Get started¶
Whether you are creating a new CKAN extension, or you are maintaining existing one, you're likely want it to follow certain pattern so that external contributors can easily participate in development.
Additionally, you'd like to use the latest available tools from CKAN to reduce friction during upgrade. Instead of realizing that extension will be broken with the next CKAN release and you must do something right now, it always better to rely on tools that in worst case will get deprecated after the release, so that you still can afford some level of procrastination and update the extension when it's convenient for you.
This guide contains collection of quite opionated recommendations for different aspcects of extension development in CKAN. Some of them may even look overcomplicated, but if you choose to follow them, in the end you'll have the complete checklist that can be used for CKAN upgrade. And instead of smoke-testing the extension praying that no hidden bugs are left after the upgrade, you'll have a clear list code units that require modification for every CKAN version upgrade.
@smotornyuk: Ambiguous solutions
When you see such block, you are going to read over-opinionated position of the individual mentioned in the heading. Most likely, there are different opinions regarding the problem in question and different people tend to approach the problem differently.
As it often happens, there is no silver bullet, and you have to consider pros and cons of different approaches yourself. Such blocks focus your attention on the fact that you need to decide, whether suggested way works for you. And it's completely normal to choose your own way of solving the problem, if the suggested approach does not fit well into your workflow.