Other Arches live installations

[Lucinda Fletcher-Jones]

Hi, 

I know of Mega Jordan which is an old Arches implementation and, of course, I know of Historic Places LA (which looks great) but are there any other live Arches installations that can be publicly viewed? We are particularly interested in inventories of ancient historical/archaeologicalsites. Also which other cultural heritage groups are definitely deploying Arches Version 3? We would like this information for a talk Dr. Weeks is giving so would be a good plug for Arches!

Thank you very much,

Lucy 

Theban Mapping Project

[Dennis Wuthrich]

Hi Lucy,

I know that several groups are actively working on implementing Arches v3, but don't know if any have made their web addresses publicly viewable yet.  

Cheers,

Dennis

[Adam Cox]

Hi Lucy, I've been meaning to post here about the installation I "finished" recently, so this is the perfect thread to do so.  It hasn't been officially released yet (i.e. no press release and still some small issues) but it is more or less done, and would certainly be useful for you to check out.  The official announcement will be made before too long, but members of this forum can certainly have a look. I'll give a little background info: 

I used Arches v3 to create the Cane River Heritage Inventory & Map for the Cane River National Heritage Area in Natchitoches, Louisiana (USA).  This is a very historic part of Louisiana--Natchitoches is the oldest city in the Louisiana Purchase, and the surrounding area is home to many historic plantations and a thriving Creole community.  There is also some US Civil War history.  Not much archaeological stuff though, as you are looking for.

The main impetus for the project was an effort to disseminate spatial data that had been collected for the heritage area in the past, as well as create a framework for future data collection.  Also, they have an large archive of MP3 recordings that they wanted to have in the database.   As many people are aware, having a bunch of shapefiles or an ESRI file geodatabase on a hard-drive somewhere only gets you so far when you need to make data available to the public (or simply use it). Arches serves very well as a platform that is not only publicly accessible, but also expandable.  Another motivation that I personally had was to use the map interface to serve a bunch of georeferenced historic maps.  In the US there are old fire insurance maps (by the Sanborn company) and I was able to get permission to add these maps to the interface, as well as a gorgeous series of maps captured from the Confederate army.  All that to say that Arches worked well on multiple levels for what this project hoped to accomplish.

I made some pretty substantial customizations to the basic arches-hip package, some of the main ones being the "show help" configuration, the addition of the historic maps panel, some extra basemaps that I made, and the ability to add an alternate symbology for a basemap or historic map. There's a lot to find if you poke around for a little while.  I also made some modifications to the resource graphs and redid the authority documents, and (unfortunately) kind of steamrolled the responsive design that was originally built into the HIP app--so no guarantees on how it will look on your phone.

Here is the website: crhim.canerivernha.org.  Feel free to e-mail me personally with any questions or problems.  Be patient when loading some of the historic maps, they may take a minute to cache.  If you want to check out or use the package code itself, I've put it on github here: https://github.com/mradamcox/crip (also linked at the bottom of the home page).

I also have all sorts of guides and steps that I recorded while setting up the whole thing (from image processing to hosting on Amazon Web Services) so I plan to make that stuff available pretty soon.  Again, any questions, feel free to write.

Adam

[H Pirker]

Adam, thanks a lot for sharing your Arches3 project with us! 

We are still struggling with the very basics  so it is really encouraging and inspiring to see that there are actually "real users" who managed to build "real applications" with arches. 

And yes, if you are willing to share some of your insights you gained throughout your project, this will be great. 

Cheers

Hannes

[Lucy Fletcher-Jones]

Hi Adam,

 

Thank you very much indeed for sharing your project with us, I think it is very impressive and it doesn't matter that you don't have any archaeological resources. I love the use of historical maps - the confederate ones show up better with no base map I find - and they are not so slow given that I am on a very slow internet here in Egypt. The speed of Arches is something I am concerned with because the internet infrastructure in Egypt is not so good. I think being able to view the historical maps in a different colour is a very good idea too.

I am also impressed by how it works as an app. I have browsed the web site on a PC, an iPhone and an iPad and it works well. At my age I prefer the iPad to the iPhone for a web site of this nature but it does work on the iPhone.

