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Filename: readme.txt
Author: Wiebe de Boer
E-mail: wiebe.deboer@deltares.nl
Latest revision: 20-09-2012
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RELEASE NOTE 20/9/2012: With the new free version of PART of 17/8/2012, use 'none' for the TAU file entry in the HYD file! This is a bug in PART that will be resolved.

Introduction:

IDT states for Interactive Dredging Tool(IDT). The IDT is developed within the Building with Nature (BwN)
program working package SI3.5 as a rapid assessment tool for dredging companies to assess the impact of 
their dredging operations on the coastal ecosystems (focussing on Singapore).

The application consists of 9 different modules:
1. General User Interface (GUI)
2. MATLAB Backbone
3. Dredge Input
4. Hydrodynamic and Sediment Background Conditions
5. Dredge Plume Dispersion
6. Ecology (Species Response Curves)
7. Ecological Stresses
8. Ecological Assessment
9. Presentation Module

In the first instance this readme will focus on the setup of the GUI and the MATLAB backbone.

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Setup of the GUI:

The GUI consists of standard MATLAB GUI elements with a web application embedded into it. The web application
is based on the OpenEarth Viewer developed by BwN working package DM1.3 (see http://viewer.openearth.nl). Its
main feature is a Google Earth interface that allows for insightful visualizations both in space and in time.
In the IDT we only use a very thin layer of the web application (in the interface allows the user to add a 
track of a dredging operation and visualizes the impact of the dredging operation on coastal ecosystems). For
more information on the general set-up of the web application is referred to the user manual of the OpenEarth 
Viewer (http://...).

To enable communication between MATLAB and the web application, the following things are important:
-	MATLAB communicates to the web application using activeX control (used for refreshing the web application
	and fetching kml's)
-	The web application communicates to MATLAB using a mlabwrapper. This wrapper allows a python based web
	application to call MATLAB functions. For more information on the mlabwrapper, please have a look at the
	user manual of the OpenEarth Viewer (http://...).
- 	To ensure that the web application is communicating with the same MATLAB instance where the MATLAB GUI is 
	running from, MATLAB needs to be made Automationserver. This enables the web application to manipulate data 
	in the MATLAB workspace. 

For running the web application on your pc, the following (free) software needs to be installed:
-	python
-	Pylons
-	mlabwrap
Installation guidelines can be found on: 
http://publicwiki.deltares.nl/display/OET/Your+own+web+application+-+Getting+started

For running the IDT on a physical MapTable (touch screen), also onscreen keyboard functionality (freeware) has 
been added to the tool.

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Set-up of the MATLAB backbone (main directory):

The MATLAB 'backbone' is a set of (general) MATLAB functions (located in the ..IDT\matlab\main directory) which 
facilitate the communication between the web application and MATLAB GUI on the one hand and between the MATLAB GUI 
and underlying IDT modules on the other hand. Most of these functions are callbacks of the GUI elements, which 
couple a certain action to the user input. The set-up of these set of functions should be as generic as possible,
so that they can be called from any module at any step in the workflow.

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MATLAB interfaces between different IDT modules: