(meteorobs) Visual report form: future plans and call for suggestions

[Geert Barentsen]

Hello all,

In the past weeks, IMO has received over 500 Perseid observations through
the online form at http://www.imo.net/visual/report/electronic. Thank you
very much for this! Using the form makes the data processing more efficient
and allows for features such as the on-the-fly ZHR page (
http://www.imo.net/live/perseids2007/).

The development of the report form is an ongoing effort with two goals in
mind:
1. reduce input mistakes;
2. increase usage efficiency.

To reach these goals, some new features will need to be implemented. In this
mail I will present a list of suggested features, hoping this will trigger
further feedback and contributions! (Don't be scared to open the source code
and send me patches, it is very much appreciated.)


Ideas to reduce input mistakes:
* Display the calendar date for each period as understood by the form.
* Allow users to seek and create IMO observer and location codes.
* Show a confirmation page after submitting the observation. (?)
* Check for overlapping periods. (currently not done)
* Check magnitude distribution interval times. (currently not done)
* Check for dates in the future. (currently not done)

Ideas to increase usage efficiency:
* Allow to increase the number of showers, periods and magnitude
distributions dynamically while entering data.
* Allow the F-number and shower association method to be auto-filled.

In addition, I have received the following functional suggestions:
* Allow observation copies to be sent to multiple e-mail addresses (e.g. the
local club).
* Allow offline ("ascii paste") usage.
* Take radiant drift into account when radiant positions are suggested.
* Enable online access to the observations that have been submitted.
* Allow observations to be corrected using the observer's birthdate as
password.
* Provide better support for "newcomers" that are not familiar with meteor
observing.


Let me know what you think... Any help on the development of this form is
much appreciated, as this project is limited to my free time.

Thank you!
Geert