TAF Web Interface

TAF logo

Design outline

The TAF web interface will allow users (EG, ADG, ACOM, Secretariat, others) to browse, upload, modify and run stock assessments online.

The URL will probably be:

https://taf.ices.dk

Anyone can browse and download input/model/output files, but a username and password is required to upload, modify and run.

The web interface will not be the only TAF user interface. For example, without opening a web browser, users can download files directly into R, and perhaps upload files directly from R. The file types will include R scripts, model config files, and CSV tables.

Layers

The user interface could be implemented in four layers:

  1. Welcome page
    Info: what TAF is about, how to use
    Functions: browse, log on
  2. Boss mode
    Info: list of stocks, TAF status of each stock
    Functions: select stock
  3. Stock mode
    Info: list of assessments for selected stock, TAF status of each assessment
    Functions: select assessment
  4. Assessment mode
    Info: list of scripts, input data files, model config files, output data files
    Functions: upload, modify, run, view SAG results, download CSV

[Figure: Boss mode]

[Figure: Assessment mode]

Notes

Stock vs. assessment

For some stocks, there will be more than one assessment. These can be diagnostic runs that are considered relevant for ADG/ACOM, update assessment later in the year, etc.

In the four-layer design outlined above, the "Stock mode" has links to assessments for that stock. A relatively quiet page between two busy pages, "Boss mode" and "Assessment mode".

TAF status

Within TAF, a stock assessment can be:

  1. Created: directory has been created, no files have been modified this year
  2. Started: some files have been modified this year, but no results have made it to SAG
  3. Complete: SAG results have been generated this year, but can still be updated
  4. Checked: EG has indicated that this assessment is the final run
  5. Finalized: ADG has finished advice sheet for this stock
  6. Published: ACOM has given advice for this stock and results are open to public

When more than one assessment exists for a given stock, the TAF status of that stock is the same as the highest status of any assessment for that stock.

CSV data server

All CSV files (input and output tables) will be available to download directly into R.

Plain directory tree

To make it easy for users to specify the desired data, it might be beneficial to have a URL that is easy for humans to understand, memorize, and type. For example, a plain directory tree where year is a directory with stocks as subdirectories:

https://taf.ices.dk/csv/2017/cod-347d/catage.csv

In this way, CSV files could be downloaded into R using core R functionality, without the need of any packages:

read.csv("https://taf.ices.dk/csv/2017/cod-347d/catage.csv")

If the CSV file server is used widely, both in scripts and interactive sessions, a shorter URL might be desired. For example:

https://csv.ices.dk/2017/cod-347d/catage.csv

[Figure: CSV data server]

Web service

If a plain directory tree is not practical, a web service could be used:

https://taf.ices.dk/csv/getcatage?stock=cod-347d&year=2017

Depending on the web service implementation, this might introduce R package dependencies to download and parse the data.


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