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pcplantdb - Re: [pcplantdb] Phase 1 Goals

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  • From: John Schinnerer <john@eco-living.net>
  • To: Permaculture Plant Database <pcplantdb@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [pcplantdb] Phase 1 Goals
  • Date: Mon, 06 Dec 2004 21:11:52 +0000

Aloha,

Comments according to my current understanding of what we have said we are doing:

An application that assists in identifying new Guilds and exploring
existing Guilds.

...while also providing basic as well as complex PC-centric plant information.

Bandwidth issues have a considerable impact on the application, and the
application should be optimized for dial-up users.

We've already said we will design so that multiple end-user clients can be developed on top of the core application.
There needs to be at least one 'thin' client that supports low-bandwidth users.
Data transmission from server to end-user client thus also needs to stay as 'thin' as possible.
Complex manipulation of data to get 3-D whatever, on-the-fly image creation, graph-based interfaces, etc. can be done by 'fat' clients on the end-user machine.
Glossary:
'thin' client means a low-overhead, efficient, client application that requires minimal computing resources to do whatever it does.
'fat' client means a complex and/or sophisticated client application that requires relatively large resources to do what it does.

Another thing I have learned in my experience of software development is
the concept "good enough for now". So based upon the goals of deliverables for the grant, what would be "good enough for now" with considerable thought put into future extensibility for this application?

PC-centric plant info database with 'enough' forethought to future relation-mapping options (e.g. guilds, etc.) and continuing increase in complexity of data and data types.

Additionally, is the project *just* the database, or is it the front-end
to the database, or a combination of both?

Last I recall the project was the DB and the data 'engine', or DB front end as some may call it, with a well-designed API enabling the creation of a variety of end-user clients (at least one 'thin', see above).

We will of necessity need to create at least one end-user client in order to use and verify the DB/engine we are creating, so that client is part of the project too IMO.

[I think Johns wrote the following.]

I think this was Chad quoting me and adding a few items of his own.
Still a good place to start IMO.

Again, I will loop back to my question, "What are the deliverables for the October deadline?"

Permaculture.info web application, phase one, will:

* enable authorized users to create plant entities within the permaculture.info database
* enable authorized users to input plant data into such plant entities, in various forms (string, text field, numeric, date, list, image, etc.)
* enable authorized users to edit plant entity data in various forms (as above)
* enable registered users to add discrete information to (annotate...?) a plant entity (narrative comments, additions/suggestions, etc.)
* enable anonymous users to search for (query the database on) plants or plant-related information using a variety of search fields including but not limited to:
- name(s) of plant(s)
- botanical characteristics of plants
- functional characteristics of plants
- location, climate, etc.
- etc. etc. (I am just giving example of high-level spec - more details needed here)
* implement initial plant entity creation, input, editing, annotation and searching using css- and xhtml-validated web forms/web pages accessible by all browsers/internet devices
* provide an intelligent search that queries all of aspects of the database from a single text box. This is pretty much exactly what I had in mind to start doing with one one addition and the questions where noted. The addition being adding relationship elements and allowing authorized users to create and edit relationships. The relationships would possibly be displayed in some text/html way in a browser but would much more likely be used by our GBI package (TouchGraph/FreeMind/
whatever).



--

John Schinnerer - MA, Whole Systems Design
------------------------------------------
- Eco-Living -
Whole Systems Design Services
People - Place - Learning - Integration
john@eco-living.net
http://eco-living.net




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