BioClub Tokyo LIMS

A ProcessWire-based LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System) for Community Labs & Hackerspaces

URL: www.bioclub.tokyo.

Goals

The goals of the site are to:

• Showcase Members & Projects
• Announce and Document Events, Talks & Workshops
• Explain usage guidelines of the Lab
• Show available machines, devices and reagents

The website is developed and designed by voluteers. If you want to help/assist/particiapte, please visit the #website channel on the BioClub Discord (https://discord.bioclub.tokyo).

Development

Wordpress used to be the universal tool of choice, but in recent releases Wordpress went more into an Website-Builder direction, rather than strengthening the CMS aspects of it. (Looking at you, Block Editor). It came to a point where it does not longer make sense to bend and modify Wordpress to function as a CMS/CMF.

Also, the move of both ACF and WPML from perpetual license to a yearly subscription fee makes Wordpress even less attractive.

After evaluation other framesworks and alternatives like SSGs, we decided to build the new BioClub Community Website using ProcessWire. If there are other solutions that you think might be a better fit, please share them in #website on the BioClub Discord - and ideally make a test site, so we can evaluate it.

For detail on how to install a local development setup of the site, please have a look at INSTALLATION.md.

Design

TailwindCSS

TailwindCSS is another take on a utility-first CSS framework, the advantage of mix-ins and smaller file size, come with a slightly more complex dev-setup, that might deter first-time users, but comes with the benefit of smaller, tailor-made CSS files.

See the Tailwind Examples in the _html folder.

Why don't we just use code exported from Figma or XD? Because the generate code is very messy, slow and difficult to update. Exactly what we don't want.

Use Cases

1. Events

• Create an Event Page with all the necessary event info.
• Based on that data, create an Event Overview Page, showing all future events, ordered by date, including resized image previews, title, and event abstract.
• Once the event is finished - i.e. the event date is older than the current date, the event page moves to the Event Archive Page.
• User can write Event Reports, which can be linked to the Event Page. Links to the Event Reports appear on the Event Page.

2. News & Reports [todo]

Posts by Members. Markdown content, possibility to tag and connect members and projects.

3. BioClub Members

BioClub Members should register using BioClub Member Form, then we will make a Member account. They can the edit/change their member page, and be added to any number of Project pages. Members can also create Posts, Events, and edit the Inventory.

Member pages will also have a list of all the Projects & Events the Member is involved in.

4. BioClub Projects

• A BioClub Project is a place to document and share information about a project.
• Project can have Project Members, each member can edit the project site and create/edit any number of sub-sites.

4.1 Creating a Project (for Admins)

• An Admin needs to initially create the project with template New Project.
• On save, a new template and a new role is created, handling the user permissions, based upon the members on the project page.
• On subsequent save, the user permissions are updated.

5. Inventory

Searchable Inventory of Machines, Devices and Reagents.

• Description
• ID
• Image
• Location (in the Lab)
• Purchase Link (if applicable)
• Usage Requirements

6. Wiki [todo]

The Wiki-section of the site it where all members have edit & write access.

Requirements

What we need/want from a CMS/CMF:

• Free and Open-Source Software
• Needs to run on Apache on a Shared Server (LAMP)
• User Management (Create new Users, change/update User Profile)
• User Password Reset
• Role-based Access Control (Admin, Editor, Project Member etc.)
• Bi-lingual JP/EN
• MarkDown
• Custom Post/Page Types (ie. Events, Inventory, News, etc)
• Support for Custom Fields Support
• Server-side Image Resizing
• https://

ProcessWire Installation

• ProcessWire Installation Notes.
• Screenshots with ProcessWire Examples.

TODO

• Add SSL Certificate via Let's Encrypt, so we can have https://bioclub.toyko
• Make Development Site at https://bioclub.tokyo
• Install ProcessWire at Development Site
• Create Template/Fields Export/Import System
• Make Basic Pages
• Make Site Bi-lingual, Japanese/English
• Make Accounts for BioClub Community Members
• Create Project-specific Permissions & Roles
• Add Contact Form! Please use BioClub Discord!
• Language-specific Search. Example
• Wiki-like Pages
• News & Repors
• Inventory

Discussion & Content

• What do you want from the site?
• What is still missing?
• What is needed to run the BioClub?

Please write your ideas, suggestions and proposed content in the Shared Google Doc.

We also made a Shared Google Sheet to track the tasks and processes. Idealy we could move it to GitHub Issues/Projects, but let's work now with tools that everyone is familiar with.

Please share your ideas, wishes and content at the Google Docs.