Blog for documents

[Theo Markettos]

I have a blog, which I use as my laboratory notebook. However it only
supports the upload of images, not other files. What I'd like to do is have
a web interface I can upload other files to, that will store files in the
same way a blog stores entries. For example, I upload graph.fig with the
web interface and it generates:

http://docublog.example.com/20070228/202612/graph.fig
possibly with some metadata (phi=2.3, runs=200, dataset=PH3) stored in the
database, and maybe password authenticated.

Tomorrow I upload a different graph.fig and it gives it a different name and
they need not be related - I can pull out all past history of the file.
It's the file that's important, not the name. Though I'm not terribly keen
on DMSs that have URLs like:
http://www.example.com/doc.cgi?skefhjkh23423oi4u32io4u32io4uesjfhio32423.fig

This is slightly like a binary version control system but mostly a blog for
files not text. I'm not too bothered about disc space. Does something like
this exist, ideally open source? I'm happy to do the relevant server-side
stuff installation if necessary - I'd prefer it was something I hosted (and
could backup) rather than relying on someone else (who might go
bust/disappear without notice taking my data with them).

Thanks
Theo

[Milind Joshi]

Post by Theo Markettos
I have a blog, which I use as my laboratory notebook. However it only
supports the upload of images, not other files. What I'd like to do is have
a web interface I can upload other files to, that will store files in the
same way a blog stores entries. For example, I upload graph.fig with the
http://docublog.example.com/20070228/202612/graph.fig
possibly with some metadata (phi=2.3, runs=200, dataset=PH3) stored in the
database, and maybe password authenticated.
Tomorrow I upload a different graph.fig and it gives it a different name and
they need not be related - I can pull out all past history of the file.
It's the file that's important, not the name. Though I'm not terribly keen
on DMSs that have URLs like:http://www.example.com/doc.cgi?skefhjkh23423oi4u32io4u32io4uesjfhio32...
This is slightly like a binary version control system but mostly a blog for
files not text. I'm not too bothered about disc space. Does something like
this exist, ideally open source? I'm happy to do the relevant server-side
stuff installation if necessary - I'd prefer it was something I hosted (and
could backup) rather than relying on someone else (who might go
bust/disappear without notice taking my data with them).
Thanks
Theo

Hi Theo,

Looks like you're looking for file management software... why don't
you try looking at sourceforge, search for document management and
take a look at some of those projects?

Regards,
Milind Joshi
IDEA TECHNOSOFT INC.
http://www.ideatechnosoft.com

[splitDiff]

Hi Theo-

I haven't tried it out yet, but KnowledgeTree Open Source Edition
preview version 3.4 (http://www.knowledgetree.com/products/latest/)
was just released with new RSS and tagging features. I've been
impressed with their product to date -- short learning curve, nice
features, and room to grow.

If I am able to load it up in my test environment the next couple of
days I will follow-up with a post of my experiences. Please report
back on yours as well.

Thanks

-splitDiff

[jay m]

Post by splitDiff
Hi Theo-
I haven't tried it out yet, but KnowledgeTree Open Source Edition
preview version 3.4 (http://www.knowledgetree.com/products/latest/)
was just released with new RSS and tagging features. I've been
impressed with their product to date -- short learning curve, nice
features, and room to grow.
If I am able to load it up in my test environment the next couple of
days I will follow-up with a post of my experiences. Please report
back on yours as well.
Thanks
-splitDiff

I just saw a discussion of "lab notebook software", which might be of
interest.
There is at least one package on SourceForge.
Regards
Jay

[Theo Markettos]

Post by jay m
I just saw a discussion of "lab notebook software", which might be of
interest. There is at least one package on SourceForge. Regards Jay

Thanks. I think you mean this:
http://collaboratory.emsl.pnl.gov/software/eln/

Looks interesting...
Theo

[Theo Markettos]

Post by jay m
I just saw a discussion of "lab notebook software", which might be of
interest. There is at least one package on SourceForge. Regards Jay

In the end I hacked up my own solution. I wrote a quick shell script to
copy files into my Unix ~/public_html/ directory and put them in a suitably
datestamped subdirectory while calling an editor to create an accompanying
note file. That takes care of submitting files from the same machine. If I
need to use it remotely I can knock up a bit of Perl to handle the upload
and then put them in the same structure. My script also spits out an HTML
fragment suitable for cutting and pasting into my blog notes.

It's basic, but has the advantage that there's a more robust backup solution
in place on that server.

Theo