Question #1718: Links to the backend - OpenAtlasDiscovery (origin) - Redmine

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Question #1718

closed

Links to the backend

Added by Alexander Watzinger almost 2 years ago. Updated almost 2 years ago.

Status:

Closed

Priority:

Normal

Assignee:

Alexander Watzinger

Start date:

2022-05-18

Estimated time:

Description

Taken from received documents:

Hyperlinks should be added to the back end, so that all locations, people, letters, and authors link through to their page on the back end.

Update
We strongly discourage links to the backend. The presentation site will be public available and it can be annoying for users to be linked to a site where they have to login and most likely have no login.
If it is "just" about showing all information we should do this solely in the presentation site.

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Updated by Becca Grose almost 2 years ago

Assignee changed from Victoria Leonard to Alexander Watzinger

There seems to have been a serious misunderstanding somewhere. The final website should allow the reader to access all information that we have inputted on the backend. That includes all information contained on each page (categories and inputted text) as well as the relationship between pages (links). There should also be a stable URL for each page, so that they can be referenced independently and used by future linked data projects.

Without this, the website will not permit users to access the vast majority of project work and what is displayed will not be usable by academics because the methodology behind each entry is lost. We had been under the impression that the backend itself would become visible (i.e. that entries would be visible without a password) and so this could be done through hyperlink. As this is not the case, we urgently require a solution that will permit the user to see not only the aspects specifically mentioned in the request guide but also every other piece of data.

If you think we should talk this through, Victoria (and I) would be available on Monday 23 May 9:30-10, 11-12 and 12-1 UK time.

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Updated by Alexander Watzinger almost 2 years ago

Sorry about the misunderstanding, it is very unfortunate that the design specification (and possible problems with it) arrive at such a late stage.
With OpenAtlas there is a very big distinction between the backend, which is a tool for data acquisition and data management, and presentation sites which are used to make the data accessible. There are many reasons for this, e.g.:

Presentation sites are more lightweight with underlying technologies (e.g. no database server is needed), so it would be easy to e.g. host additional presentation sites at your institute concentrating on specific case studies
To understand and navigate the backend you would need at least to read a lot of the manual which is not suitable for public presentation
It is not possible to filter (e.g. case studies) and only show specific data in the backend
The backend will change as a tool over time with no regard that it might be also used as presentation site

So the presentation site is meant to stand alone. All data can be made available there but you have full control (unlike the backend) what data is shown and how it is presented.
As for the "stable URL" which can be used on other websites, presentations, publications, ...: this should definitely be the URLs of the presentation site. One advantage is that it would be possible. at some point in the future when data doesn't change anymore, it could be made "static" which is much easier to host and maintain than the more heavy weight and ever changing OpenAtlas backend.

As for the meeting I would like to wait for the next version of the presentation site by Andi so that we have more (visual) concrete topics to discuss. But we will stay in touch with you about it.

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