The CKAN Monthly Live for February looked at the way ahead for the Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network. The rest of 2026 is shaping up to be an amazing year for CKAN, headlined by the upcoming release of the next version of the software, CKAN 2.12, and the roadmap towards CKAN 3.0.
Whether you’re looking for enterprise-grade stability or next-generation performance, here is what you need to know about the future of your data portal.
The release of CKAN 2.12 and the roadmap to 3.0
Version availability: CKAN 2.12
Target availability: Late March 2026
The CKAN core team has structured 2.12 to be the final major ‘2.x’ release. It includes the logic needed to ensure that when you eventually move to CKAN 3.0, your database and file structures are already compatible.
What this means: Think of this as ‘future-proofing’. By upgrading to 2.12, you aren’t just getting new features; you’re performing the foundational work required for CKAN 3.0. This minimises downtime and migration costs later this year.
on Advanced File Management System
Advanced File Management System
Version availability: CKAN 2.12 (initial phases)
Previously, CKAN files were tied to resources. Now, files are independent entities with their own metadata.
What this means: CKAN is moving away from a one-resource-one-file model to a much more flexible system where files are treated as separate, trackable entities.
- Hybrid cloud: You can now store massive datasets on AWS S3 while keeping smaller, sensitive files on a local private server, all managed from one dashboard.
- Integrity: Link Digital’s CKAN experts implemented file-level hashing, so CKAN can now detect if a file has been tampered with or duplicated, saving you storage costs and improving security audits.
presented the updates on Keyset Pagination
(For a resource with 13M records, it’s now 15x faster)
Major DataStore Performance and Filtering Updates
Version availability: CKAN 2.12
What this means: If you manage datasets with millions of records, you will see a massive improvement in speed. By switching from traditional offset pagination to the more advanced keyset pagination, the DataStore can now process large resource downloads much faster. For a resource with 13M records, it’s now 15x faster. While download times will still naturally scale with the total number of records, this new approach eliminates the performance bottlenecks seen in older versions.
Case Study Spotlight: By migrating a major data catalogue in Latin America and the Caribbean from proprietary software to CKAN, Link Digital re-engineered the platform’s architecture to achieve data loading speeds up to 2x faster than the original system. Read the full case study.
introduced the updates on Advanced Filtering system
Additionally, Advanced Filtering is being introduced, allowing for complex searches, such as finding data within specific date ranges or using and/or logic, directly through the datastore_search API and data tables view.
The new midnight blue modern UI
Version availability: CKAN 2.12 (Optional)/CKAN 3.0 (Default)
What this means: CKAN 2.12 introduces a new, optional theme called ‘Midnight Blue’ that offers a modern, professional look and feel. Beyond aesthetics, it uses HTMX – an open-source front-end JavaScript library that extends HTML for partial page updates. This makes the site feel faster and meets strict WCAG 2.2 AAA accessibility guidelines to ensure your portal is usable by everyone. While it requires manual configuration in 2.12, it will become the standard default in CKAN 3.0.
ckanext-selfinfo & Collection Frameworks
Version availability: CKAN 2.12 and and official extensions
In addition to the ckanext-collection extension, – a way to group datasets, users, and orgs for bulk processing – a new extension was discussed, ckanext-selfinfo. This gives portal administrators important real time system, usage and error telemetry directly into their CKAN instance.
What this means:
- Easier maintenance: ckanext-selfinfo gives your team the ability to check system health and errors, and install plugins directly from the UI. No more needing a developer to log into the server just to see why something isn’t working.
- Bulk actions: The ckanext-collection framework extension means you can finally export or manage collections of datasets (e.g., ‘All Education Data 2025) in one go, rather than clicking through them one by one.
Prepare for upgrading to CKAN 2.12.
If you need help upgrading to CKAN 2.12, message Link Digital to discuss how we can help.
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