If you haven’t noticed, we’ve released SensorBase Beta! There’s a new back end (the database) and a brand new front end. Here are some of the new features:
Easier Slogging
We’ve done our best to make slogging as easy as possible. Project creation and table creation was a major stumbling block, so we changed it — completely. We came at it from a different angle where you can edit table structures a bit more freely and abstracted the database so you don’t have to know too much about MySQL and what not. (What’s MySQL? Nevermind, you don’t have to know :).
Easier Data Export
We also approached data export a bit differently in the sense that you know what exactly you’re looking at, and you can take more of an iterative approach in finding what data you want. We also did some rewording and shifting so you don’t have to make so many clicks.
Data Viewing
Sparklines and a touch of Google Maps have been placed in certain areas to provide more meaning to your data. Most importantly, you can easily view the most recent observations in any given table field as a “word-like” time series plot. Just look at the new SensorBase homepage, and you’ll understand.
Better Access Control
You can now easily set your project to public or private. OK, so this is not really new, but access control is a heck lot better-implemented now with security checks around nearly every corner. You will also be able to easily add project members and specify three levels of access — read, write, and build (coming very soon).
Basic Project Search
You can now search public projects. It’s been pretty darn straight-forward, so we’ll just let you give it a try.
Informal Project Tagging
If you’ve used del.icio.us or flickr, you already know what informal tagging is. Basically, you can now add tags (or labels) to your projects that provide a bit more meaning to the type of data you’re slogging.
Sensor Geo-tagging
Once you’ve slogged data, you’ll have the opportunity to geo-tag your sensors through… the geo-tagging UI. Two steps — specify what field is the sensor id and then attach latitude and longitude to all the unique ID’s that SensorBase will find for you.
Project Notes
Project notes are the equivalent of comments in blogs. Notes provide a way for you to add documentation to your project as well as let other users give feedback.
New Database Schema
OK, most probably don’t care about this one, but we put a lot of time and effort in designing a maintainable schema to store your sensor data. We’ve upgraded the database with a great new schema that allows for increased flexibility and easier maintenance for us and future us. The information studies folks are busily working on how we can bring your sensor data and useful markup languages (like EML and SensorML) together to make data sharing easier, and when the time comes, our schema will be ready for it.
SOAP Web Services
SOAP web services were available in the Alpha version but we think it’s worth mentioning again that it’s available :). You can retrieve and slog your data via our services, and of course, again, your data is now more secure.
Threshold RSS
RSS came towards the end of Alpha’s career, but it’s been fine-tuned and should be ready to go. If you would like to stay updated on your data, RSS is for you.
Rounding Up
As you can see, SensorBase has quite a lot of new features and a completely different look and feel. I’m sure I missed something, so we strongly urge you to check things out, take a look around, and we’d love any comments you might have (good or bad, but hopefully most are good?).
On the road ahead, we have plenty more features coming soon for you to look forward to. In addition to more fine-grained access control, we’re also working on signal search, meta-data search, improved visualization, “no-data-in-this-amount-of-time-RSS-feeds”, and more slogging options to make the most of your sensor data.
So until next time, happy slogging… and remember, sharing is caring.