user has he following access data for the sample data:

Account (Benutzername): tester-1286

Password (Kennwort): abc1234

If you want to continue working with this Account, change the password immediately, otherwise delete

the account before going public.

3.2 Groups In CKAN, groups are used to bundle and to categorize datasets, e.g. datasets belonging to a certain project

or to a certain team. Groups and organizations resemble each other in appearance. The difference

becomes visible, when it comes to access rights.



Organizations can bundle and control users, who are creating, changing, publicly or privately (for internal

use only) publishing datasets. That way, an editor or an administrator of an organization can create a new

dataset.

However, editors or administrators if a group can bundle or exclude datasets of their CKAN in their group.

Thus, groups are used for ‚data-consuming‘ users, who are using, collecting or bundling theme-related

data.

In short words: users are creating data related to their organization, but rather using data related to their

groups.

Third Step: Creating and Editing Groups In principle, the method for creating a group is similar to the method for creating an organization. Choose

„Gruppen“ > „Gruppe hinzufügen“ („Groups“->“Add group“) and add a new group.

Two hints:

Pictures can support intuitive understanding of datasets – simply use this opportunity! Edit groups by

choosing „Bearbeiten“ („Edit“) and add a picture.



You also have the opportunity to use „Benutzerdefinierte Felder“ („User defined entries“) for adding

information. In the example above information on the creation date was added.

3.3 Datasets CKAN is an Open-Data platform – that means that the most important content is data or so called datasets.

Each dataset will be registered separately. If you have two series of measurements for the ozone

concentration in your city both for 2013 and 2014, just create two new datasets in your CKAN system.

Before you start, some explanations regarding datasets.

A CKAN dataset is a quantity of data resources - e.g. Excel data tables with ozone measurements – and

some accompanying information. This information contains:

- A meaningful title

- Key words (tags)

- Licensing information (e.g. CCA, PDDL),

- Organizational information

- Visibility information (private, public),



- Information on source, version, author etc.

- Further individual information

Another hint: By assigning editors to organizations and datasets to editors you will create a structure that

shows not only data, but also data sources (organizations) and contact persons (editors).

Fourth Step: Creating a Dataset Let’s get practical. Choose „Datensätze“ > „Datensatz hinzufügen“ („Datasets“->“Add dataset“), create a

new dataset and edit the accompanying information.

After you have filled the mandatory fields, you choose the second step „Daten hinzufügen“ („Add data“).



You can either upload your data directly onto the CKAN server (e.g. your Excel sheet with ozonee

measurements) or – alternatively – set a link to a Web-service or to a REST-service.



In our example, the Excel-sheet was uploaded directly and name as well as the data description were

added. In addition it may be of help to document the data format – in this particular case it is not needed

because CKAN automatically recognizes Excel as data format.

Another hint: As long as they belong to the respective content, you can add any number of resources to a

dataset, be it additional files with xml, json or pdf format. But please avoid to add a table with ozone

measurements of 2014 to the dataset of 2015. It is recommended to therefore open a separate dataset.

3.4 Searching for Data After you have added data to CKAN you now may want to search and recover them in CKAN. Therefore

you can both use a search entry as well a structured search via search criteria like formats, keywords or

licenses to recover your data. It is also possible to search data in data catalogues of organizations or groups.

One of the biggest advantages is that CKAN provides an API (machine-to-machine interface) allowing data

processing in other systems.

4 Conclusion The chapters above gave you a step-by-step approach to create data on your CKAN server and offer them

to the public by effective search interfaces and functionality.

This complete process – beginning with establishing the CKAN-Image and the virtual machine in Microsoft

Azure, including its basic configuration as well as the process of adding data – took only a few minutes.

We look forward to answer all your questions according to open data / CKAN – just ask us:

http://www.TELEPORT.de

http://www.tsa.de/

OpenData CKAN VM for Microsoft Azure

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