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.

Gather input — source type, source URL, target (static/ckan), portal directory, copy mode (link/download), filters. Interview instead of erroring.
Validate the target — confirm the static catalog files exist, or that the CKAN URL and API key authenticate.
Detect the source type from the URL (or --source) and verify reachability.
Read the source into canonical dataset entries, per the source's field table in the reference doc, applying the metadata hygiene rules (license sentinel — never fabricate CC-BY; description sanitizer + fallback chain; source dates preserved with migratedAt separate; cleanTitle display-name cleanup with slugs from the raw title; category from a meaningful theme).
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.
Print a dry-run preview; stop if --dry-run was passed.
Write datasets.json (upsert or --replace), or push packages/resources into CKAN over its action API.
Verify — npm run build (static) or re-query package_search (CKAN).
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

Symptom	Cause	Fix
"not a `portaljs-catalog` template"	`datasets.json` missing	Confirm the portal directory, or run `/portaljs-new-portal`
CKAN target rejects every write (403)	Key missing, expired, or lacks org permission	Set a valid `CKAN_API_KEY`; stop rather than partially migrating
Source URL matches no known format	Auto-detection failed	Pass `--source` explicitly (`ckan`, `dcat`, `dcat-rdf`, `socrata`, `ods`, `arcgis`)
DCAT-RDF fetch returns HTML, not a feed	URL is a portal page, not the feed	Follow its `<link rel="alternate">` href, or use the direct feed URL
Build fails after write	Malformed entry (missing `slug`/`namespace`/`name`)	Inspect `/tmp/portaljs-migrate-build.log`, fix, rebuild
`download` mode push fails	`git-lfs` missing, or no Arc/Giftless token	Install `git-lfs`; mint a token via the Arc API or self-hosted Giftless
Duplicate datasets after re-running	`--replace` used unintentionally, or slug collisions	Omit `--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

Command source: .claude/commands/portaljs-migrate.md
Field mappings and troubleshooting: references/reference.md
Related skills: /portaljs-connect-ckan, /portaljs-add-dcat, /portaljs-check-data-quality, /portaljs-define-schema
CKAN Action API reference: https://docs.ckan.org/en/latest/api/