44 lines
3.1 KiB
Markdown
44 lines
3.1 KiB
Markdown
# FarmMaps Workflow
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This page explains how FarmMaps processes incoming data so that it can be used in the FarmMaps application, and data becomes easily retrievable through the interface.
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Depending on the type of data, the system might process the data differently, how this works is explained below.
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## General workflow
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As mentioned earlier, the REST API is the primary API endpoint.
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The workflow starts with registering a new upload, and uploading the file in chunks.
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Once a file has been uploaded succesfully through the REST API, FarmMaps will automatically start to process the file step by step.
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In the processing workflow, there are 3 common, not dependent on the type of file.
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After the common steps, the workflow starts tasks for the specific type of file.
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So, when a file has been uploaded completely, FarmMaps will:
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* Start a stitching task to reasemble the chunks back into a single file.
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* Start an identification task to identify the type of file, and identify what the next processing step should be.
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* Start the file-type specific workflow, starting with the first task defined in the file-type specific workflow.
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Each time a task is started, a separate process is created called a worker.
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This worker then executes the task and reports back to the main FarmMaps workflow once it has completed.
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The main workflow will then start the next task untill all processing steps defined for that specific type of file are completed.
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Once the primary processing is completed, the data is available for viewing through the FarmMaps GUI.
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Also, other tasks can be started that use the pre-processed data.
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These are tasks such as generating a task map, or creating derived datasets from the pre-processed data.
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## Stitching task
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Because files are uploaded in chunks in FarmMaps, these chunks need to re-assembled into the original file.
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This task is started automatically.
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## Identification task
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Once a file is re-assembled, FarmMaps will try to identify the file.
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It does so by looking at the file extension (i.e. `.csv`, `.shp`, `.tif`), the binary structure, and the content structure.
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Once it recognizes the type of file that was uploaded, FarmMaps stores this information as metadata in the database, with a reference to the file.
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The system can then look up the correct file specific workflow, and related tasks.
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### File specific task
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Once the file has been identified and the correct file-type specific workflow is known, FarmMaps will start the with the first task listed in that workflow.
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It uses the resulting file of the stitching task, and depending on the type of task generally creates a new file with the converted data.
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A good example would be a `.csv` file that was uploaded, that would be converted to a `.shp` or shapefile.
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Once the data conversion has completed, the database is updated to point to the new file instead of the original `.csv`.
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The system does however keep track of the previous version and also keeps this in store, so the same data can easily be retrieved in different formats or versions.
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When the next file-specific task starts, this step repeats and another "version" of the same data is created.
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