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Flora The Explorer

Introduction

We’re solving two problems:

  1. An inefficient way of collecting data from users.
  2. An inefficient way of browsing the collected data.

Currently, users must fill out an outdated excel sheet that incites exhaustion at its very sight. Additionally, there is no way to browse the collected data other than going through each excel sheet one by one.

Our solution will streamline both functions by exploiting web technologies to make data collection easier for users and providing reporting functions for administrators.

The Colorado Plants project is a web application designed to gather data about wild plants growing in Colorado. The application will be available to the general public for data entry. No registration or login will be required to access this page. Additionally, a data reporting page will be available but access to this page will be password protected.

The application will be accessible using a web browser only, but must be usable on a tablet, phone and PC.

Data items

The following data items will be collected.

  • User name - text field, restricted to alphabetical characters, 30 characters max
  • Plant name - text field, restricted to alphabetical characters, 30 characters max
  • Plant location - text field, restricted to alphabetical characters, 50 characters max
  • Observation date - text field, restricted to date format 'mm/dd/yyyy'
  • Observation time - text field, to collect hours, restricted to numbers, 2 digits max
    • text field, to collect minutes, restricted to numbers, 2 digits max
    • drop-down list with options AM and PM
  • GPS Coordinated - hidden or non-editable field, populated by WEB API
  • current Time stamp - non-editable field, populated with current server date and time
  • Weather conditions - text field, restricted to alhabetical characters, 30 characters max
  • Current Temperature - text field, restricted to number only, maximum 3 characters, labeled Fahrenheit.
    • Note: If Observation date and time are within one hour of the current time, weather conditions and temperature could be collected using an API provided by weather.com or a similar site.
  • Soil Type - drop-down list with options (see spreadsheet)
  • Notes - a free form text field to allow user to enter additional information he/she may want to add. This data cannot be validated, but there is a desire to exclude profanity. HTML or other mark up tags will also be excluded, for security reasons. 128 characters max.

Data Storage

The collected data will be stored in a data table, to be defined at a later time. The database record will include a unique id, a GUID if possible, to identify each record uniquely. Weather data will be gathered into a single field, although the data may have been entered using separate fields for conditions and temperature. If the user enters the observation time and date, the data will be converted to and stored as a database DateTime value. If the user does not enter a observation date and time, the current server time stamp will be stored as the observation date and time. Current server time stamp will also be stored as a database DateTime value to preserve the time the record was entered, in addition to the time the data was observed.

Data collection and form processing

User name, plant name and soil type will be required information. All other fields are optional.

Initially weather data and location data will be entered by the user. If time permits, this data will be collected using a web application.

The data will be saved when the user clicks the Save button. Once the current record has been saved, the form will be re-displayed preserving all fields except plant name, notes, and soil conditions.

If time permits, we may populated weather conditions using a web app. even if observation time and system time are more than 1 hour apart. If we can collect past weather conditions, the user entered weather condition and temperature fields will be eliminated.

Reporting Page

The data reporting page will be password protected. Once the correct password has been entered, all records currently in the database will be displayed, sorted by the stored system time stamp, newest record first. A button will allow the user to download the data. Download format will be limited to a comma delimited file (CSV) initially. If time permits, other formats such as PDF may be added.

If time permits, we will add the ability to restrict the data-set by time frame, location, or soil type.

Technical Resources

Back End Dependencies

  • Linux, Apache2, MySQL, PHP (LAMP Stack)

Front End Dependencies