The EDIS is the second generation of a system designed to produce and control a document containing large amounts of text in combination with tables and graphs of mathematical/scientific data. The first generation system proved the concept, but the slow, unfriendly user interface resulted in an effort to find an off-the-shelf product to improve the interface capability while maintaining the system requirements. The basic design of that first system was combined with the hypertext concepts inherent in HyperCard to generate the most usable EDIS. Currently in the latter stages of design, the EDIS promises to be the first step in the automation of the process required for defining complete packages of Life Sciences experiments for the Shuttle missions

Brans, Henry

Moorhead, Jane

English

NASA Technical Reports Server

N91-2!941
EXPERIMENT DOCUMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM (EDIS)
EVOLUTION
JANE MOORHEAD & HENRY BRANS
HOUSTON APPLIED LOGIC
HOUSTON, TEXAS
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19910012628 2020-03-19T19:00:29+00:00Z

EXPERIMENTDOCUMENTINFORMATIONSYSTEM (EDIS)
EVOLUTION
ABSTRACT
The EDIS is the second generation of a system designed to
produce and control a document containing large amounts of
text in combination with tables and graphs of
mathematical/scientific data. The first generation system
proved the concept, but the slow, unfriendly user interface
resulted in an effort to find an off-the-shelf product to
improve the interface capability while maintaining the sys-
tem requirements. The basic design of that first system
was combined with the hypertext concepts inherent in Hyper-
card to generate the much more usable EDIS. Currently in the
latter stages of design, the EDIS promises to be the first
step in the automation of the process required for defining
complete packages of Life Sciences experiments for the
Shuttle missions.
I. EXPERIMENT DOCUMENT AUTOMATION - BACKGROUND
The Life Sciences Experiment Document (ED), under control of
the NASA/JSC Project Engineering Branch of the Life Sciences
Project division describes a single experiment to be flown
on a Shuttle Spacelab mission. It defines all functional
objectives, inflight equipment, consumables, measurements,
ground support, and test sessions, along with the expected
results of the experiment. Preflight, postflight and train-
ing .requirements also are a part of the ED. Working with
Life Sciences engineering support, the Principal Inves-
tigator (PI) builds the ED using the "ED - Format and
Instructions" document as a guide. The ED consists of six-
teen chapters plus appendices. The fixed, or boilerplate,
text contained in some sections of the ED applies to any
Life Sciences experiment and references table formats that
are completed by the PI with experiment-specific text and
mathematlcal/scientific data. Other sections of the ED con-
tain experiment text that is tailored for each experiment.
The ED is placed under configuration control in three
phases, with about one third of the document placed under
control following the experiment definition phase, another
third placed under control at the Preliminary Design Review,
and the final third placed under control at the Critical
Design Review. One facility, the STI Center, is charged
with the responsibility of documenting changes requested b 7
the ED authors and approved by the Configuration Control
Board.
One of the major difficulties of ED generation using only
word processing methodologies was the manual update and con-
trol of pieces of related information occurring in multiple
locations, and in the case of some numerical data embedded
in algorithms or graphics. The LSPD requirement to provide
effective and reliable PI support for an increasing number
of experiments led to their decision to automate the
processes for defining, modifying, and printing ED's.
2. AUTOMATED LIFE SCIENCES EXPERIMENT DOCUMENT (ALSED) -
THE FIRST GENERATION
The initial automation of the ED and the experiment descrip-
tion was designed on a micro-VAX, using Datatrieve, Forms
Management System (FMS), and FORTRAN. This system verified
the capability of combining large amounts of text with math-
ematical data to produce an ED, while maintaining data in-
tegrity and configuration control. However, there were
limitations to the system, including slow interactive
response during execution of the data base management system
interface and the requirement for all data to be entered via
terminal access to a host computer. Additionally, and of no
small importance, the system did not include a state-of-the
art user interface.
3. EDIS - THE CURRKNT GENERATION
Investigation of other ways to address the same requirements
led to the choice of an implementation using Macintosh Hy-
perCard. For the second generation of ED automation, the
strengths of the ALSED system design were combined with a
