Scratchpads 2.0 planned feature list

As of January 2012 Scratchpad 2.0 will be released. This will update the Scratchpads to the latest version of Drupal (http://drupal.org/), the Open Source content management system on which the Scratchpads are based. Enhancements with Scratchpad 2.0 include:

 

Technical enhancements (to make the system more sustainable)

Aegir hosting environment - Enables us to distributed site creation and management functions, and support Scratchpad profiles (ie. dedicated themes and suites of functionality) for major projects with different requirements e.g. e-Monocot.


Git code management - Distributed source code management and version control (replacing our SVN repository) to make it easier for collaborators to contribute to development of the Scratchpad project.


Distributed physical hosting - Enabling other institutions to host Scratchpad sites while ensuring the software and site content remain in sync with the NHM. This will reduce the load on the NHM servers.

 

Functionality enhancements (to make the system more usable)

Preview of the new matrix editor in Scratchpads 2.0

 

New default Scratchpad theme on new sites - To improve the scholarly credibility and presentation of sites, encouraging users to adopt best practice.

 

Guided workflows - This integrates functions within the site to guide users through complex tasks such as setting up a site, importing taxonomies and importing content from spreadsheets.

 

New taxon (species) pages - The taxonomy editor will be integrated with the taxon page and the layout will be significantly improved with summary statistics on content types and better filtering of content derived from external services.

 

Integrated mapping tools - Dynamically display point locality data (including GBIF observation records and geotagged flickr images), regional data (to TDWG level 3 and ISO 3166-1alpha-2 standard), and shape files as overlays on a Google Map. This pulls together our existing mapping functionality into a single integrated interface.

 

Publication tools - Semi-automatically writes manuscripts concerning new taxon descriptions from a Scratchpad database for submission, review and publication with ZooKeys, PhytoKeys or MycoKeys.

 

Scratchpad wide search - Delivered via Apache Lucene on a dedicated Virtual Machine, to make it quicker to search all the Scratchpad communities.

 

Data services - Adding Darwin Core Archives and Extension export services to all appropriate content types, to ensure that content can be exchanged with other repositories.

 

Geological time scale integration - To encourage use by Palaeontologists and possibly mineralogists.

 

Scratchpads 2 improvements - Workplan for 2012

Over 2012 a number of additional enhancements are planned. These include:

  • Integrated Single Sign On (SSO), (with author-ID)
  • Proper Globally Unique Identifiers beyond URL’s
  • Scratchpad site registry with metadata and visualisations concerning content in all the Scratchpads and author level metrics on content
  • Rebuild of http://Scratchpads.eu, focusing on content within sites rather than the Scratchpad infrastructure
  • Identification key building and species database visualisations derived from character data in the matrix editor
  • Centralised services on controlled vocabularies
  • Phylogenetic analytical services
  • Improved training functionality