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portaljs-migrate

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Migrate (harvest) datasets between open-data platforms. Reads CKAN, a DCAT-US /data.json catalog (DKAN, ArcGIS Hub, data.gov), a DCAT / DCAT-AP RDF feed (JSON-LD, Turtle, or RDF/XML), Socrata, OpenDataSoft, or an ArcGIS FeatureServer, and writes them to a static PortalJS catalog or pushes them into a CKAN instance over its API. Use when moving datasets from an external open-data platform into a PortalJS portal, or bridging one CKAN instance to another.

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PortalJS — Migrate

Overview

Harvest datasets from an external open-data platform into a PortalJS portal, or push them into a CKAN instance. Every source reads into one canonical shape — { slug, namespace, name, description, resources[] } — then writes to the target from that shape, so adding a source covers every target automatically.

Supported sources: CKAN, a DCAT-US /data.json catalog (DKAN, ArcGIS Hub, data.gov), a DCAT / DCAT-AP RDF feed, Socrata, OpenDataSoft, or an ArcGIS FeatureServer/MapServer. Supported targets: a static PortalJS catalog (datasets.json, resources linked by URL or downloaded into Cloudflare R2) or a CKAN instance over its write API.

This is the copy-into-the-portal path, the inverse of /portaljs-connect-ckan (which reads the source live at build time): a one-time, re-runnable snapshot so the portal stands alone and needs no backend.

Prerequisites

  • An existing PortalJS portal for the static target: datasets.json, package.json, and pages/[owner]/[slug].tsx must exist (the portaljs-catalog template).
  • Node 18+ and npm, with portal dependencies installed (npm install).
  • Network access to the source platform's API or feed URL.
  • For a CKAN target: a write API key in CKAN_API_KEY — never hardcoded.
  • For download copy mode: git-lfs and a PortalJS Arc account (or a self-hosted Giftless endpoint) to push resource files to R2.
  • For dcat-rdf sources: lib/metadata/dcat-harvest.ts and dcat-profiles.ts (copy from examples/portaljs-catalog/lib/metadata/ if missing), run via npx tsx.

Instructions

Full step-by-step workflow: .claude/commands/portaljs-migrate.md.

  1. Gather input — source type, source URL, target (static/ckan), portal directory, copy mode (link/download), filters. Interview instead of erroring.
  2. Validate the target — confirm the static catalog files exist, or that the CKAN URL and API key authenticate.
  3. Detect the source type from the URL (or --source) and verify reachability.
  4. Read the source into canonical dataset entries, per the source's field table in the reference doc.
  5. For a static target, resolve resource paths by copy mode: link keeps source URLs; download copies files into the repo under Git LFS, pushed to R2.
  6. Print a dry-run preview; stop if --dry-run was passed.
  7. Write datasets.json (upsert or --replace), or push packages/resources into CKAN over its action API.
  8. Verify — npm run build (static) or re-query package_search (CKAN).
  9. Report datasets migrated, namespaces touched, and next steps.

Output

Static target: an updated datasets.json (upserted on (namespace, slug)), optionally with resource files in Git LFS served from Cloudflare R2, plus a passing npm run build. CKAN target: created/updated packages and resources; per-dataset failures are logged and skipped, not fatal.

Error Handling

SymptomCauseFix
"not a portaljs-catalog template"datasets.json missingConfirm the portal directory, or run /portaljs-new-portal
CKAN target rejects every write (403)Key missing, expired, or lacks org permissionSet a valid CKAN_API_KEY; stop rather than partially migrating
Source URL matches no known formatAuto-detection failedPass --source explicitly (ckan, dcat, dcat-rdf, socrata, ods, arcgis)
DCAT-RDF fetch returns HTML, not a feedURL is a portal page, not the feedFollow its <link rel="alternate"> href, or use the direct feed URL
Build fails after writeMalformed entry (missing slug/namespace/name)Inspect /tmp/portaljs-migrate-build.log, fix, rebuild
download mode push failsgit-lfs missing, or no Arc/Giftless tokenInstall git-lfs; mint a token via the Arc API or self-hosted Giftless
Duplicate datasets after re-running--replace used unintentionally, or slug collisionsOmit --replace to upsert; keep slugs unique per namespace

Examples

Example 1 — CKAN to static catalog, link mode

/portaljs-migrate --source ckan --source-url https://demo.dev.datopian.com \
  --target static --portal-dir . --copy-mode link

Upserts all packages from the CKAN demo instance into datasets.json, referencing source resource URLs directly.

Example 2 — data.gov DCAT-US catalog, downloaded into R2

/portaljs-migrate --source dcat --source-url https://catalog.data.gov/data.json \
  --target static --copy-mode download --org-filter epa-gov

Harvests one publisher and copies every resource file into the repo under Git LFS, served from Cloudflare R2.

Example 3 — DCAT-AP RDF feed from a national portal

/portaljs-migrate --source dcat-rdf \
  --source-url https://data.europa.eu/api/hub/search/catalog.jsonld \
  --target static --dry-run

Fetches the JSON-LD feed through the RDF harvester and previews the canonical datasets without writing anything.

Example 4 — CKAN to CKAN (platform-to-platform)

/portaljs-migrate --source ckan --source-url https://old-portal.example.org \
  --target ckan --target-url https://new-portal.example.org --owner-org research

Pushes every package from the old CKAN instance into the new one, filed under research.

Resources