As I am not so technical, how difficult is it to modify the web site for both laptop PC/Mac and for mobile applications?

 

Also, thank you for sharing the package code.

 

At present our IT department, at the American University in Cairo (AUC) is installing Arches so we have not started data input yet for our project on an inventory of Egyptian Archaeological sites from Prehistoric times through to the Arab Conquest in 642. We plan to start that at the end of the summer, as with Ramadan and the heat, Egypt basically closes down during the summer!

 

From: Adam Cox

To: arches...@googlegroups.com ; luci...@gmail.com

Sent: Monday, June 01, 2015 7:27 PM

Subject: [Arches] Re: Other Arches live installations

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[Adam Cox]

Hi Lucy, I'm glad to hear that it looks good on an iPad or phone, and that you were able to check out the old maps.  Arches is originally built with all of that responsive formatting, but in my customizations to the html I know that I lost some of the functionality.  Fully supporting the responsive formatting is not super hard, it just requires a little more time (which I didn't have) and diligence.

It's fun that you are at AUC, a close friend of mine attended that school and now lives in Cairo with his wife.  I was fortunate enough to visit a while ago, and it's quite a place.  Looking forward to following your progress!

On Sunday, May 31, 2015 at 4:20:20 AM UTC-5, Lucinda Fletcher-Jones wrote:

[Bojan Kastelic]

Hi all,
I am pleased to announce my project Early Watercraft is now online. It's still work in progress (some data are still in Slovenian), but you can check it out: www.earlywatercraft.org.

The main objective of my project was to use Arches to present all Slovenian logboats. The project coincided with the first meeting of the "Global Initiative - Early Watercraft – A global perspective of invention and development" and was adapted to meet the goals of the initiative - to try out Arches as a framework for a global perspective of invention and development of Early Watercraft.

The project is based on Arches-HIP v3 which was upgraded with some additional functions (publishing workflow, data ownership, online viewer for 3D models, ...). For more information check out application help.

Bojan

[Alison Dalgity]

Greetings Bojan. 

Thanks so much for sharing your implementation of Early Watercraft.
It looks beautiful and the additional functionality that you've added to Arches (workflow, data ownership, and incorporation of 3D) are impressive, as is the documentation. I'm sure that many others will be interested in what you've achieved.

Congratulations!

Best, Alison

[Edmund Lee]

Hi all,

 

now that we have a few Arches installations live, and others in progress, would anyone like to work with me on creating a simple global map to show where Arches projects are live or are being worked on? I'm thinking something that everyone could edit rather than relying on one member of the group to do it - but I'd be happy to get things started if someone can show me how!

 

I'm thinking maybe a customised Google map, since we're using Google for this group  https://support.google.com/maps/answer/3045850?hl=en - or maybe someone knows a better solution?

 

All good wishes

 

Ed

[Alison Dalgity]

Greetings Ed and all. 

Thanks for the idea...I think it's great and I've asked our resident web guru to take a look for a map that would work. We could add links to more information and/or directly to the sites if they are public. We could also ask those who are in the process of implementation to post their locations, if they wish, which might be of interest to others in the community for a variety of reasons. We are currently putting together a "Completed Implementations" page, and anyone who would like to appear on it and have us include information about their sites and/or links should let us know. We'll send out a note once that page is live. 

And, I'll let you know what progress we make on the interactive map.

Best and thanks again!

Alison

[Adam Cox]

Hi Bojan, thanks for posting your early watercraft project!  I really like the customizations you have made, and some of them are things people have been asking about a lot--especially the draft/publish workflow and 3D model viewing.  Is there a way you could share your code so we can see how you implemented this?

Thanks again, the project looks great.

[Bojan Kastelic]

Hi Adam,
of course I will share my whole project on GitHub, but I want to finish it first (I still have to make some minor adjustments).

