Introduction

The administrator is in charge of describing the different data stored in the G-Obs database:

• actors,
• spatial layers,
• protocols,
• indicators,
• dimensions,
• series of data.

See the documentation on these concepts.

To go on, you must first have installed and configured the G-Obs plugin for QGIS Desktop. See the doc G-Obs installation and configuration

Create your database local interface

This algorithm will create a new QGIS project file for G-Obs administration purpose.

The generated QGIS project must then be opened by the administrator to create the needed metadata by using QGIS editing capabilities (actors, spatial layers information, indicators, etc.)

Parameters:

• PostgreSQL connection to G-Obs database: name of the database connection you would like to use for the new QGIS project.
• QGIS project file to create: choose the output file destination. We advise you to choose a name reflecting the G-Obs database name.

Edit the database metadata

The administration project

The administration project created beforehand will allow the administrator to create, modify and delete metadata in the G-Obs database. As an administrator, you must open this project with QGIS.

Before going on, be sure you have a working connection between your computer and the database server.

Once opened, the QGIS project is configured to allow the administrator to edit the data. In the QGIS Layers panel, you will see the following layers:

These layers represent the G-Obs PostgreSQL tables which are in charge of storing the metadata and data. They are organized in two groups in the Layers panel:

• Metadata: group containing the layers you need to edit to add metadata on actors, protocols, series, etc.
• Data: group containing the data stored in the database. Do no edit these layers

How to edit the metadata

In QGIS, you can edit the layer data by toggling the editing mode for each layer:

• Select the layer in the panel by clicking on it: the layer is highlighted in blue
• Right-click on the layer name and select Toggle Editing or use the menu Layer / Toggle Editing

Before going on, please toggle editing for all the following layers:

• actor_category
• actor
• spatial_layer
• indicator
• protocol
• series
• project
• project_view

Please refer to the documentation on G-Obs concepts to understand the meaning of each layer.

To add a new record, select the layer in the Layers panel, then use the menu Edit / Add record (or CTRL+.). It will open a form wich lets you enter the needed data. Once every required fields have been filled, validate with the OK button on the bottom-right.

To view all the records of a layer, select the layer in the Layers panel, then open the attribute table with the menu Layers / Open attribute table (or F6)

You can undo previous modifications with the menu Edit / Undo (or CTRL+Z).

To permanently save the changed data in the layer, you need to use the menu Layer / Saver layer edits. After saving the data, you will not be able to undo your changes (but you can always reopen the data and changed the values).

To edit a record, open the layer attribute table, and then click on the small button Switch to form view on the bottom-right of the dialog (the first one). Then select a record in the left panel, and use the displayed form to edit the data.

To delete a record, select the record in the attribute table by clicking on the line number on the left: the line must be highlighted in blue. Then use the trash icon Delete selected features (or Del). You can undo the deletion if you have not yet saved layer edits.

Example data

actor_category

Example content:

id	ac_label	ac_description
1	Public organizations
2	Research centers

Notes:

• Id will be automatically given after saving layer edits. Do not modify.
• Label and description are mandatory

actor

Example content

id	a_label	a_description	a_email	id_category
1	IGN	French national geographical institute.	contact@ign.fr	1
3	DREAL Bretagne	Direction régionale de l'environnement, de l'aménagement et du logement, région Bretagne.	email@dreal.fr	1
2	CIRAD	The French agricultural research and international cooperation organization working for the sustainable development of tropical and Mediterranean regions.	contact@cirad.fr	2

Notes:

• Id will be automatically given after saving layer edits. Do not modify.
• All fields are mandatory
• The list of categories is taken from the actor_category table. You should add new entry in this table beforehand if needed.

spatial_layer

Example content

id	sl_code	sl_label	sl_description	sl_creation_date	fk_id_actor	sl_geometry_type
1	pluviometers	Pluviometers	Sites equiped with pluviometers to measure rainfalls	2019-06-26	2	point
2	brittany-cities	Cities of Brittany , France	Cities of Brittany, France	2019-07-05	2	multipolygon

Notes:

