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Historic CDM Dataportal Requirements

Following our productive meeting in Berlin during October 2008, Kew & the Palms group have put together a list of questions and comments regarding the current development plan and how it fits in with requirements. This page contains two sections: the first containing a breakdown of specific points about items covered by the development plan, and the second raising new points about issue not yet covered by the plan.

Breakdown of requirements list

  1. Create bibliography page
  • A searchable bibliography was raised in Berlin as a desirable, if not essential requirement. Would adding such a search facility be possible, and how much work might it entail?
  1. Creation of a name index for the dataportals
  • The index will be navigable by links corresponding to the letters of the alphabet
  1. Implement main image import with metadata
    • CDM libraries will be created to read and extract embedded metadata from supplied images, so manual entry of this data will not be required.
    • Need to develop a standard schema for this metadata. I understand that Soraya has already sent sample images containing metadata to Berlin. Kew already employs a standard schema for images, and this will need to be taken into account when developing the CDM schema. We can provide a copy of this schema when required.
    • Images will not just be plant portraits. Maps and other publication images may be included. These should be considered when putting together the schema.
  2. Implement advanced search
    • Advanced search will have it's own page
    • Advanced search to include a free-text search of the different data categories
    • http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/ provides a good example of geographical searching by TDWG categories
  3. Search result showing images
    • Search to have optional filter for records with images
    • Image only search returns page with clickable thumbnails
  4. Simplify main search
    • Make search box less intrusive. (theming work)
    • Change title of search box (theming)
    • Search to query both scientific and vernacular names.
  5. Make highest displayed taxon in taxon tree configurable
    • Default opening rank for taxon tree to be configurable from the settings page by site admin
    • Option for the site user to show/hide higher taxa in the taxon tree
    • Current filtering options should be reduced to “expanded” and “flattened”. “Compact” is not felt to be useful.
    • The “eye” symbol should be replaced with something more intuitive to it’s function
  6. Make annotations moderatable /
  7. Store annotating drupal user in CDM
    • Requirements regarding annotations are only loosely defined at present and remain open to discussion. The main issues raised in Berlin were:
    • Quality of submissions is always an unknown, so opening up the CDM to direct submission is not trivial
      • It may be important that users see immediate results from submitting annotations to encourage them to keep submitting data
      • Further input will be sought from the taxonomic community surrounding annotations
    • Presenting the different options available to us would help define requirements. It would be very useful to see a rudimentary design for annotations from which to base discussions around

New Questions for discussion

1. Mapping

While we're aware that the mapping tools are being built by the Madrid team, as a key component of the dataportals we feel it's necessary to include them in the workplan so we can see what will be delivered when. Our GIS unit here at Kew recently provided feedback on the mapping tools to the GIS staff in RMCA Tervuren. I’ve attached this document for reference.

The preliminary map currently on the dataportals is a good start, and both the Palms and Diptera exemplar groups would like to see the functionality extended to allow zooming and dragging of the map. At the moment, the global scale means that smaller distribution regions can be unclear. Some level of auto-zoom would also be very useful, so that the image is map is optimally framed on loading the page.

The ability to print or export maps of sufficient resolution and quality for publishing is seen as an especially important ‘nice-to-have’. The current line/vector map provides a good basis for such a map; clear and free of clutter. The recommendations submitted by our GIS department present a possible technical specification for a print-quality map.

The additional ability to map distribution data points from specimens, especially data downloaded from GBIF, is highly desirable. It should be possible to switch views between TDWG regions and point data. Other ‘nice-to-haves’ include the ability to import point data from other sources (e.g. specimen data held in the CDM; other data sources); the ability to overlay distributions from differing datasets; and the ability to add different mapping layers). Two layers which would add particular value are those of administrative regions and rivers.

2. Provenance of data

The dataportals will display data from multiple sources; one taxon page may contain information from several publications. In Berlin the importance of citing these sources was discussed, and the Palm portal demonstrates references appearing in a block at the bottom of a page with numeric links from within the page: http://www.palmweb.org/species_ethno_3.php?g=Iriartea&epi=deltoidea&index=synonyms

Could we confirm that the provenance of all data will be displayed on the page, and discuss how it will happen?

3. Theming and user accounts

The settings page will allow site administrators to change certain parameters of the site. Is it possible to say at this stage what sort of changes you expect to be possible?

We realise there are a fair amount of points to address here, but we see this as a necessary extension of our October meeting in Berlin. I know that meeting was felt to be both open and constructive by the exemplar groups and we are keen to see that dialogue maintained as development continues into 2009.

Updated by Katja Luther almost 2 years ago · 11 revisions