ckanext-geoserver-client

A CKAN extension that provides a client for interacting with GeoServer natively from CKAN. It handles tasks such as workspace creation, uploading shapefiles, styling layers, and synchronizing GeoServer data automatically.

Requirements

System dependency (required):

ogr2ogr must be installed on the CKAN server. It is used to convert GeoJSON to Shapefile before uploading to GeoServer:

# Debian/Ubuntu
apt-get install gdal-bin

# macOS
brew install gdal

# Alpine Linux
apk add gdal-bin

Python dependency (optional):

If you are using S3/MinIO for CKAN file storage (via ckanext-s3filestore), boto3 is required for the extension to fetch resource files directly from S3:

pip install boto3==1.35.77

If ckanext-s3filestore is already installed, boto3 will already be present. Note: newer versions of boto3 may cause compatibility issues with ckanext-s3filestore.

Installation

1. Activate your CKAN virtual environment:

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

2. Install the extension:

   pip install -e git+https://github.com/datopian/ckanext-geoserver-client.git#egg=ckanext-geoserver-client

3. Add geoserver_client to ckan.plugins in your CKAN config file.

4. Restart CKAN.

Configuration

Set the following in your CKAN config file (production.ini) or via environment variables:

# The REST API URL of your GeoServer instance.
# Default: http://localhost:8080/geoserver/rest
ckanext.geoserver_client.rest_url = http://geoserver:8080/geoserver/rest

# The admin username for GeoServer
# Default: admin
ckanext.geoserver_client.user = admin

# The admin password for GeoServer
# Default: geoserver
ckanext.geoserver_client.password = my_secret_password

# The target workspace in GeoServer where CKAN will publish layers
# Default: ckan
ckanext.geoserver_client.workspace = ckan

# The public-facing GeoServer URL used to build WMS/WFS links on resources
# Default: http://localhost:8080/geoserver
ckanext.geoserver_client.public_url = http://geoserver:8080/geoserver

Environment variable equivalents (for use with ckanext-envvars):

CKANEXT__GEOSERVER_CLIENT__REST_URL=http://geoserver:8080/geoserver/rest
CKANEXT__GEOSERVER_CLIENT__USER=admin
CKANEXT__GEOSERVER_CLIENT__PASSWORD=my_secret_password
CKANEXT__GEOSERVER_CLIENT__WORKSPACE=ckan
CKANEXT__GEOSERVER_CLIENT__PUBLIC_URL=http://geoserver:8080/geoserver

How It Works

When a resource is created or updated, the plugin checks whether it is a GeoJSON resource. A resource is considered GeoJSON if either:

• Its format field is set to GeoJSON (case-insensitive), or
• Its URL ends with .geojson

If either condition is met, a background job is enqueued that:

1. Fetches the file (from local CKAN storage, S3/MinIO, or HTTP fallback)
2. Validates the content is valid GeoJSON
3. Converts it to a Shapefile using ogr2ogr
4. Uploads the Shapefile to GeoServer and publishes it as a layer
5. Optionally applies an SLD style if an SLD resource exists on the same dataset
6. Updates the resource with wms_url, wfs_url, and geoserver_layer fields

When a GeoJSON resource is deleted, the corresponding GeoServer layer is also removed.

Publishing only happens via the background worker. Make sure it is running:

ckan -c /etc/ckan/default/production.ini jobs worker

CLI Commands

Initialize GeoServer workspace:

ckan -c /etc/ckan/default/production.ini geoserver init

Publish a single resource:

ckan -c /etc/ckan/default/production.ini geoserver publish <resource_id>

Bulk publish all existing GeoJSON resources:

ckan -c /etc/ckan/default/production.ini geoserver publish-all

Development

git clone https://github.com/datopian/ckanext-geoserver-client.git
cd ckanext-geoserver-client
python setup.py develop  # or: pip install -e .
pip install -r dev-requirements.txt

Tests

pytest --ckan-ini=test.ini

# With coverage:
pytest --ckan-ini=test.ini --cov=ckanext.geoserver_client --disable-warnings ckanext/geoserver_client/tests