Yoana Popova

Discover how Lincolnshire County Council transformed their data publishing approach, migrating from a dedicated CKAN instance to PortalJS Cloud. Reduced operational costs, simplified administration, and delivered a modern user experience without compromising their established catalogue.

Lincolnshire moved from managing their own infrastructure to a fully managed service model with PortalJS Cloud. This eliminated the need for server administration and technical maintenance, letting council staff focus on their data rather than the platform underneath it.

Cost-Effective Managed Service

The migration transferred all 60 published datasets, 10 topic categories, and 6 organizational structures without data loss. Download links, metadata relationships, and search functionality remained fully intact.

Complete Catalogue Preservation

Council staff now manage datasets, users, and portal configuration through PortalJS Cloud's purpose-built dashboard—no need to navigate CKAN's complex admin interface or route requests through developers.

Intuitive Self-Service Administration

Built on Next.js and Tailwind CSS, the new portal delivers faster performance, responsive design, and accessibility compliance that meets contemporary web standards.

Modern User Experience

Frontend updates, branding changes, and feature additions can be implemented directly by the council team without specialist development resources.

Simplified Customization

Read the complete breakdown of architecture, migration approach, and outcomes — from dedicated CKAN instance to fully managed PortalJS Cloud.

How Lincolnshire County Council Modernised Its Open Data Portal with PortalJS Cloud

Modernizing Lincolnshire County Council / From Dedicated CKAN Instance to Managed PortalJS Cloud Service

William Lima

We helped the Transport Data Commons (TDC) transform fragmented transport and sustainability data into a unified, public-facing portal. Using CKAN and PortalJS, we built a user-friendly platform that standardizes metadata, automates data ingestion, and enables seamless access and collaboration across 30+ global organizations.

PortalJS is ideal for coalitions like TDC — enabling role-based access, contributor dashboards, and streamlined publishing across 30+ organizations.

Built for multi-organization publishing

TDC needed metadata aligned with SDMX standards. PortalJS made it easy to surface, search, and display structured datasets clearly.

Supports structured metadata like SDMX

From scattered PDFs to a live, searchable portal — PortalJS helped TDC centralize transport and sustainability data in one public space.

Turned disconnected data into a unified platform

All workflows — including dataset approval, visibility toggling, and publishing flows — were built on the frontend with no backend rewrites.

Frontend flexibility without backend changes

Users can search by region, sector, or keyword — or use an interactive map to explore country-specific datasets.

Visual exploration through filters and maps

We built a guided onboarding experience tailored to TDC: helping users follow topics, join organizations, and start contributing with confidence.

Custom contributor onboarding flow

See how Transport Data Commons used PortalJS and CKAN to launch a global open data portal—automating ingestion, standardizing SDMX metadata, and improving data access.

Transport Data Commons Open Data Portal Built with PortalJS and CKAN

A Global Transport Hub - Building a shared, open data infrastructure for 30+ transport organizations

Luccas Mateus

Discover how a UK public health organization transformed complex metadata into a searchable, user-friendly experience. Built with PortalJS over OpenMetadata, this frontend gives non-technical researchers secure access to 300+ datasets — no backend overhaul required.

Build modern data portals on any backend — from CKAN to OpenMetadata — using a clean, decoupled, API-first architecture.

Api-first, backend-agnostic

Built with Next.js, TailwindCSS, and React — PortalJS offers a lightweight, maintainable, developer-friendly foundation.

Modern web stack

Deploy fast with containerized builds that fit neatly into your DevOps pipelines — on cloud or on-prem.

Dockerized for speed

Make data usable for everyone — researchers, citizens, analysts — with intuitive, clean UI tailored to real-world needs.

Designed for non-technical users

Integrates easily with identity providers like Microsoft Entra ID to ensure secure, role-based access control.

Secure by design

Adapt and grow your portal with reusable components, custom layouts, and rich integration options — all without vendor lock-in.

