Introductory Product Information
Name
The Scientific Workflow and Integration Software for Health
(SWISH) and the Extreme Weather Events Database (EWEBD)
Primary users
The primary users of the software are epidemiologists,
health researchers, statisticians, and other scientists whose work involves
handling multiple datasets from different sources. The primary users of the
EWEDB are researchers that need to safely store and work with sensitive and
restricted data and researchers working with health, population, extreme
weather events, meteorological, or climate data.
"Elevator pitch"
To access the impacts of climate change on health you need
to gather large amount of data. The data needs to be clean, in consistent
spatial framework and arranged in preparation for analysis. The SWISH project helps
with data access and preparation. It reduces barriers like the need for
advanced knowledge of databases and programming skills, instead providing drag
and drop user interface.
Researcher can create executable workflows using the SWISH
tools that capture documentation and processing steps. The system incorporates Stata,
R, and Java technologies in a consistent platform and can be extended to
incorporate new functionality developed by users. Workflows are saved as a
single file that is easy to share with other researchers supporting
reproducible research and collaboration.
Links to product
The project website is
The ANDS project blog is
The Software installer can be downloaded from
The EWEDB address is (for PostGreSql clients)
brawn.anu.edu.au:5432
Other important links like to Kepler, R, java can be found
on the blog and project website.
User documentation
The software documentation is available from the project
website Documentation. The documentation is broken into three sections; Setting up your Environment,
Assembling Scientific Workflows, and Developing with Workflow Software.
‘Setting up your Environment’ is information about the tools
and software required, where to get them and how to configure them. There are
also test workflows to verify software is correct and the database can be
accessed. Setting up
‘Assembling Scientific Workflows’ contains information about using the SWISH Kepler actors and the EWEDB for sourcing data and processing data. It contains a step by step tutorial, example workflows and useful common tasks. Assembling workflows
‘Developing with Workflow Software’ is information about how users can extend the system adding their own custom functionality. It details the steps to use R code and encourages the project to continue to evolve with support and development from the user community. Developing with workflows
‘Assembling Scientific Workflows’ contains information about using the SWISH Kepler actors and the EWEDB for sourcing data and processing data. It contains a step by step tutorial, example workflows and useful common tasks. Assembling workflows
‘Developing with Workflow Software’ is information about how users can extend the system adding their own custom functionality. It details the steps to use R code and encourages the project to continue to evolve with support and development from the user community. Developing with workflows
Technical documentation
Technical information about the project can be found on the
project blog and in the documentation section of the project website.
Installation and configuration of included technologies
·
Tools
R
·
Set-up-r
EWEDB
SWISH Kepler actors
PostGIS
User testing reports:
The source code is available at
Pictures
SWISH Kepler actors installer
Installed items
Kepler with workflow
PostGreSql password editor
Display grid actor
Display time series actor
Product (or Product Components) Re-usability Information
The project has been developed with the motivation of
supporting research in epidemiology: the study of the distribution and
determinants of disease. Most of the implemented functionality however is not
necessarily specific to the epidemiology discipline. The SWISH Kepler actors
implement many table, time series, and grid data operations that would assist
other spatial or temporal data based research endeavours. The EWEDB makes
weather data and other data available which will continue to be accessed and
used by epidemiology and other researchers.
The construction of the product also contributes to its
reusability. The Kepler actors that make up a large portion of the software
product are by definition reusable components for creating workflows. The R
portion of the project has been packaged into R projects that Kepler actors
use. These packages can also be used
outside of Kepler directly from R.
Contextual Product Information
Licensing
The software is licensed
under the Creative Commons Australia Attribution 3.0 Licence. Access to the EWEBD is available but requires
NCEPH collaborations to be set up.
Interested users are invited to contact the NCEPH Data Manager for more
info.
Sustainability
The project has concluded its development phase.
The web site, blog, software and source code will remain
open and available into the future. The project website and the project blog
will remain hosted by the github.com and blogger.com. The SWISH software and
code will remain freely available from the website. The EWEDB will be hosted by the ANU library
for the at least the next year and possibly beyond.
No future updates are planned for the SWISH Kepler Actors
software by the staff at the ANU. Future development of Stata functionality is
opened up to the Kepler community because we have communicated with the
developers of Kepler about our development.
The EWEDB will be periodically updated adding new data that
has become available. Ivan plans to continue to use and develop the R code
developed during the project but rebadge it as a slightly different product.
