DataFinder: Organizing the Data Chaos of Scientists

Kurzfassung

The DataFinder is a data management client developed in Python that primarily targets the management of scientific technical data. Data can be attached with individual meta data that is based on a free-definable data model to achieve data structuring and ordering. Moreover, the system is able to handle large amounts of data and can be easily integrated in existing working environments. The system is based upon a client-server-architecture and uses open, stable standards. One of its main features is the extensibility using Python scripts. The talk gives an overview about the basic concepts of the DataFinder and demonstration of typical usage scenarios. Additionally, our experiences developing such a system using the Python programming language is presented, including an overview over the used Python modules, for example the Open Source Python WebDAV library developed at DLR.