How would you collect data (text, images, links) from 50+ people?

[msbt]

Hi there!

I got asked if I could build something for an event and did a bit of research, but couldn't find an out-of-the-box solution. Since this is the only online community that I'm active, I thought I would try and ask if someone already has done something and/or can point me in the right direction.

The inquiry was about a virtual art installation (due to covid) where 50+ countries are supposed to present at least one (and up to five(!)) projects - probably ~100 in total, which will be presented on an external platform. This means I have to collect and store various information about the projects, like images, text and links to videos (vimeo, youtube) which then will be implemented in an external platform. They should be able to edit their submissions at least until one week prior to the event.

The questions are

• How would you set up the user management? I still don't have all the details, if there is one person managing all projects for each country or if there are multiple, but there will probably be 50+ accounts. Would you create one account per country which manages everything, or no accounts at all, but tokens or pin-codes or something like that to identify? It should be as painless as possible for people to submit data, but also robust.
• Do you know of a CMS/platform that can easily be modified to take care of that and also has an API to query and use the collected data? I mean, technically it's just an uploadform that stores images and links to it and text, related to a project, which is related to a country.

I did play around a bit with strapi, a headless cms which has a nice GraphQL API, but I would need to build a frontend for that and figure out the user registration process.

Thanks in advance for any pointers!
Cheers, M

[murgero]

I assume the Lychee app doesn't do what you need?

[girish]

@msbt I think Directus? Essentially, you can define a database and then a schema. Then you can use people to enter data. Then you can build something on top of it since it provides a REST API to the data. I don't know how well it works in practice though. Maybe @marcusquinn has experience here since he had initially requested the app.

[msbt]

@murgero not really, Lychee is just a photo management tool, right?

@girish ah cool, seems that Directus does pretty much the same as strapi, gonna check that out as well, although, strapi seems to be a bit more popular, but I'll keep this updated.

[girish]

@msbt If you are packaging strapi, that will be awesome.

Directus also decided to rewrite their full stack with nodejs. So, Directus 10 is totally different from the one we have in the app store right now.

[msbt]

@girish I've already packaged it, but I'm not quite sure if it's the way to go and some things are quite hacky. The old repo is here, I'll push an update of the app to the latest version in the next days, did some changes and small improvements, but node stuff isn't my specialty

[marcusquinn]

I guess anything is possible with enough time, and with Strapi or Directus you'd be looking for a nice JamStack theme for the frontend.

Or see if there's something already out there you could make it more than just a one-time thing?

• https://alternativeto.net/software/artsy/about/
• https://www.artsy.net
• https://artsy.github.io/open-source/

Or Wordpress with Custom Post Types & Advanced Custom Fields? It'd open you up to a zillion theming options.

• https://wordpress.org/plugins/post-types-unlimited/
• https://wordpress.org/plugins/advanced-custom-fields/

[marcusquinn]

Maybe consider LimeSurvey or a Nextcloud dropbox for gathering the data. Experience tells me these sorts of projects aren't worth a load of custom dev, unless you're looking for a project to use as motivation to package a stack you'd always wanted to work with anyway.

[msbt]

@marcusquinn said in How would you collect data (text, images, links) from 50+ people?:

Maybe consider LimeSurvey or a Nextcloud dropbox for gathering the data

that is true, we probably have to do some editing on the content anyways, but since we're planning to make this a recurring thing, it would be nice to create something reusable that works and scales.

[marcusquinn]

@msbt Yeah, nice project. If it were me I'd be thinking:

• Get the job done - WP
• Learn a new stack - JAMStack, I like Directus a lot, and maybe an excuse to use Gatsby or Hugo, both I keep meaning to getting around to exploring.
• Follow the leader - Artsy

Guess you'll know what's for you, but hope it helps perhaps narrow down some options that all seem at-least plausible for a result.

[robi]

@msbt How about using NodeBB with relevant categories for the countries + projects?

It handles text images and links, just like we do here.

[girish]

@robi that's a great ! Forums also has post history, edit, moderation, API etc. And easy enough for users to do data entry.

[msbt]

@robi nice, a forum is indeed in interesting approach, but maybe a bit tricky to filter textblocks from images, videolinks and such, because there's no given format. But I'll explore that possibility (here's the api link to this topic)

[scooke]

@msbt I recently used Nextcloud for something similar and it was sooo nice to be able to make an upload folder for different people, and them only. And then it was all on one central site making it easier for me to use the images and txt files they uploaded. Plus, you get to either buy a cool new domain, or use a subdomain of the cool domain you already have for the event. Makes it seem more "professional" to me.

[robi]

@msbt said in How would you collect data (text, images, links) from 50+ people?:

@robi nice, a forum is indeed in interesting approach, but maybe a bit tricky to filter textblocks from images, ...

This can be done by categories and topics. text topics and image topics segregate them for example.

Similarly a Surfer directory structure letting people upload to the appropriate place is also a possibility. Shared login or otherwise.

[navin]

@msbt Maybe GlideApps? Particularly if the files are not very big (space is expensive on Glide). Very simple to create and maintain (given that it runs off Google Sheets). Happy to help as I have created a few of these apps.

Or Backendless? It has a Drag n Drop UI builder + a stable backend.

[jdaviescoates]

I recently came across this app which sounds like it could be useful for this too:

"Simple, Robust and Powerful Tools For Data Collection"

https://www.kobotoolbox.org/
https://github.com/kobotoolbox
https://github.com/kobotoolbox/kobo-docker
https://github.com/kobotoolbox/kobo-install

I'm going to add it to the wish list now...

[msbt]

@jdaviescoates thanks, gonna check it out soon!

Also thanks @navin and @scooke, I'll gather more information on how and what I have to collect, some ideas might not work because there's a max lenght of text and such (which I'm not yet sure if there is, but there are some limitations I reckon).

[seeker]

@msbt
I am not sure what you ended up going with. But here are some thoughts. It seems like something like https://artcall.org/ might be helpful. It might have a self hosted alternative. Not sure how much customization they allow.

It might be helpful to look at what academic institutions and museums use. While there are others, here are some off the top of my head to give you an idea of what I am talking about.

https://omeka.org/
Omeka S:For institutions managing a sharable resource pool across multiple sites

Omeka Classic:
For individual projects and educators

Or something like Arches:
Arches is an open source software platform freely available for cultural heritage organizations to independently deploy to help them manage their cultural heritage data.
https://www.archesproject.org/

I would be interested in what you end up using.

[robi]

An open source alternative to Typeform.com would be great too.

Check that, we have OhMyForm on the radar.

Who wants to start packaging?