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The German Archaeological Institute’s (DAI) take on a field research documentation system.
Combining features of GIS, photo management, and database management systems in a unique and integrating manner, Field aims at facilitating archaeological workflows by reducing the overhead of using multiple systems. Developed in-house by the DAI’s information technology department, it targets the needs of the institute’s excavations, older ones as well as those to come. Due to the nature of its adjustable data model and the fact it is open source software, any interested third party is free to reuse and adjust it to their needs.
The main application is currently Field Desktop, with Field Mobile as an upcoming alternative still in early development. For the time being, if you are a researcher interested in using Field, we would suggest to first have a look at Field Desktop.
While it is possible to run just one Field Desktop installation for your project on a single machine, the strength of Field is its capability for automatic database- and filesyncing between different Field Desktop installations. You find some examples for syncing setups below.
Field Desktop is the main desktop (MacOS, Windows or Linux) application for collecting data.
You can install the latest version of Field Desktop by downloading it from the GitHub releases page. Choose the installer for your operating system.
The Windows installer allows choosing between installing the application for all users of the computer and installing it just for the currently active user.
You need to be an administrator to select this option. You can now edit the installation path. Per default, the application is installed in the directory "C:\Program Files\Field Desktop" when installing it for all users.
If installed only for the currently active user, the default installation path is "C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\Programs\Field Desktop".
Regardless of which option you chose, the user data for each user that is working with the application is always stored in the directory "C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\idai-field-client". This directory contains the databases of all projects created or downloaded by this user, as well as configuration settings and imagestore data (if the path to the imagestore directory hasn't been changed in the settings).
To install the application from the command line silently (without a graphical user interface), you can use the command line parameter "/S", optionally in combination with other parameters. The following command line parameters are supported:
- /S Silent installation
- /currentuser Install the application only for the current user
- /allusers Install the application for all users (administrator rights required)
- /D=[PATH] Set a custom installation path (e. g. "/D=C:\Example\Field")
Open the DMG file and move the Field Desktop Icon to the "Applications" folder to install Field Desktop on your computer.
The user data is stored in the directory "/Users/[USERNAME]/Library/Application Support/idai-field-client". This directory contains the databases of all projects created or downloaded by this user, as well as configuration settings and imagestore data (if the path to the imagestore directory hasn't been changed in the settings).
Open the AppImage file to start the application. Please note that with some Linux operating systems (e. g. newer Ubuntu versions), errors may occur when running AppImage files. You can find information on how to solve the problem in the troubleshooting section of the AppImage homepage.
You can also start the installation if an older version of the application is already installed. In this case, Field Desktop will be updated to the new version. Existing projects are normally retained. However, it is strongly recommended that you create backup files of all important projects before the update, as data may be lost in exceptional cases.
Please note that when deleting the application, the user data directories are not removed. This means that all project databases for all users will still be available after reinstalling the application. If you want to remove all project data as well, you can delete the user directory for each user manually.
Execute the file "Uninstall Field Desktop.exe" in the directory where Field Desktop has been installed.
Delete "Field Desktop" from the applications folder.
See the application's internal manual.
If you would like to help translate Field Desktop into another language, please see this Wiki page.
For institutions that consider using Field Desktop, we would recommend setting up Field Hub which may serve as a centralized syncing server for all your researchers.
Here are some network topologies currently in use.
This setup does not require a Field Hub server installation. All researchers sync between their machines (laptops or desktop PCs) via local area network.
flowchart LR;
A[Researcher A] <--> B[Researcher B];
A[Researcher A] <--> C[Researcher C];
C[Researcher C] <--> D[Researcher D];
C[Researcher C] <--> E[Researcher E];
A[Researcher A] <--> E[Researcher E];
classDef default color:#fff
style A fill:#008B00
style B fill:#008B00
style C fill:#008B00
style D fill:#008B00
style E fill:#008B00
If your institution wants to collect all research data centrally, you may setup a Field Hub server instance and let all your researchers sync to it.
flowchart LR;
Hub[Field Hub Server] <--> A[Researcher A, Project A];
Hub[Field Hub Server] <--> B[Researcher B, Project A];
Hub[Field Hub Server] <--> C[Researcher C, Project B];
Hub[Field Hub Server] <--> D[Researcher D, Project B];
classDef default color:#fff
style Hub fill:#00008B
style A fill:#008B00
style B fill:#008B00
style C fill:#008B00
style D fill:#008B00
If bandwidth is a concern on excavation, you may also use a desktop PC or laptop on site running Field Desktop as a local 'pseudo server' to collect data and facilitate syncing to your institution's Field Hub server. This will reduce redundant upload/download bandwith usage compared to the topology variant above.
flowchart LR;
Pseudo[Pseudo Server] <--> Hub[Field Hub Server];
Pseudo[Pseudo Server] <--> A[Researcher A];
Pseudo[Pseudo Server] <--> B[Researcher B];
Pseudo[Pseudo Server] <--> C[Researcher C];
Pseudo[Pseudo Server] <--> D[Researcher D];
classDef default color:#fff
style Hub fill:#00008B
style Pseudo fill:#008B00
style A fill:#008B00
style B fill:#008B00
style C fill:#008B00
style D fill:#008B00
The topologies above can also be combined.
flowchart LR;
Pseudo[Pseudo Server, Project A] <--> Hub[Field Hub Server];
Pseudo[Pseudo Server, Project A] <--> A[Researcher A, Project A];
Pseudo[Pseudo Server, Project A] <--> B[Researcher B, Project A];
Hub[Field Hub Server] <--> C[Researcher C, Project B];
Hub[Field Hub Server] <--> D[Researcher D, Project B];
A[Researcher A, Project A] <--> E[Researcher E, Project A];
A[Researcher A, Project A] <--> F[Researcher F, Project A];
G[Researcher G, Project A] <--> Hub[Field Hub Server];
classDef default color:#fff
style Hub fill:#00008B
style Pseudo fill:#008B00
style A fill:#008B00
style B fill:#008B00
style C fill:#008B00
style D fill:#008B00
style E fill:#008B00
style F fill:#008B00
style G fill:#008B00
After field research documentation has been created using Field Desktop, there are several ways to process or publish your data.
- Export CSV/GeoJSON/Shapefiles from within the Field Desktop application.
- Access the underlying CouchDB (Field Hub) or PouchDB (Field Desktop) directly. CouchDB provides its own Rest API, but there also exist native libraries like sofa for R. An example sofa implementation by Lisa Steinmann can be found here.