Metadata

A CKAN portal provides a rich set of metadata for each dataset.

Title – allows intuitive labelling of the dataset for search, sharing and linking.

Unique identifier – dataset has a unique URL which is customizable by the publisher.

Groups – display of which groups the dataset belongs to if applicable. Groups (such as science data) allow easier data linking, finding and sharing amongst interested publishers and users.

Description – additional information describing or analysing the data. This can either be static or an editable wiki which anyone can contribute to instantly or via admin moderation.

Data preview – preview .csv data quickly and easily in browser to see if this is the dataset you want.

Revision history – CKAN allows you to display a revision history for datasets which are freely editable by users (as is thedatahub.org)

Extra fields – these hold any additional information, such as location data (see geospatial feature) or types relevant to the publisher or dataset. How and where extra fields display is customizable.

Licence – instant view of whether the data is available under an open licence or not. This makes it clear to users whether they have the rights to use, change and re-distribute the data.

Tags – see what labels the dataset in question belongs to. Tags also allow for browsing between similarly tagged datasets in addition to enabling better discoverability through tag search and faceting by tags.

Multiple formats (if provided) – see the different formats the data has been made available in quickly in a table, with any further information relating to specific files provided inline.

API key – allows access every metadata field of the dataset and ability to change the data if you have the relevant permissions via API.