• Id will be automatically given after saving layer edits. Do not modify.
• All fields are mandatory
• Label will be used as the display name
• Code will be used as a unique text identifier for the spatial layer. Please do not use spaces, accentuated characters or punctuation symbol.
• Geometry type must be chosen with care and must reflect the data type of the source vector layer to import for these spatial layer. Usually, for polygon layers, it is safer to use MultiPolygon (to be able to represent islands or holes)
• Actors combobox comes from the data of the actor layer
• Creation date is automatically set with the current date, but you can change it if needed.

indicator

Example content

id	id_code	id_label	id_description	id_date_format	id_paths	id_category	created_at	updated_at
1	pluviometry	Hourly pluviometry	Hourly rainfall pluviometry in millimetre	hour	Environment / Water / Data, Physical and chemical conditions / Water	Water	2020-12-02 15:06:29.11064	2020-12-02 15:06:29.11064
2	population	Population	Number of inhabitants for city	year	Socio-eco / Demography / Population	Population	2020-12-02 15:06:29.11064	2020-12-02 15:06:29.11064
3	hiker_position	Hikers position	Position and altitude of hikers	second	Hiking / Tracks	Tracks	2020-12-02 15:06:29.11064	2020-12-02 15:06:29.11064

Notes:

• Id will be automatically given after saving layer edits. Do not modify.
• Code is the unique text identifier of the indicator. Please do not use spaces, accentuated characters or punctuation symbol.
• Label is the display name
• Date format is the temporal resolution of the data which will be imported for this indicator. Please choose with care, depending on the source data and the information you would like to create from it.
• Category The optionnal category of the indicator. You can type some letters to search among the existing values. If you need to enter a new category, write it down.

• The Paths can be used to define an oriented graph which will help the future users to find the indicator among many.

  • separated words or expressions with a coma , will define a list of nodes. For example, Environment, Agriculture will define two independant nodes Environment and Agriculture
  • separated keywords with a slash / will also define nodes, but also parent to child relations. For example, Environment / Water / Analyses will create 3 nodes Environment, Water and Analyses. Environment is the parent of Water, which is the parent of Analyses
  • You can combine them, for example Environment / Water / Analyses, Environment / Water / Resources, Agriculture / Resources will lead to the following graph:

  

• The creation & update timestamps are automatically calculated when data is saved.

dimension

Each indicator can have one or more dimensions. You can add one item in the table dimension linked to the chosen indicator.

Example content

id	fk_id_indicator	di_code	di_label	di_type	di_unit
1	1	pluviometry	Hourly pluviometry	real	mm
2	2	population_m	Population (men)	integer	ind
2	2	population_w	Population (women)	integer	ind

For example, if the indicator has two dimensions to store weather data: temperature & hygrometry, you could use:

• Code: Code of the dimension. Please do not use spaces, accentuated characters or punctuation symbol

Value
temperature
hygrometry

• Label: Label of the dimension. You can use any necessary characters

Value
Température
Hygrométrie

• Type: data type. You must choose among: text, integer, real, date, timestamp, boolean

Value
real
integer

• Unit: Unit of the dimension. You can use any text.

Value
°C
%

protocol

Example content

id	pr_code	pr_label	pr_description
1	cirad-pluviometry	Pluviometry	Measure of rainfall in mm
2	cirad-population	Population	Number of inhabitants obtained from census.

Notes:

• Id will be automatically given after saving layer edits. Do not modify.
• All fields are mandatory
• Label will be used as the display name.
• Code is a unique text identifier for the protocol. Please do not use spaces, accentuated characters or punctuation symbol
• Description allows to enter multiple lines to describe the protocol.

series

Example content

id	fk_id_protocol	fk_id_actor	fk_id_indicator	fk_id_spatial_layer
1	1	2	1	1
2	2	2	2	2

Notes:

• Id will be automatically given after saving layer edits. Do not modify.
• All fields are mandatory
• A series is caracterized by a protocol, an actor, an indicator and a spatial layer. You must have created needed items beforehand in the corresponding layers (and save those layers edits) before creating the series.

project

Example content

TODO

Notes:

• Id will be automatically given after saving layer edits. Do not modify.
• TODO

project_view

Example content

TODO

Notes:

• Id will be automatically given after saving layer edits. Do not modify.
• TODO