The following page describes the primary foundation of ideas for the database for the visual search model.

Background

SR Hub is associated with a lot of fellowships. This means a massive income of articles related to sustainable energy, and the upbringings of New Jersey. However, for prospective stakeholders interested in what’s happening around New Jersey, the search isn’t as accurate as it’s supposed to be. SR Hub has an excellent mission and is working to make the Garden State a responsible state to the globe -- however, they’re website presentation doesn’t convey that to it’s the best ability.

Objective of Solution

To provide an advanced functioning search with a visual appeal to a stakeholder of the website. We observed how srhub.org -- an article rich website -- could benefit prospective stakeholders if they have a map of NJ (broken up by counties, see right). This map would allow users to click on a particular county and the results pulled from the planned designed database, would be articles from the variety of categories depicted on their website. This is beneficial as it would harness all their data from fellowships in one place and present it in a neat fashion. This NJ Visual search will be part of a revised landing page that can help attract stakeholders. In addition to visual presentation conveying information. The team’s second main objective would be to use a refined tagging system to build. [See Stage 2 in the docs folder for visual sketches]

Solution

A fully operational visual search that filters results via county and displays them on an interactive map of New Jersey. Each county will have articles relative to what the user clicks. Another aspect of the final product will be an additional interactive pie chart that displays different percentages of the article representation. This would allow users to view the most important/relevant information from all of New Jersey. Accomplishing both of these features will require different aspects of databases, queries, and front end designing. In addition to the map features, we plan to totally revamp the front end to make it move visually appealing to many different demographics. Furthermore, we plan to revamp the front-end design of the website and refine the landing page of the site to add our features.

Advantages and Purpose of Solution

A virtual search would result in a more positive outlook to prospective stakeholders. This would not only reorganize the content of SR HUB but also possibly bring more fellowships to the blog. Not only that, but the interactive nature of the visuals would be more visually appealing to everyday AND new users. The current sorting/ displaying system is very bland and hard to get around if you don't already know where you want to go. This system would be much more user friendly and accessible to those just starting to learn about sustainability and what they can do locally.

Performance, Security, and Backup/Recovery

Using the PostgreSQL language, improved queries and tables are the key to maintaining greater performance and concurrency control (which is ultimately used to deal with transaction isolation and the like). With regards to the security and stability of the platform, certain users with permissions and capabilities are permitted to directly view the database, however, only database administrators (DBAs) are permitted to make modifications/edits to the database. Views and stored procedures with rollbacks are implemented to prevent improper entries, manipulation, and authorization. Backups and recovery are handled with PostgreSQL functionalities such as SQL dump, file system level backup, and continuous archiving.