This application running within Voyages allows users registered in the site to contribute data to the project. The other main component of this application is the editorial platform, which is used by editors and reviewers to analyze and rectify the data committed by users. After an editorial decision, a contribution may be archived with no effect or it may be used to update the voyages database by adding, modifying, merging, or deleting voyage records.
- Users can log in to the site to contribute New voyages, Edit or Merge existing ones or suggest that some voyage should be Deleted.
- The contribution forms (except for Delete) are all shared with minor modifications that specialize to each type.
- The user can save a partial contribution and return to it later. All the unfinished contributions are listed in the user's main contribute page as a link. The user may also cancel the contribution (and that will delete it permanently from the system).
- In case of a New Voyage contribution, the user must include the source references used (this validation is enforced by the user interface and the backend code).
- In case of Edit/Merge contributions, the list of current source references is made available for comments (in which the user may specify editing or removing a reference). It is also possible to add new references.
- After finishing the work on a contribution, the user clicks on the 'Review' button, which shows a read-only display of the entire contribution in summarized form. If an error is spotted, the user can return to editing the contribution. Otherwise, the contribution can be submitted for academic review.
- A committed contribution is still diplayed in the contributor's main page and the user is allowed to edit it until the time the contribution is picked up for review. After a review starts, the status of the contribution is changed to 'Under Review', blocking any further edits.
- After loging in, an editor is brought to the main editorial page, which presents a tabbed interface which allow the features described below.
- The list of pending contributions shows all user contributions that are not yet reviewed, are under revision, or having been marked as accepted or rejected. The only user contributions that are not displayed are those that have been published and those that have been explicitly Deleted.
- The editor may preview contributions, which allows a read-only view of the entire contribution. In this preview window, the editor can choose to assign a reviewer to the contribution, picking from the list of reviewers in the database and sending a message to the reviewer. This message is sent to the reviewer by e-mail, with a link that allows the reviewer to access the contribution (the reviewer can always access all the requests by logging in---these requests are shown in their main page).
- Once a review request is made (from the editor, to a reviewer), the contribution status is updated in the list. The editor can check the response given by the reviewer (if any) from this list. It is always possible for the editor to 'Archive a review request' if the reviewer is taking too long to accept/reject the work or if the review itself is not being done.
- The reviewer, after being notified by e-mail, can check the request by vistiting te link on the e-mail or simply by selecting the pending requests on their main Contribute page. The editor's message will be shown and a link to display the contribution preview is given. The reviewer has the option to reply by accepting or rejecting the assignment.
- If the request is rejected, it will be removed from the list of pending requests and the status will be updated for the editor to see.
- If accepted, a copy of the entire interim data contributed by the user will be made and the reviewer will be allowed to modify any field values and or comment on the original contribution. The reviewer can see any pre-existing data (in case of Edit/Merge contributions) to quickly inspect the changes suggested by the contributor.
- The reviewer then provides a textual response to editor and a decision regarding the contribution. After the decision is made the request is removed from the reviewer's list and the status on the editor's list is updated to reflect the reviewer's decision.
- The editor may opt for skipping the reviewer assignment and instead initiate an editorial review immediately.
- If a review has been made and submitted, the editor can start the editorial review.
- The editorial review makes a copy of all previous interim data, such as the user original contribution, the reviewer's input (if the reviewer has not been bypassed), and of course, the existing data in the system (in case of Edit/Merge contributions).
- If the fields agree in all versions, then it is marked as green. Otherwise, the individual values are marked in red. The editorial interim version is initialized to the original version of the data in this case. The conflicting values are clickable, with a single click being used to set the editor's value. The editor has a final say in the input and may override any field.
- In case there are suggestions for editing existing references, the editor may take action accordingly (a simple click shows a dialog with the Reference details in edit-mode).
- In case there are new source references, the editor must either delete them from the interim form explicitly or create the corresponding source in the database (in case the contribution is to be accepted). Again, a simple click allows creating the source reference (with default values obtained from the contributed data). It is also necessary to specify a reference text, which is used to connect the Voyage that will be created/edited to the shared full Source Reference.
- The editor can write a message (for future reference) and make a decision regarding the contribution (accept, reject, delete). If delete is chosen, the contribution is archived and will not be shown in the list of pending contributions. If rejected, it will still appear in that list (with the status set as 'Rejected') until the time an editor decides to either reopen the case or delete it for good.
- In case of acceptance, the status is updated and the reviewed contribution will be listed in the Pending Publication tab.
- For new/merge voyages, a VoyageId must be specified by the editor before acceptance. This voyage id must be distinct from any existing id (except when the id is one of the voyages being merged in the contribution itself). Moreover, no other accepted contribution may be allocated the same id. All these restrictions are checked by the server code and error messages are shown to the editor when appropriate.
- The Downloads tab allows the editor to obtain a CSV file with all the contributions that match the status selections (made by ticking boxes). It is also possible to select for download the entire set of voyages in the database. The columns of the CSV match the SPSS format.
- The publication tab allows the editor to publish all the pending contributions. An optional action (highly recommended in production) is the full backup of the current data before the update. The process consists of three phases, the first is the optional backup (which may take several minutes), the second is the update on the voyages database by creating, modifying, and deleting records according to the accepted contributions pending publication. The third step is updating the Solr Index so that the voyages search is fresh. For performance reasons, all voyages now have an update timestamp and the index is updated only for voyages for which the timestamp is recent.
- Added support for complex source-destination routes over sea (previous version always used the globe geodesic between the two points).