JISC

e-Science Central is a widely used tool by e-scientists allowing them store, exchange and manipulate data in a secure environment. A single web portal is provided allowing access to (almost) all of the functionality, the one exception being the Service Development Kit (SDK), which still requires the user to download a desktop application. The aim of this project is to address this restriction by porting this SDK to a web portal and providing a more useable and learnable interface.

The overall goal of this project is to bring the e-Science Central Service Development Kit (SDK) into alignment with, hopefully surpassing, the usability of the rest of the e-Science Central. e-Science Central provides a web-based access model for users to collect, analyze and exchange data with collaborators which can be used from anywhere in a secure manner. Users are provided with a single web portal view of all their data and analysis which allows them to upload data to the system, annotate it, analyze it and make it available to other uses of the system using a social networking metaphor.  Analysis is achieved by building workflows of blocks, which interact to achieve the desired analysis.

At present although the workflow itself can be developed within the web portal it is not possible to add new workflow blocks (services) into the system without using an application which needs to be installed on the users own computer. This is a significant bottleneck to the usability of the overall architecture, often requiring users to seek support from the e-Science Central developers to deploy new blocks.

Objectives

The objectives for the project are to:

• Determine the user’s view of the existing tool for developing blocks and what they would like to see in the future.
• Produce the new SDK interface based on the user requirements. It is anticipated that this will have both a simple and an expert interface allowing users to easily develop blocks in a quick and simple manner with the possibility (where desired) to take more control over the way that a block is constructed.
• Disseminate the new SDK through a workshop.
  

Anticipated Outputs and Outcomes

The anticipated outputs of the project will be:

• Survey results for the existing SDK and the newly developed SDK
• The new SDK interface.
• The workshop for dissemination of the new SDK.