<aside> 👋 Below are some technical information about the web app and the database.
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<aside> <img src="/icons/window_blue.svg" alt="/icons/window_blue.svg" width="40px" /> The Biosignature Database is a web application developed in Python with the Plotly Dash framework. Dash allows to embed HTML and CSS code within the Python code to better render the front-end (i.e. the looks and feels) of the application. The application is deployed on Heroku - a cloud based platform enabling developers to build, run, and operate applications entirely in the cloud. The full code of the application is openly accessible on GitHub.
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<aside> <img src="/icons/table_blue.svg" alt="/icons/table_blue.svg" width="40px" /> The data only consists in numerical and short textual information. Given the amount of literature reporting on in-situ a-biosignatures, I do not expect to collect more than a few thousand data entries. All the data stored in the database is sourced from peer-reviewed scientific publications and do not include sensitive, private, or confidential information.
The database is a PostgreSQL database hosted on Heroku. As of today, May 17 2023, the database schema is as simple as a single table comprising the following entries:
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<aside> 💡 biosignature_id
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<aside> 💡 max_age
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<aside> 💡 biosignature_cat
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<aside> 💡 env_conditions
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<aside> 💡 biosignature_subcat
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<aside> 💡 paleoenvirenment
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<aside> 💡 biosignature_name
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<aside> 💡
location_name
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<aside> 💡 indicative_of
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<aside> 💡 latitude
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<aside> 💡 detection_method
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<aside> 💡 longitude
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<aside> 💡 sample_type
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<aside> 💡 mars_counterpart
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<aside> 💡 sample_subtype
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<aside> 💡 mars_latitude
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<aside> 💡 number_of_samples
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<aside> 💡 mars_longitude
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<aside> 💡 min_age
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<aside> 💡 pub_ref
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<aside> 💡 pub_url
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<aside> 💡 entry_status
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Workflow of the submission and validation processes of The Biosignature Database. A user submits new data through the submission form that will automatically be checked for compliance with data standards. If compliant, a POST request will be sent to the database and the new data entries will be inserted as “pending”. An administrator will then check if the submission reflects the data that was reported in the corresponding publication, in which case the administrator will validate the data, which will send an UPDATE request to the database and update the status of the validated submission from “pending” to “validated”.