Automating the Process of Document Submission in the IVOA Document Repository

Abstract

The International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) produces standards to enable the interoperability of astronomical data and services for the global astrophysical community. The working groups and the interest groups submit the documents following the promotion process described by the IVOA document for Standards and Processes. This process is currently managed mostly manually by the IVOA Document Coordinator. We are developing a web application to automate this process. This tool will help users submit the document alongside their metadata information, which will then be stored in the IVOA database. The application will use the metadata to dynamically generate both the individual document landing pages and the global repository landing page. Other features of this application will be the addition of Errata, Requests for Comments (RFC) phases, and other related features, which are currently manually managed by the IVOA Document Coordinator or other IVOA organization’s roles. This web application is built using the Python Flask framework, SQLite3 as the database, SQLAlchemy as the Object Relational Mapper (ORM), and various front-end tools. The application is designed to accept metadata and different formats of documents through a form interface. The uploaded documents are then processed, renamed, and saved in a structured document tree. The accompanying metadata is stored in SQLite3 database and used to dynamically generate individual document landing pages for ease of access and organization. This document provides a step-by-step explanation of the architecture, technology and implementation involved in the development of this application.