Imported from jeremylongshore/tons-of-skills-marketplace (plugins/community/portaljs/skills/portaljs-connect-ckan/SKILL.md). Install upstream with npx skills add jeremylongshore/tons-of-skills-marketplace --skill portaljs-connect-ckan. Copyright stays with the author (MIT).

PortalJS — Connect CKAN

Name: portaljs-connect-ckan
Author: jeremylongshore

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:

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.
Validate the target directory is a portaljs-catalog portal; if not, suggest portaljs-new-portal instead of failing silently.
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.
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.
Rewire pages/search.tsx to list datasets from package_search, linking each to /@namespace/slug via datasetHref; leave pages/index.tsx untouched.
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.
Verify the build with npx next build; fix any error before reporting success.
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).
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/

{ "ocm": "1", "id": "jeremylongshore-tons-of-skills-marketplace-portaljs-conn-65a5c6", "kind": "skill", "name": "portaljs-connect-ckan", "description": "Wire a scaffolded PortalJS portal to a CKAN backend over its API. Generates a tiny server-side fetch client (no runtime dependency) and feeds the /search catalog and /@namespace/slug showcases from CKAN instead of datasets.json. Use when connecting an existing portal to a live CKAN instance instead of a static manifest.", "publisher": "jeremylongshore", "version": "1.0.0", "capabilities": { "domains": [ "coding" ], "tags": [ "skill-md", "portaljs", "data-portal", "ckan", "backend", "api", "catalog", "skills-sh" ], "languages": [ "en" ] }, "quality_prior": 0.6, "examples": [ "Wire a scaffolded PortalJS portal to a CKAN backend over its API. Generates a tiny server-side fetch client (no runtime dependency) and feeds the /search catalog and /@namespace/slug showcases from CKAN instead of datasets.json. Use when connecting an existing portal to a live CKAN instance instead of a static manifest." ], "primary": false, "metadata": { "source": { "provider": "skills.sh", "repository": "https://github.com/jeremylongshore/tons-of-skills-marketplace", "path": "plugins/community/portaljs/skills/portaljs-connect-ckan/SKILL.md", "ref": "HEAD", "url": "https://github.com/jeremylongshore/tons-of-skills-marketplace/blob/HEAD/plugins/community/portaljs/skills/portaljs-connect-ckan/SKILL.md", "key": "jeremylongshore/tons-of-skills-marketplace/plugins/community/portaljs/skills/portaljs-connect-ckan/SKILL.md" }, "compatibility": "Claude Code with PortalJS portals (Next.js 14, React 18, Node 18+). Runs from any project via the plugin, a personal ~/.claude/commands install, or a portaljs clone.", "allowed_tools": [ "Read,", "Write,", "Edit,", "Bash(npm:*),", "Bash(npx:*),", "WebFetch" ], "license": "MIT" }, "instructions": "# PortalJS — Connect CKAN\n\n## Overview\n\nConnect an existing `portaljs-catalog` portal to a live CKAN backend for the \"decoupled /\nany backend\" path. The portal stops reading the static `datasets.json` manifest (and files\nin `/public/data/`) and instead feeds its two data surfaces — the **`/search` catalog** and\nthe **`/@namespace/slug` showcases** — straight from a CKAN instance's REST API\n(`package_search` / `package_show`) through a generated fetch client. Output is plain,\neditable Next.js code with **no runtime dependency** — never `@portaljs/ckan`, whose bundle\nwires React UI components to", "cost": { "context_tokens": 1314 } }

portaljs-connect-ckan

About