PortalJS — Connect CKAN

Overview

Connect an existing portaljs-catalog portal to a live CKAN backend for the "decoupled / any backend" path. The portal stops reading the static datasets.json manifest (and files in /public/data/) and instead feeds its two data surfaces — the /search catalog and the /@namespace/slug showcases — straight from a CKAN instance's REST API (package_search / package_show) through a generated fetch client. Output is plain, editable Next.js code with no runtime dependency — never @portaljs/ckan, whose bundle wires React UI components to React 18 internals and crashes at import under the template's React 19. Pages fetch CKAN server-side in getStaticProps/getStaticPaths, so the catalog is pre-rendered at build time and the site can still be statically deployed. Run this right after portaljs-new-portal to swap a freshly scaffolded portal's sample data over to CKAN.

Prerequisites

• A scaffolded PortalJS portal (see portaljs-new-portal) with package.json, pages/, datasets.json, pages/search.tsx, and pages/[owner]/[slug].tsx present.
• A CKAN base URL that is publicly reachable, e.g. https://demo.dev.datopian.com.
• Node 18+ and npm available in the portal directory (no new packages are installed).

Instructions

The canonical, full step-by-step workflow is .claude/commands/portaljs-connect-ckan.md — the single source of truth. Read and follow it when executing. Summary:

1. Gather input from $ARGUMENTS — CKAN base URL (required), org filter (optional), group filter (optional), portal directory (default .). If the URL is missing, interview the user; never dead-end with a missing-input error.
2. Validate the target directory is a portaljs-catalog portal; if not, suggest portaljs-new-portal instead of failing silently.
3. Verify the CKAN backend is reachable via package_search?rows=1, and validate each org filter via organization_show; on failure, explain and re-prompt rather than dead-ending.
4. Generate lib/ckan.ts — a self-contained server-side fetch client wrapping package_search and package_show, with DMS, ORG_FILTER, GROUP_FILTER, and MAX_DATASETS as editable constants.
5. Rewire pages/search.tsx to list datasets from package_search, linking each to /@namespace/slug via datasetHref; leave pages/index.tsx untouched.
6. Overwrite pages/[owner]/[slug].tsx to pre-render one page per dataset via getStaticPaths and fetch details with package_show, previewing tabular resources through the existing Table component.
7. Verify the build with npx next build; fix any error before reporting success.
8. Report what changed: client, catalog, showcase, filters, and static page count.

Output

• Created: lib/ckan.ts (fetch wrapper client — no dependency added to package.json).
• Modified: pages/search.tsx (catalog reads package_search); pages/[owner]/[slug].tsx (showcase reads package_show, overwritten to drop the datasets.json source).
• Unchanged: pages/index.tsx (still the static search-first landing page).
• UI strings: any text it adds to JSX renders through t() (lib/i18n.ts), with the keys added to locales/en.json and every other locales/*.json; npm run i18n:check passes.
• Verified: npx next build succeeds and prints the static page count.
• Result: /search and /@namespace/slug are served from the CKAN backend; the DMS env var can override the base URL at deploy time without editing code.

Error Handling

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Missing CKAN URL	User invoked the skill with no $ARGUMENTS	Ask for the base URL (and optional org/group filter); never error out.
package_search request fails or times out	URL isn't a reachable CKAN root	Tell the user, ask them to confirm the URL, and retry.
Org filter not found	organization_show returns success: false	List valid orgs from organization_list and ask which one was meant.
Catalog renders empty after connecting	Wrong org/group filter name in lib/ckan.ts	Clear or correct the filter constants and rebuild.
next build fails	Typo in substituted CKAN_URL or bad TypeScript edit	Print the log, fix the first error, and re-run before reporting success.
<Table> fails to load a resource	CKAN resource host blocks CORS	Note that the Download link still works; prefer datastore-backed resources.

Examples

Example 1 — Public CKAN demo, no filters

/portaljs-connect-ckan url=https://demo.dev.datopian.com

Example 2 — Restrict the catalog to one organization

/portaljs-connect-ckan url=https://demo.dev.datopian.com org=my-org

Example 3 — Filter by group and target a specific portal directory

/portaljs-connect-ckan url=https://data.example.gov group=education dir=./my-portal

Resources

• Full workflow: .claude/commands/portaljs-connect-ckan.md
• Client, filters, and troubleshooting reference: references/reference.md
• Related skills: portaljs-new-portal, portaljs-add-dataset, portaljs-deploy
• CKAN Action API documentation: https://docs.ckan.org/en/latest/api/