Overview of Information Hub

The Information Hub (IH) is a cloud-based, community-driven, self-help data platform for trans-disciplinary scientific research. The Information Hub aims to provide a solution for ongoing research data management and integration.

Project and Data Management

Projects are the primary tool and building-block for utilities on the Information Hub.

Projects encapsulate resources to collect, store, inspect, visualise and manage data and members. Projects centralise data and add or remove users as needed without moving data around. Information Hub projects are ideal for ongoing projects with many participants that may join or leave over time.

Ownership of projects can easily be managed or changed. You can create organisations and groups inside organisations that can own or create their own projects. This makes it easier to manage institutional projects and allows more flexibility than single-user owned projects.

Applications

The IH offers a desktop, browser-based platform for the technical user or researcher. There are two mobile app versions that can be installed from the app store if required.

Most of the desktop functionality is also available on the "information Hub" app with a white logo. There is also a lite "Information Hub Go" app with a blue logo aimed at non-technical end-users.

The two mobile apps can be identified by the following icons:

Information Hub
Information Hub Go

Contact and Support

Support: [e-mail]

Contact: [e-mail]

Key Resources

• Website: https://www.informationhub.io
• App: https://app.informationhub.io
• Android Play Store (Full App): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.informationhub.app
• Android Play Store (Go App): https://play.google.com/store/search?q=Information%20Hub%20Go&c=apps
• iOS App Store (Full App): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/information-hub/id6448703634
• iOS App Store (Go App): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/information-hub-go/id6448699304
• Privacy Policy: https://app.informationhub.io/privacy-policy
• Terms of Service: https://app.informationhub.io/terms-and-conditions

Organisation and User Management

The IH is built on-top of an organisational scheme defined around three entities:

• Organisations (and member users)

  • Groups (within an organisation and member users)

• Users (standalone)

Organisations

Organisations are collections that represent some organisational entity such as a Company, Institute, Partner etc.

Groups

Groups are collections, underneath organisations, that represent some organisational group in the organisation entity such as research group, department, collaboration vehicles.

Users

Users are entities in their own right and can be a part of an organisation and/or groups, but can also stand alone.

The above entities are used to determine the “namespace” for projects. Namespace simply refers to the entity that owns a project. For example, the following namespaces can exists:

• University of Pretoria: The organisational entity is the University of Pretoria, and no group is specified.

• FABI/TPCP: The organisational entity is FABI, and the group is the TPCP.

• arneschreuder: The organisational entity is the user itself.

Projects

Projects represent the main working entity in the IH. Projects are owned by some namespace as described above. Projects encapsulate the majority of functionality in the IH and consists of the following functionalities:

Overview

The Overview module shows a summary of the project information as well as the resources in use.

Dashboards

The Dashboards module provides a set of capabilities to the user to build visual dashboards and reports. The dashboard module works alongside the Tables, Forms, Storage and Apps modules.

Tables

The Tables module provides a set of capabilities to the user to model and store structural data. The table can either be modelled from scratch or the model for the table is created on data import. The Tables module works alongside the Dashboards, Forms and Apps modules.

Forms

The Forms module provides a set of capabilities to the user to create survey-like forms to collect and capture data. The Forms module includes different layouts, form validation, geolocation tracking and offline capability. The Forms module works alongside the Tables, Dashboards, Storage and Apps modules.

Storage

The storage module provides a set of capabilities to the user to store and persist unstructured data. The Storage module works alongside the Tables, Dashboards, Forms and Apps modules.

Manager

The manager module provides a set of capabilities to the user to do project management. The Manager module implements kanban-style project management boards, with tasks/cards that capture rich text and can be allocated to users, along with a due date.

Wiki

The Wiki module provides a set of capabilities to the user to create rich-text documentation based on Markdown syntax. Pages can be pinned and includes capabilities to embed documents, videos and other rich media. The Wiki module works alongside the Forms and Apps modules.

Apps

The Apps module provides a set of capabilities to the user to create no-code apps to share with end users. Apps are lite-weight collections of shared Dashboards, Forms and Wiki pages. Apps form the main functionality of the Information Hub Go app.

Users

The Users module provides a set of capabilities to the user to invite users to join the project. The Users module provides customisable roles and permissions that can be allocated to users to define what exactly a certain type of role/user can and can not do on the project.

Settings

The project Settings module provides a set of capabilities around the configuration of the project. This includes the project name, visibility, roles on the project and the option to delete the project.