Hi,

First, an introduction, from the docs:

SVO: What's that?
It's an archive system for heterogenous-non-standarized astronomical images made simple! It's aim is to be simple, but flexible.
What SVO stands for?
SVO is the acronym for Simple Virtual Observatory.
What is its purpose?
Having a simple astronomical images archive system with a nice interface.
What features does it has?
Configurable
It's fully configurable to meet your needs. You decide which fields refer to which attributes, where to store the data, where the data come from, where is the database, where to store the log info, etc.
Pluggable
You can write plugins to filter the FITS files, so that you can handle heterogenous FITS files very easily, or get the information for an attribute from where you wish.
Platform independent
It's thought to be platform independent, but there could be issues, must be tested on more platforms, and do some fixes if needed.
Supports multiple DB backends
It's DBMS independent, so you can choose which DBMS fits best to your needs. There is provided some schemas for different DBMS, take a look at the schemas directory.
Storage media backup scheduling
A scheduling facility is included, so you can write your own backup program to store your data offline.
Includes a general data adquisition program
There is a general data adquisition program for the archive, all you need to do is change the configuration, things like: where the data will be stored, where you put the new files to be included, where is the DB, etc...
Includes a program for mastering to a jukebox
This program is thought to be used with the RImage series jukeboxes, and the way they get/write data. If you don't have a jukebox from RImage, nothing matter, all the essential stuff you need is provided, so you can do something that fit your requirements very easily.
Webapp for searching and editing
A general webapp will be provided to interact with the SVO, fully customizable, and in a near future also webservices to talk with other VOs.

It could be seen as a toolkit or API to develop an image archive system, but on the same time it's a final solution (apps provided), that can be easily extended to fit particular needs (doing more apps using the API).

This is a project I was doing the last months in my spare time, I'm thinking on releasing it (CPAN? - Small project webpage with Trac?) so that other people can use it, test it, and improve it (hope).

At this time I had no time to start to write the web app., I have an idea how it should be... also with RPC calls between different SVO systems. I want also to add a wrapper to support the UCD format in use by other Virtual Observatories projects.

The target users of this would be small telescopes that don't have the time + money to implement one. Development groups of new instruments that need an archive system to analyze the data produced. Amateur astronomers who want to have a local archive and webinterface to it. Etc...

It would be cool if there would be a little community around, to improve the system (design, coding, etc) and extend it. And of course it's not neccesary to be an astronomer, I'm not one ;-)

What I mean, is that it would be cool if people contribute to the code (programmer), people to the requirements (astronomer, programmer), people with experience in user interfaces and usability (web designer, programmer), documentation (anybody). There is place for everybody!.

What do you think about?

Willing to contribute?

Regards,

fmerges at irc.freenode.net

In reply to SVO - Simple Virtual Observatory by fmerges

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