Feature-Adds
From Foldeomics Wiki
The PFD Development Team is currently working on adding a lot of new features into PFD to make it easier for you to input, search & export the data you need from the database.
These means it's a great time for you, the user, to tell us what you want to see from PFD & how we can most help you with your research into protein folding.
Below is a listing of features that the PFD Development Team and PFD users have suggested would make PFD more useful for protein folding research.
Feature suggestions will be reviewed & implemented based on how useful they are deemed to be to the PFD userbase & folding community & how long they will take to develop. Note that features listed here are effectively a "wishlist" for PFD, as a result nothing here is definate. Some features may appear in slightly altered forms, some may appear further down the track, others may never see the light of day, it is entirely based on their usefulness & ease to develop.
If you would like to submit a feature for consideration to PFD, you can do so by submitting a feature request
If you submitted a feature and cannot find it in this listing, then the feature may already have been actioned. Be sure to check the Implemented Features page, to see if your feature has already been added to the PFD system.
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PFD Ideas
As well as these feature adds the team have also come up with a few Ideas to develop. These ideas are not finalised yet, they are things that are being considered for development. We welcome your feedback on these ideas, if you feel an idea may be beneficial to your PFD use, or if you feel an idea may be more useful if it was changed in someway, please let us know.
Feature Wishlist
These are a list of features that the PFD Development Team have derived, either through their own ideas or through feature requests filed by users. These features are being considered and the ones that seem important or useful will be implemented at the earliest possible convenience.
Feature #02 - Search Result Comparisons
Currently the search module, and the Advanced Search component allow users to refine the data of their search, and do some analysis of data against other data, but there are aspects that are rather restrictive. Advanced Search is really designed to refine the search, rather than broaden & compare the data.
An idea for a new feature is to allow for a comparison section, where users can grab data into.
This feature will probably be pretty similar to UniProt's "Data Set Manager", but altered & improved for PFD use.
This feature has been considered, but has not been fully planned yet, it will be developed once the specifics have been figured out.
Feature #03 - Data Graphing
Currently there are only really 5 different types of data being plotted in graphical format: Contact Order Plot, Chevron Plot, Equilibrium Curve, Phi Value Vs. DGD-N value, Phi Value Vs. BetaT (Equilibrium Unfolding) value.
These are good, but only really allow for analysis of certain areas of the data, and don't allow advanced users to alter the parameters being graphed.
More graphs could be added to detail & graph other aspects of data, these graphs would probably be in the same format as the Contact Order plot, showing classes against each other, and having hyperlinks to the actual data.
Other ideas include users being able to plot their own chosen fields against one another, and to be able to insert data & have the graph predict the data's mapping on the plot.
These features have been considered, but have not been fully planned yet, they will be developed once their specifics have been figured out.
Feature #04 - Offline PFD Application
While PFD has aimed to make the deposition of data via an online web interface as straight-forward, simple & time-efficient as possible, we will admit that depositing data can still sometimes be a long & tedious thing. Realistically data probably isn't deposited in one sitting, as researchers will have to consult their notes/collaborators/etc. about different sections of the data. In most cases data deposition is started, and then resumed at a later point down the track.
Either way it would probably make deposition quicker & more user friendly if there was an offline desktop application to work in, to build measurement & mutant data in, and then a single "upload" button to upload multiple measurement datasets into PFD.
This feature has been considered, but has not been fully planned yet, it will be developed once the specifics have been figured out.
Feature #05 - Deposition Module User Interface Overhaul
Those that use PFD fairly heavily may have noticed that various parts of PFD seem to take on slightly different colour schemes.
The dark blue colour scheme of the Deposition section is from the Swinburne development phase (PFD Development V.3), the whole site used to follow that dark blue colour scheme at one stage.
During the PFD Development V.3.1 (PFD Official Beta / Public Release 2) the colour scheme was changed to the lighter blue & grey colours.
Much of the site has been gradually ported across to the new colour scheme, however elements of the Deposition, Bug Reporting & some aspects of Editorial features (for those with administrative or moderator access) are still in the old format.
This isnt a feature as such, it's a cosmetic change, but it adds to the overall User Friendliness of the site, so has been grouped here.
This feature does not really affect the usage of the site, its just an aesthetics fix. It will probably be implemented on a page-by-page basis, when time is available.
Feature #08 - Autocompleting Deposition from External Databases
Many fields during deposition relate to information existing in external databases. Eg. PDB ID & resolution.
It has been suggested that these fields & several other data fields could be auto completed for users from external databases, such as PDB, SCOP & UniProt.
Implementation of this feature depends entirely on how external databases make their data available. This feature is currently being looked into
New Features
If you can think of any features you would like to see that are not listed here, please notify us by filling in a Feature Request.
Thanks,
The PFD Development Team.
Mark Bate 16:51, 6 November 2006 (EST)
