Exp379T / 385T Application Developer Technical Report
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This document highlights changes to the JOIDES Resolution laboratory data management environment during Expedition 382379T / 385T. Both application developers were on-board for both of these abbreviated expedition / transit operations so we opted to combine the information for these two projects into a single tech report.
Selected issues are highlighted, but not reviewed in exhaustive detail. In general, see the ship activity log and product pages on the developer site for additional detail: {+}http://banff.iodp.tamu.edu/display/DEV/Developer+Home+Page+
The activity log specific to this expedition will be placed here: {+}http://banff.iodp.tamu.edu/display/DEV/Ship+Activity+Log+
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- GEODESC: participated in twice-weekly meetings with ship and shore team members to design a suite of applications that will replace DESClogik in collecting descriptive data. Also built prototypes and experimental applications to test feasibility of numerous requirements of the project. Wrote and/or revised several mockups, specification documents, and test plans for the various component software tools of the project.
- IMS: worked to improve the libraries that retrieve and parse sample-id information from LIMS database; applied to WRMSL plugin as first deployment.
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Outstanding items are tracked by development in a system called Trello. www.trello.com
Special Projects / Issues
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CahnBalance / Coulometer Applications
Home Screen Module
Chemistry technicians requested a small change to the login module. When a user clicks "Change Login" on home screen it immediately logs the current user out and so the user must login again before they can continue using the application. They would like this changed so they have an opportunity to cancel out of the login screen and keep the current user credentials so they can continue measuring samples.
History Module
Chemistry techs reported that the history display screen sorts all columns in character order. They would like the numeric fields (standard-deviation, mass, ,etc.) and date fields (timestamp, etc.) to sort in proper numeric and date order respectively. This represents a significant modification to the history module; including initializing it with data-type information when it is started by the main application.
Cahn Balance Host Computers
Worked with ALO and MCS's to convert two older model laptops to host machines to run CahnBalance software. These will be used in the Rad van and the DOE van to be installed during port call in San Diego.
Development Tooling and Infrastructure Changes
No changes during Expedition 379T / 385T.
Hardware and Server
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Docking Station & Video for New Dell Latitude 5490 Laptops
The latest standard-issue Dell Latitude 4590 laptops are not capable of driving two 4K monitors at full resolution. At the beginning of this expedition we found that connecting two monitors to the laptop, either directly or through the docking station, resulted in one monitor being downgraded to 1920 X 1080 resolution. We worked with MCS's and went through several rounds of upgrades to
- video drivers
- computer firmware
- chip set drivers
- drivers for the docking station.
In the end we found that the resolution issue is a fundamental limitation of the particular configuration of the model Latitude 5490 we were issued. Our solution during this expedition has been to boot up our laptops and connect to network via Ethernet cable, then use the developer computer (tag # 53293) and use remote desktop to connect to our laptops. This allows utilizing both monitors at full 3840 X 2160 resolution.