dwhieb
commented
4 years ago Passage regarding details about Lotus app from the NSF grant:
Lotus is a web app (an application that works in web browsers) that helps linguists manage their research data. The most significant planned features relevant to the Algonquian Components project include the ability to enter and edit dictionary entries for different languages, and the ability to compare entries across languages in order to reconstruct older forms of the language. The Lotus app will also allow researchers to synchronize their data to a cloud database (if desired), and manage permissions for who can access and edit that data.
In addition to the Lotus app (which focuses on data entry and management), this project will create a website for browsing those dictionary entries and historical forms of words. The initial website is already active (https://nisinoon.net), and will later be enriched with the search and browsing features just mentioned.
The development of the Lotus app is currently driven entirely by the needs of the Algonquian Components project. As such, the dictionary editor and word comparison tools will be the first features implemented. Work on the dictionary editor is in progress and should be completed by the end of March. The word comparison tool (for historical reconstruction) will take another several months to complete. The ability to synchronize to a cloud database and manage permissions will be added by the end of the 2020 year. The browsing and search interface in the nisinoon.net website will be implemented over the course of 2021.
An alternative to creating the Lotus web app and accompanying cloud database would be to use a traditional relational database in SQL, and to enter and edit data using a user-friendly SQL editor such as the free software HeidiSQL. This software allows users to work with their data in an interface very similar to a spreadsheet. At the point at which the research data for this project is ready to be imported into a database, we will evaluate the state of the Lotus web app, and consider whether a traditional relational database might be the more productive option. In this way, collection of the research data and development of the web app can continue in parallel, until the point at which the data collection process is complete, and then a final decision about the database can be made.
It should be noted that it will be necessary to create an online browsing and search interface for the underlying database regardless of whether this project uses the Lotus app or a relational database to manage its data.
This is currently blocked until the Lotus app is in v1.0.