CKAN is open-source “data hub” software designed to make it easier to find, share and reuse data and content, especially open data and content.
This integration module was developed as part of data.gov.uk and is the only CKAN-endorsed Drupal module.
This module allows administrators to CKAN-enable their content types which essentially ties nodes to CKAN datasets via the CKAN API and allows developers, through hooks, to map any part of the CKAN service response to anything inside Drupal.
Mapping examples used on Data.gov.uk:
- tags property to taxonomy
- department value to a node reference cck field
- geographic location to taxonomy
Total flexibility is given through extensive use of custom hooks and theming layer. In the design, extra attention was paid to data de-duplication, so only data essential to the functioning of the Drupal site is actually stored. The rest is always downloaded on demand. There are various levels of response caching to make sure performance is as good as it can be.
Also bundled with the integration module are the following modules:
ckan_tags: A custom mapping example module which maps the tags property to a specified vocabulary.