EDIT: Although the project is currently on hold (I hope I will resume my work later this year), I've put it on GitHub as is: https://github.com/bojankastelic/ew

To enable this publishing workflow, I included quite a few upgrades all over my project, so I hope it will be useful for others.
Roughly speaking, it consists of upgrades in the following areas:
- saving and displaying additional data for resource statuses
- data validation at resource (document) level
- displaying of validation errors/warnings
- actions for processing resource statuses
- editing restrictions for unauthorized users
- search restrictions for unauthenticated users
- additional status markers on the map

3D model viewer is much more straight-forward. It uses two open source libraries:
- JSC3D from Google (https://code.google.com/p/jsc3d)
- 3DHOP from Visual Computing Lab of ISTI-CNR (http://www.3dhop.net)

Best, Bojan

[Bojan Kastelic]

Hi all,
I have another project to share with you: Zbiva.

Zbiva is an archaeological database for eastern Alps and its surrounding regions in the early Middle Ages. According to the area, it covers the sites in Slovenia, Austria, on the NW Croatian coast, and in the NE regions in Italy, which are sometimes compared to sporadic sites from the neighbouring areas and previous era.

It consists of three large parts (which together form a concise unit):

• Sites database
• Graves database
• Artefacts (goods) database

Zbiva has been designed as a research tool and has quite a few modifications on the search capabilities. All three types of resources (sites, graves, artefacts) have additional advanced search option, which allows researchers more structured search options. As an additional possibility the map enables the user (Layers/+CSV layer) to temporary upload and analyze any data with spatial component (LAT, LON).

Zbiva is available in three languages, Slovenian, English and German. However, the free text descriptions are available only in Slovenian and the English speaking users are encouraged to use an online translation of choice.

The package code is on my GitHub page: https://github.com/bojankastelic/zbiva

Bojan

On Sunday, May 31, 2015 at 11:20:20 AM UTC+2, Lucinda Fletcher-Jones wrote:

[Adam Cox]

Hi Bojan, this installation looks great.  I really like how you have set up the search filters, and will certainly be looking through your repo to see how it's done.  Also, I'm happy to see the EW repo up and available, because the draft/publish workflow is still something I feel many people will be interested in.

[Dennis Wuthrich]

Hi Bojan,

Nice job!  Thanks for letting the community know about your work.

Cheers,

Dennis

[Vincent Meijer]

I would like to share our website with all of you: cvast.usf.edu 

Even though the database part is not live yet (working hard on our customizations), I feel I should at least acknowledge the website leans heavily on Arches and allowed me to create a fresh looking website very quickly. I will update here when the actual database is live. 

By the way, you can also follow us on Facebook for regular updates on our work! www.facebook.com/USFCVAST 

Vincent

Center for Virtualization and Applied Spatial Technologies

University of South Florida

[Edmund Lee]

Hello all,

It's been a while (2 years!) since this thread went quiet, so I thought the year end for those of us on the Gregorian calendar might be a good moment to put out a call for news of live Arches installations around the globe. Why not share a link to your Arches-based system here and bask in the glory?

Ed

[Adam Cox]

Hello Edmund!

Apologies for such a late reply to this query, because I do indeed have updates from 2018.

The biggest Arches project I finished last year was the Heritage Monitoring Scout database for the Florida Public Archaeology Network. The HMS program allows citizens to contribute condition assessments on archaeological and historic sites all around Florida, with a special focus on sites that are affected by sea level rise. It was a project that required significant alterations to Arches, mostly enhancements to the permissions system, user signup, and a dual log in system to accommodate both citizen "scouts" and state employees who will use the same system. You can read about the release here: http://fpangoingpublic.blogspot.com/2018/08/hms-florida-arches-launch.html, or visit https://fpan.us/projects/HMSflorida.php to learn more about the HMS program itself. The Arches database is https://hms.fpan.us.

Near the end of 2018 we at Legion GIS also finished a v3-v4 migration workflow while working with Hong Kong University. At present, you can see their new v4 databases at hk.legiongis.com, the Hong Kong heritage database, and yg.legiongis.com, showing heritage in Yangon. (Note these web addresses will likely change in the future.) To my knowledge, this is the first large-scale migration of v3 Arches-HIP databases to an Arches v4 environment. We are currently working to publish this workflow, which v3 users can look forward to in early 2019.

