How to use CkanClient with CKAN 1.8 for file upload using ckan_client.upload_file(). The fixed issue was about handling HTTP Redirects, the original version returns an "obscure" «('', 'Found')» "warning" instead. The problem was first reported here: http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/ckan-dev/2012-August/002816.html

ckanclient_fix.py

def _post_multipart(self, selector, fields, files):
    '''Post fields and files to an http host as multipart/form-data.

    :param fields: a sequence of (name, value) tuples for regular form
        fields
    :param files: a sequence of (name, filename, value) tuples for data to
        be uploaded as files

    :returns: the server's response page

    '''

    from urlparse import urljoin, urlparse

    content_type, body = self._encode_multipart_formdata(fields, files)

    headers = self._auth_headers()
    url = urljoin(self.base_location + urlparse(self.base_location).netloc, selector)
    req = requests.post(url, data=dict(fields), files={files[0][0]: files[0][1:]}, headers=headers)
    return req.status_code, req.error, req.headers, req.text


import ckanclient

# FIXME: no monkey patching here
ckanclient.CkanClient._post_multipart = _post_multipart