| DBGPA of MAO NAS of Ukraine |
Database of Golosiiv Plate Archive (DBGPA) includes about 26 000 plates of Golosiiv collection and being positioned as the prototype of Joint Digital Archive (JDA) of photographic observations of all Ukrainian glass archives DBGPA embraces data for more than 10 000 plates from collections of another Ukrainian observatories: Mykolaiv AO, AO LNU and AO KNU. Lately started process of archives' digitization has explosively enlarged the data volumes and the necessity to develope the tools for their administration and data search arose. Photographic archives are being considered as the astrometric component of JDA in wide spectrum range and obviously the access to them should be organized by formats and protocols of VO. On the step of transition from an online archive to the VO resource and owing to specificity of problems to be resolved we develope our own tools for data manipulations, which are necessary both for archive filling and its structure upgrade and for its' intended aggregation with the other observatories' archives of the same type.
DB of GPA is built in MySQL environment. The current version of the online software package DBGPA V2.0 is created in ÐÍÐ with JavaScript and Flash ActionScript technologies. DBGPA V2.0 consists of three functional interfaces targeted the different user groups. Contributor interface with authorized access of different set of privileges is aimed at new instrumental archive creation, data correction and verification, arrangement of digitization in user friendly way, its control, etc. Administrative interface is developed for database integrity support, monitoring of error and correction logs, current database backup, user access control etc, and structurally is a component of the contributor interface with the highest privileges. User interface provides the open access to data search engine and includes the tools for the visualization of search results such as star map on star catalogue data over the area of the photographic plate, overlapping scheme for the selected plates, graphic presentation of archive statistic data as bar charts, distribution of plate centers on the celestial sphere etc.
After the digitisation had started functionality of the software package was enhanced with the additional modules on the Java and Flash ActionScript platforms which permit immediatly place digitized images into storage space, create the preview images, record them in the common database and make them available online for the remote user, giving him flexible instruments for the browsing of image detailes with zooming. In contributor interface the additional functionality is realised such as transformation into another graphic format "on the fly" or cutting out fragments of image etc.
Further development of software tools on the basis of DBGPA may be directed to :
- upgrade of user interface with services which could allow to transform the search page of database into instrument not only provided the access to data but to the tools of image processing including ones that are developed by IVOA;
- development of contributor interface by including modules provided the possibility of operative addition of another type archives (CCD, spectral and so on) to the combined database together with means of their joint management;
- development of means for presentation of any astronomical information (catalogues, tables, presentations etc), published on UkrVO and DBGPA pages, in formats, recommended by IVOA for data restoration, storage and transition.
Currently the comprehensive software package is in project, intended to make the digitized photographic archives actually virtual.
| Mykolaiv observatory software package |
|