Happy New Year!

Adam

[Joel Aldor]

Hi Adam,

Thanks for this update. Looking forward to the published migration workflow very soon! :)

Cheers,

Joel

[sara...@lacity.org]

Greetings from Los Angeles,

We are excited to begin work on our migration to v4 in the very near future. HistoricPlacesLA, the City of Los Angeles’ Arches installation, is going to greatly benefit from the v3-v4 migration workflow Adam mentioned in his post.

In 2018 the Office of Historic Resources, which manages HistoricPlacesLA and provides technical expertise to the Los Angeles Department of City Planning regarding historic resources, has witnessed an increase in use of the data housed within HistoricPlacesLA and datasets soon to be part of the v4 installation. This data includes information pertaining to designated historic resources, surveyed historic resources, and resources identified as significant in relation to multiple ethnic/cultural communities within the city of Los Angeles.

As the Los Angeles Department of City Planning begins work on updating nine new community plans that guide the evolution and future development of hundreds of unique neighborhoods in the city, historic resources data is being utilized by planners to understand whole communities while also informing the vision for these neighborhoods into the future. The data is currently assisting in the creation of conservation tools that elevate community character, encompassing both architecturally and culturally significant historic resources.

We look forward to sharing more of Los Angeles’ progress with HistoricPlacesLA and the many ways our inventory is informing local planning and the conservation of historic resources.

Happy New Year!

Sara Delgadillo Cruz

[Vincent Meijer]

A while ago we launched our Arches v4 implementation for Global Digital Heritage, a non-profit organization in Florida that digitizes heritage through 3D terrestrial laser scanning and other 3D and GIS techniques.

Among their projects are crusader castles in Spain and 18th century chateaus in France, as well as museum objects from for example Greek and Roman periods. 

I added a number of viewers to the Arches reports, such as 3D HOP (3D meshed models), Sketchfab (3D meshed models), Potree (pointclouds), Virtual Tours (like Google Streetview) and Pannellum (360 photos).

Version 1.0.0 is now live and we're working hard on many improvements.

https://globaldigitalheritage.org 

Highlighted pages: 

Castilla-La Mancha project: https://globaldigitalheritage.org/report/9d3160b6-fbc5-11e8-a5fb-0242c0a8d002

Chateau La Roche-Guyon: https://globaldigitalheritage.org/report/afcf04dc-f704-11e8-b785-0242c0a8a002

Archaeological Museum of Aidone: https://globaldigitalheritage.org/report/dcbad7ae-18c5-11e9-aee2-0242ac130002

Yulee Sugar Mill (Florida): https://globaldigitalheritage.org/report/3d9934f0-14f0-11e9-b73a-0242ac120002

Enjoy! And feedback is always welcome.

Vincent

[Alina Myklebust]

Hi Vincent, I started looking through the various records and it's very impressive.  Thank you so much for sharing it here.  

Has Global Digital Heritage shared any of this on social media yet or any write-ups on their website/blog?  At first glance, I didn't come across any published content.  We would be interested in spreading the word.  Thanks again for bringing this to our attention!

Alina

Arches Project Team

[Vincent Meijer]

Hi Alina,

They do post updates on their Facebook page occasionally: https://www.facebook.com/globaldigitalheritage/

Also they have a Sketchfab account for 3D models: https://sketchfab.com/GlobalDigitalHeritage 

Although those models don't really come with write-ups. 

Youtube is here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwxvv0crLxT0NSfbGD4hSOQ

Well hidden on our website is also this overview of publications: https://globaldigitalheritage.org/publications/ 

And there is an overview of links to news reports: https://globaldigitalheritage.org/news/

Spreading the word is always appreciated! 

Vincent

[Alina Myklebust]

Hi Vincent,

Thanks for the additional links to GDH content.  We are sure the greater Arches community would be interested in learning more about the use of Arches for digitized heritage records using 3D and other GIS techniques.  I'll reach out again so we can discuss next steps to get this implementation on the Archesproject.org implementations page.  Thanks again.

Best,

Alina