The NCMNS API Platform was a multi-functional data publishing platform. The overarching goal of the platform was to provide a blueprint for the construction of RESTful APIs to support scientific research, primarily in the fields of biodiversity informatics, biodiversity, geology, and paleontology.
The 100 Counties Project of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences allowed the public to explore how the Museum engages all 100 counties across North Carolina. Statistics were visualized through an interactive map and animated charts with summaries of each category. The data was updated annually and served through a custom RESTful API.
The Candid Critters Project Management system (CAPS) is a custom web application to support the NC Candid Critters project workflow. CAPS is built using the Laravel MVC Framework with a MYSQL database backend. The web application features a wide array of features that include camera management, reservation and training tracking, site mapping, and custom reports generated on the fly.
The architecture of the application is divided into modules that provide support for specific sections of the workflow. This way the application can target and scale to particular needs. These modules with a short description are as follows:
A project information website for NC Candid Critters, a citizen science camera trap survey of North Carolina. Citizen scientists get to explore the outdoors and learn about the critters living in their community while helping us gain information that can be used for conservation and management purposes. The project is based at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in collaboration with NC State University, NC Wildlife Resources Commission, the State Library of NC, NC Cardinal, the Public Libraries of North Carolina, and the Smithsonian.
The Online Collections web application, project name Aves, is a search and data-sharing platform for biological, geological, and paleontological collections. The application was built using the Laravel and Vue.js frameworks. Bootstrap takes care of the responsive behavior, vivus.js for SVG animations, and jQuery Datatables for the display and interactivity of search results. Several collections included a web map for georeferenced specimens using Leaflet and custom GeoJSON API endpoints. The system even includes a simple collections management tool with features that include storage and photo management.
The Online Collections portal belonged to the internal collections interconnected network, a set of web applications that communicated with one another through custom APIs. Here, media in the form of 3-D models, images, and scans of primary sources (e.g., ledgers, labels, and collection cards) associated with specimens were provided by the Collections Asset Manager (CAMS). Spatial datasets, controlled vocabularies, collections metrics are provided dynamically by a Data Publishing Platform.
NCSM Species Mapper was an interactive data visualization and web mapping application that allowed end users to map the georeferenced specimens in the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences’ collections. An array of features and data layers were included to meet the needs of both researchers and educators.