Pluggable and extensible

A UK public health agency used PortalJS to build a clean, searchable frontend over OpenMetadata—enabling non-technical researchers to securely discover and request 300+ datasets via Azure.

PortalJS for OpenMetadata | Simple, Secure Frontend for Healthcare Data

Simplifying Healthcare Metadata / Making Sensitive Data Usable — Without Changing the Backend

Lucas Bispo

Discover how the [The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)](https://eiti.org/) partnered with the [Civic Literacy Initiative](https://civicliteraci.es/) and PortalJS Cloud to create a fully customizable open data portal. Access in-depth, reliable datasets on extractive industries worldwide, explore intuitive data visualizations, and enjoy a responsive, user-friendly experience.

EITI launched their fully functional open data portal in less than a day using PortalJS Cloud. The platform eliminates the need for manual IT setup and ongoing maintenance, freeing up resources to focus on critical tasks.

Rapid Deployment with Zero Maintenance

The portal hosts a wide array of open datasets, including country-level reports, production figures, and revenue distributions. This makes it a one-stop shop for anyone seeking reliable extractive industry data.

Comprehensive Data Repository

EITI leveraged the platform’s **public GitHub repository**, tailoring the portal to align with their branding and mission. They redesigned the UI/UX, integrated advanced data visualizations, and implemented features like **custom search filters** for better data discovery.

Full Customization & Developer-Friendly Access

The portal’s infrastructure supports large data volumes and high user traffic without compromising on performance or data security, ensuring reliable access at all times.

Scalable, Secure Infrastructure

With access to the portal’s underlying source code, EITI continuously evolves their platform by responding to user feedback, adding new features, and refining the user experience.

Continuous Improvement

Empowering EITI / Through a Fully Customizable Open Data Portal in Minutes

Learn how Scottish & Southern Electricity Networks partnered with us at Datopian to create a user-first open data portal that handles millions of data points daily, enhances energy management, and supports sustainable goals.

PortalJS delivers a sleek, intuitive interface that’s built for usability.

Lightning-Fast Frontend

[CKAN](https://www.datopian.com/solutions/ckan) ensures large datasets are stored, organized, and shared efficiently.

Reliable Data Backbone

Extensions like ckanext-dcat and ckanext-scheming boost interoperability and customization.

Powerful Add-Ons

BigQuery and Prefect make processing and analyzing huge datasets (over 1TB of data) effortless.

Scalable Infrastructure

Open Energy Data / How SSEN Tackled Massive Energy Data Challenges with PortalJS and CKAN

Discover how the London Borough of Hounslow transformed its open data management by migrating from self-hosted CKAN to PortalJS Cloud. Learn how to launch your open data portal in 5 minutes, reduce AWS costs, and boost data accessibility and civic engagement.

PortalJS Cloud manages updates, security, and hosting.

No Infrastructure Maintenance

Pay-as-you-go model reduces cloud and staffing expenses.

Cost Optimization

Adapts automatically to increasing data demands.

Seamless Scaling

Faster load times, modern design, and better navigation.

Improved UI/UX

London Borough of Hounslow / Cuts Costs with PortalJS Cloud

How MOEI launched a fully branded, scalable, and user-friendly data platform using PortalJS + CKAN—built for citizens, researchers, and developers. A fully managed, bilingual open data portal—custom-branded, API-first, and built for real public use. Delivered on MOEI’s infrastructure with zero maintenance required and full control for non-technical staff.

Modernizing Lincolnshire County Council - From Dedicated CKAN Instance to Managed PortalJS Cloud Service

A Global Transport Hub - Building a shared, open data infrastructure for 30+ transport organizations

Simplifying Healthcare Metadata - Making Sensitive Data Usable — Without Changing the Backend

Empowering EITI - Through a Fully Customizable Open Data Portal in Minutes

Open Energy Data - How SSEN Tackled Massive Energy Data Challenges with PortalJS and CKAN

London Borough of Hounslow - Cuts Costs with PortalJS Cloud

UAE MOEI Open Data Portal - A Scalable Platform for Government Data Publishing