Winter production 2022

Special thanks to all the contributors to this app: @clnsmth, @yvanlebras and @charlycou. MetaShARK has never reached such a level of stability and is coming to production at: https://metashark.pndb.fr/ !

What's Changed

• Dev update by @earnaud in #167
• Winter production 2022 (1.7.0) by @earnaud in #187
• Main new features:

• dynamic custom geographic coverage
• reworked GUI: colors & displays
• several bugs fixed

New Contributors

• @charlycou made their first contribution in #173

Full Changelog: v1.6.0...v1.7.0

Summer production 2021

Fixes numerous bugs, some causing the app crash in particular circumstances, other minor.
Robustness of the app has been tested at this point in a dedicated workshop.
Upgrade to R4.1.0
Enhances features.
Adds a NEWS file.

Tagged as a pre-release until all bugs are fixed.

Spring Update

Some enhancements have been made since Winter production.

Winter production

Some GUI pages have been changed to avoid bugs and reduce resources usage (with the least loss of ergonomy):

• minor changes to Data Files upload, for debugging goals.
• major change of Attributes step, for optimization goals. NOTE: "" is supported as a missing value code since it is paired with a missing value code definition within an attribute description.
• minor changes to Categorical Variables step, for debgging goals. NOTE: forgetting a missing Value in Attributes step might result in an invalid description at this step. Going back to Attributes or stopping the app to manually edit the files (not recommended) shall allow you to continue.
• minor changes to other steps for minor debugging goals.
• It is not possible anymore to go to any step from any other (this feature caused severe bugs).
  Dockerfile has been moved to this git, allowing it to be launched locally as from a server.

Known bugs:

• Upload module is not available. You can download your data package from MetaShARK and manually upload it on MetaCat thereafter.
• It is highly recommended to re-launch the app when switching from a data package to another.

What's next?
Features to develop depend on the EML Assembly Line package.

• Semantic annotations. Some ways are investigated to prepare this feature at best.
• EAL2EML feature to get a data package from EML.
• Upload data packages from MetaShARK.
• ORCID connection to PNDB infrastructure.

Summer production - main release

After nearly a year, here is a new version of MetaShARK. With enhanced code structure and robust features (although some minor ones have disappeared), this version is expected for server-only use. The reason to this is the local use would require a perfect installation. Don't worry: you can still head to the Docker file (https://github.com/earnaud/MetaShARK_docker) to launch it from your computer.

You still will be able to write EML files using the EML Assembly Line workflow, and access the documentation and resources tab. However,data packages upload is still unavailable (but update shall come soon, do not worry !).

Summer production

So much work has been done during the summer ! Here is a little insight of how the work was divided:

• 50% consisted in re-writing variable names to get an unified (but not really standard) way to write them. Non-metashark variables and functions are generally prefixed by their namespaces.
• 25% consisted in simplifying modules, with recurrent code patterns, less "renderUI()" stuff.
• 25% consisted in improving the feedback and user experience, with {shinyfeedback} for instance.

The last month was dedicated to debugging the whole improvements, but there might still be some bugs here and there. Do not hesitate to report them in the issues section.

[1.3] Good gui MetaShARK

This update comes with enhanced GUI. Main new features or key development steps are:

• the merge of the Custom Units step in the Attributes one
• the switch of .RData to .JSON format for save files (which makes the app >100x faster !)
• the addition of a progress bar in Fill EML.
• the possibility of writing EMLdown, which is a pre-rendered HTML format for a data paper
• many bug fixes

The app is still in development. However, the more tests are led, the more it will answer the users' needs. Do not hesitate to spread the word !

Upcoming development:

• Users session in server mode (ORCID-based authentication)
• Non-table data files support
• EMLdown export to PDF and commoner format
• Better app code integration for sustainability purposes.
• Ontologies and terminologic resources access

EML Assembly Line Update - beta-test version

This is the first complete release of MetaShARK showing all of the available and basic features offered bythe EDI's EML Assembly Line. Some minor bugs might still occur during the first weeks of this beta release: do not hesitate to report them to the developers.

For all the features MetaShARK can offer, let you be redirected to the README and the app itself.

EML Assembly Line Update - alpha version

EML Assembly Line is now completely integrated in MetaShARK. Meanwhile, some bugs might still remain. Consequently, the app is released by now in an alpha version.

Do not hesitate to test the app and return feedbacks to the dev team !

New features:

• full tab for "EML Assembly Line" is accessible with several steps to follow until reaching the "Make EML" step.
• half-automated metadata filling
• ORCID harvesting for "Personnel" EML module

Limitations:

• Only tabular files can be described
• No automatic save from a step to another.
• No automatic documentation accessible in the "Fill EML" part.

Knwon bugs:

• Filling an attribute field will close the input form (actually, reloads the UI)
• Make EML is not functional yet ! (unfortunately) Working with the EMLAL dev team to make this work.
• Filling keywords sometimes let the app turning infinitely. Turning the app off and coming back at this step does the work.

Check out the github page for further information and current news.