state-of-the-art user interface.
The EDIS will be implemented in three major phases (Figure
3-1). Phase 1, currently in progress, automates the Pl ex-
periment definition process, as well as some elements of the
configuration control function. In Phase 2 the EDIS user
training will be initiated and automation of the configura-
tion control functions will be completed. Phase 3 will in-
clude implementation of a data base management capability,
designed to store multiple ED's and to print specialty docu-
ments relating information from multiple experiment descrip-
tions.
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Products for printing high quality documents for publication
have not been selected. A final determination regarding
whether to use a Macintosh based data base management
capability, or to implement this final phase on a main frame
is still under consideration. However, the plan is to use
products that interface with HyperCard, avoiding interfaces
requiring extensive application programming. The user help,
training, and general EDIS information will be designed to
resemble a "standard" Apple/Macintosh product, to take maxi-
mum advantage of user familiarity with personal computers.
4.0 EDIS DESIGN DESCRIPTION
The EDIS interface to the Pl user consists of two major
components: I) the experiment description, and 2) the ex-
periment document, or ED. In response to EDIS requests for
information, the user will describe the experiment, and that
information will be reflected in the tables and graphs
within the document. The ED text will be available for
viewing and for editing, also.
The experiment is provided to the PI user on a diskette,
"checked out" of the STI Center. The home card contains
buttons providing access to the experiment description and
the "paper" ED, plus orientation and installation informa-
tion.
4.1 Define And Modify Experiment
In the EDIS, an experiment description is pictured as a set
of sessions comprised of activities requiring equipment,
measurements, samples, etc. Definition of the experiment
requires specification of all of these elements within a
sess-iqn. An element (e.g., activity, measurement, sample,
equipment, hypothesis) is defined individually, and also
contains references to other elements (i.e., an activity may
reference equipment). These references are presented to the
user as a list (e.g., a list of the equipment items defined
for an activity). The user can add to the list, delete from
the list, or move to a specific element on the list to
view/edit the detailed information about that element. The
user is prompted for all the information about all the ele-
ments required to generate the tables contained in the for-
mal, printed ED.
4.2 ED Text
The "boilerplate" text is all text within the ED that
remains relatively constant during the definition of the ex-
periment. The "boilerplate" text is included on the user
diskette when it is initially generated, and is determined
by the type of experiment. Generation of the user diskette
is a function of the configuration control process.
The ED tables of mathematical/scientific data are built from
information entered by the user during the experiment
definition. The user adds the current unbaselined experi-
ment description to the ED tables by selecting the ED table
update button on the EDIS main menu.
4.3 Configuration Control
Changes made to unbaselined elements of the experiment are
incorporated immediately into the master ED when the dis-
kette is returned to the EDIS configuration control ad-
ministrator. Appropriate Change Notices and Change Pages
are issued by the administrator, also.
The EDIS administrator builds the Formal Change Requests
from the differences between the baseline copy of the ex-
periment and the version submitted by the PI user. These
requests are then submitted to the Configuration Control
Board for formal approval. Following approval, the changes
are implemented in the baseline experiment, and a copy can
be returned to the PI user for continued inputs.
In Phase 3 of EDIS implementation,
to view experiment change status
facility.
he PI user will be able
via a bulletin board
5. EDIS - THE NEXT GENERATIONS
Following implementation of EDIS Phase 3, consideration
will be given to providing a multimedia capability for in-
cluding graphics and photographs in the ED. The EDIS logic
will be expanded to aid the PI user in entering information
specific to his particular experiment. The data base con-
cept of storing and sharing experiment information may be
extended to other aspects of LSPD mission definitions. Ap-
plication of the EDIS concept to the Life Sciences require-
ments for Space Station will be investigated.
Acknowledgment: This work is supported by the Life Sciences
Experiment Division, NASA/JSC.



Experiment Document Information System (EDIS) evolution

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