19.12.2013 SmartFish - Search/Map JS Integration

Skype : 4:30pm - 5:30pm

People

• CNR: Massimiliano Assante
• FAO: Yann Laurent, Emmanuel Blondel

Notes

• Y.Laurent made a quick summary of the Chimaera objectives, as follows:
  • develop a very simple portal based on semantic search services, that could be then managed by low IT capacity institutions in the Eastern Africa (e.g. KMFRI in Kenya)
  • primary objective was put on offering i) indexing functionalities and ii) search web-services. A second objective, raised with the development the Search/Map JS component is to offer user-friendly tools to call/query the web-services, that could be plugged-in in different contexts, e.g. using different entry points (generic search, selection list or tag cloud search, map selection)

• Technical discussion items
  • Web-Services calls: Massimiliano asked for clarifications how the web-services are called in the portal. Web-services calls are done directly using jQuery Ajax calls (pure Javascript, no PHP)
  • Use of PHP: Yann clarified that the current scope of PHP is only to interface with a simple & small postgres database that provides multilingual capacity & CMS-like content to the Chimaera portal
  • Use of jqxWidgets: the need of making the JS component independent from widget JS libraries (jqxWidgets) was highlighted. This will be part of JS improvements towards having a generic component.
  • VREs needs: For now there is no need of VREVirtual Research Environment. clearly identified. What has been highlighted with P.Pagano was the possibility to extend the potential use of indexing capacities & web-services with JS components to query these services and provide a user interface.
  • Portlet integration aspects:
    • Massimiliano gave some hints on how the Search/Map JS component will be embedded in the infrastructure
    • creation of portlet that will embedd the JS component and make it usable in the iMarine portal

• Software policy/quality considerations
  • Development tools: Infrastructure development tools should be used ie. SVN gCube repository (yet used), ETICS (for building).
  • Releases
    • E.Blondel asked for information on how the JS component should be managed in term software release/artifact (vs. what is currently done with Maven / gCube java components)
    • The JS component would be embedded in a Maven artifact (WAR)
    • Release cycles occur more or less on a monthly-basis
  • Documentation needs
    • need of a Developer guide (gCube wiki): technical description of the component
    • need of a User Guide (gCube wiki): how to exploit the component from a user point of view

Actions

• next call (Emmanuel & Massimiliano): to be scheduled for early january for discussing Search/Map JS integration in a portlet
• integration requirements yet highlighted:
  • need of a specific SVN where the JS components source code (both Search & Map) will be hosted
  • need of deploying the test portlet in the [development portal] in order to easy develop the generic JS component