by Saeed Dyanakar and Nathan Sidles, UBC

2. SOILx:
Searchable Open Interactive Location-Based
experience

3. A VSSLR Project
To enhance soil science
education through cooperation
and innovative approaches to
teaching and learning

4. Project Objectives
• Make VSSLR geographically accessible
– Geo-locate and present the information of soil
study sites
– Aggregate information from existing online VSSLR
modules and study sites

5. Current VSSLR Solutions
Soil Laboratories
Soil Processes
Land Use Impact
Parent Material
Soil Classification
Soil Biodiversity

6. Project Requirements
• Collaborative for soil scientists and
educators
• Easy to use for end users
• Easy to maintain for admins

7. Solution: SOILx
• End users perspective (UI & Usability)
– teachers,
– gardeners,
– researchers,
– etc.
• Aggregate information from existing tools
• Web publishing, database, AR browser

8. Solution: SOILx
• SOILx presents data as:
– Aggregate data: list/map/search results
– Individual soil site data: text/multimedia
– Augmented reality

9. Solution: SOILx

10. Solution: SOILx - Mapping
• Searchable
• Relatable
• Contextualizable

11. Solution: SOILx - Soil Site Pages
• Text description
• Key facts
• Videos and images
• Expandable information
• Links to VSSLR sites
• animation

12. Solution: SOILx – Augmented Reality
• Real-world interaction
with soil data
• Wikitude
• Free AR tool
• Supported on iOS,
Android, BlackBerry

13. Technology Stack
• Database: Google Fusion Tables
• Platform: WordPress (@ UBC CMS)
• Integration: SOILx Plugin
• Maps: Google Maps
• Augmented Reality: Wikitude

14. Fusion Tables

15. Database: Fusion Tables
• Simple online data
management
• Controllable access
(especially for editing)
• Easy importing of data
• Secure
• Free*
Fusion Tables
*up to 25k requests and 250 Mb per day

16. Database: Fusion Tables
• Accessed like an online Excel sheet:

17. Database: Fusion Tables - Setup
• Requires Google
Account
• Google Drive Document
• Create Fusion Table
• Define columns

18. Database: Fusion Tables - Data
• Adding data:
• Importing from Excel
• Manual adding/editing
• Data must be cleaned by
importer!
• Data requirements
Data received
Data cleaned by
Administrator
Data loaded into
Fusion Tables

19. Database: Fusion Tables - Extracting
• Data must be extracted
for usability
• Address/key combo
for security
• Fusion Tables API
for instructions

20. Platform: WordPress
• Widely-used content
management system
• Features:
• Easy administration
• Stable technology
• Large community
• Extendible
• Secure
Databases
(users, posts, settings, etc.)
Backend
(easy administration)
Frontend
(dynamic web pages)
User Experience
(smooth administration, beautiful presentation)

21. Platform: WordPress
• Already used by UBC
• Blogs: 23,000 members
• Sites: 100s of sites for UBC
units and initiatives
• UBC already creates and
manages other plugins

22. Platform: WordPress - Setup
• Requested a site hosted by
UBC
• Associated “www.soilx.ca”
address with UBC site
• Setting up on own is easy!
• “Famous 5-minute Install”
@ WordPress.org

23. Platform: WordPress - Frontend
• What to look like?
• Friendly and open
• Customized
• Based on existing
WordPress theme
mutilated beyond
recognition with CSS

24. Integration: SOILx Plugin - Backend
• Administration
• Ability to define custom
search terms
• Ability to specify which
Fusion Table to use
• Documentation of plugin
and protocols

25. Integration: SOILx Plugin - Backend
• Data
• SOILx Search = customized
Fusion Tables extraction
• Plugin sends request to
Fusion Tables
• Plugin turns response into
WordPress data
User search:
POST request
Fusion Tables:
sends data
WordPress:
GET request
WordPress:
makes page

26. Integration: SOILx Plugin – Soil Sites
• Individual soil site pages
• Dynamically created from
complete Fusion Table row
• Form of SOILx search
• Plugin alters page content
based on data availability

27. Integration: SOILx Plugin - Aggregate
• Map/List/Search Results
• Dynamically created from
Fusion Tables columns
• Use Google Maps API to
create map, not Fusion
Tables API

28. Integration: SOILx Plugin - AR
• Augmented reality
• Requires data in ARML
format, an XML-like format
• SOILx transforms Fusion
Tables data to ARML and
sends to Wikitude

29. Integration: SOILx Plugin - Sharing
• Soil data publicly
accessible in Fusion Tables
• Plugin open source and on
github, a code repository
• Super easy to use, modify,
and extend!
• Developer happy to help

30. Demo
• End users: Web, AR
• Adding new data (collaboration)
• Administering the site

31. Useful Links
• SOILx:
www.soilx.ca
• WordPress:
www.wordpress.org
• SOILx plugin code:
https://github.com/nathan
sidles/soilweb

32. Credits
Saeed Dyanatkar
Dr. Nathan Basiliko
Chris Crowley
Dr. Angela
Bedard-Haughen
Nathan Sidles
Kent Watson
Dr. Paul SanbornJulie Wilson
Dr. Maja Krzic
Shirley Ho

33. Thank You!
soilx.ca
Saeed Dyanatkar: saeed.dyanatkar@ubc.ca
1-604-822-1816
Nathan Sidles: nsidles@gmail.com