GRIN-Global Public Interface

Presentation to the TSGWednesday, August 12, 2009

Public Interface Overview

• Current progress• Features overview• The development and testing process• The “Feedback Loop” – how you can help• Questions?

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CURRENT PROGRESSGRIN-Global Public Interface

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Current Progress

• March - April: Met with various user-types to gather information on improvements the system should have, features that should be maintained, and general experience desires. Put together facts and findings, requirements and workflow documents for use by the developers.

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Current Progress

• May – present: Begin developing the major functional pieces that the site will be built upon. Isolated testing by small groups of users.

– Search engine interface– Search results interface– Search result sorting, filtering– Search result column

management– Accession detail– Add item to cart– View cart– User-based security

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FEATURES OVERVIEWGRIN-Global Public Interface

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Features Overview

• Search EngineThe search engine provides an easy-to-use interface. Simply type in a term or phrase, and the search engine will parse through all aspects of the data to determine the most relevant results based on your search terms.

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Features Overview

• Search ResultsThe results returned by the

search engine have been formatted to provide the most useful information right away. Users can modify their preferences to meet their specific needs.

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Features OverviewSearch Results

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Data Features• Plant Name• Taxonomy

(linked)• Origin• Material Type• Maintained By• Availability

Features OverviewSearch Results

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Data Features• Group by

– Plant ID (default)– Plant Name– Taxonomy– Origin– Maintained by– Availability– Material

Features OverviewSearch Results

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Functional Features• Highlight• Select

(based on click or status)

• Actions• Page Size

(# of items displayed)

• Paging w/ quick jump

• Export(csv/tab delimited file, drag & drop to Excel)

Features OverviewSearch Results

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Functional Features• Rearrange

Columns(drag & drop or interface)

• Column-specific Preferences– Sorting– Filtering– Hide

• Grid Preferences– Show/Hide Cols– Show Filtered

Rows

Features Overview

• Accession DetailGeneral format has stayed the

same, with the addition of some improvements.

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Features Overview

• Add Items to CartDirect from the search results,

or from the Accession Detail page, items can be added to an order easily.

Preventative measures will be put in place to keep ‘unavailable’ items from making it to the cart.

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Features Overview

• View CartEasily jump back to the

Accession Detail page for any item in the cart. Or even the Taxonomy Overview page.

Ability to remove one item at a time or empty the entire cart.

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Features OverviewWhat’s Coming Up?

• Images• Save Results• Favorites• Order Completion• Order Status Management• Seasonal Availability• Page through search results from

the Accession Detail page• Pre-formed ‘hot topic’ searches

on the front page• Taxonomy pages

• Enhanced search tools (latitude, longitude, elevation, etc.)

• Observation data• Search by list of PI numbers• Persistent search result

preferences

And much more!!!

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DEVELOPMENT & TESTING PROCESS

GRIN-Global Public Interface

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Development & Testing Process

• Each Monday, new updates are pushed out to the development server for limited testing.http://grin-global-dev1.agron.iastate.edu/gringlobal/

• These updates include new features, bug fixes and enhancement requests.

• Once a stable release is ready, it will be pushed out to the testing server for broader testing.http://grin-global-test1.agron.iastate.edu/gringlobal

• Itemized list of updates will be posted on http://www.grin-global.org/forums/

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THE “FEEDBACK LOOP”GRIN-Global Public Interface

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The “Feedback Loop”

• We are continually ‘tweaking’ the code that generates the pages. If data is not displaying correctly, let us know so that we can determine the root cause. It may be something simple!

• As you test and use the system, keep a list:– Ideas for data enhancements– Unexpected outcomes (bugs?)– Ideas on how the interface could be improved

Be sure to note what you did to end at that result (i.e. Searched for ‘mays’, applied filter to the Taxonomy column, and now I see……)

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QUESTIONS?GRIN-Global Public Interface

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