Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
it added another complexity and another new thing to learn, it was
decided to follow the RoR community and move to Git/Github.
As mentioned, most, but at the moment not all, parts of the stack are
open source tools. An Oracle database is used, whereas structure
depictions and searches use tools from Symyx/Accelrys. MOE [36] is also
not a FLOSS tool. At Lundbeck it is used for some speciality compound
calculations where the result is displayed in LSP. MOE is not essential for
the running of LSP, but Oracle and the Symyx/Accelrys cartridge (for
chemical structures) currently are.
1.6 Overall vision
LSP is designed to span the entire continuum, from data storage and
organisation, through web/query services and into GUI 'widgets' with
which users interact. The core of the system is a highly confi gurable
application 'frame', which allows different interface components (driven
by underlying database queries) to be connected together and presented
to the user as business-relevant forms. Meta-data concerning these
components (which we call 'application modules') are stored in the
LSP database, enabling us to re-use and interlink different modules
at will. For example, connecting a chemical structure sketcher,
pharmacology data browser and graph widget together for a new view
of the data. It is this underlying framework that provides the means
to develop new functionality rapidly, with so much of the 'plumbing'
already taken care of. With this in place, our developers are free to focus
on the more important elements, such as confi guring the data storage,
writing the queries and deploying them in user-friendly interface
components.
1.7 Lessons learned
The informatics department consists of experienced programmers, who
tend to learn new tools, languages etc., proactively by reading an
advanced-level topic and starting to work with the new skills, i.e. learning
by doing. RoR was no exception. The team acquired some of the topics
written by DHH and started the development. It is evident, as can also be
seen on the RoR getting started page [37] that RoR is a really quick and
easy way to build something relatively simple.
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