Data Services Newsletter

Volume 14 : No 3 : Winter 2012

SeisCode: a seismological software repository

https://seiscode.iris.washington.edu/

SeisCode is a research community repository for software used in seismological and related fields. The goals of system are to increase the discoverability of software, provide a long term home for software projects, allow authors to manage their own projects and to provide software project tools such as versioned source code management.

The system is configured to be open for read-only access, accounts are not needed to search for and access software. The project search functionality allows finding projects by keyword and description. Projects can also be browsed by category or as a complete list.

Regarding contributions, SeisCode has been designed with multiple scenarios in mind. The complexity of a project can range from a simple overview page which directs users to an external site to a fully SeisCode managed project providing source code control, issue tracking and a documentation repository. Example uses include:

  • Simple project entry: a bookmark:
    A descriptive paragraph and a link to the project site, useful for increasing discoverability

  • Source code bundles and simple documentation:
    A descriptive paragraph and downloads for bundled software and READMEs

  • Large-scale software project:
    Use source code repository, issue tracking, Wiki documentation and bundled downloads

  • A long-term home for orphaned software projects:
    Retiring? Moving institutions? Transfer software projects to SeisCode for a long-term home or update a “bookmark” for a persistent pointer.

  • Collaborative software development project:
    The central “hub” in a software development project with multiple contributors

  • Collect feedback and interact with users of your software:
    The Issue Tracking and Forum components of a project can be used to gather bug reports, feature requests and provide support. If the user base is large enough they may support each other.

The system includes many optional components for use in projects: Wiki for documentation, source code repository with access via the web or sub-version, issue tracking system, file and document repositories and more.

Registration for an account is required to create and manage projects.

To create a project and share your code with others in the research community we recommend the “getting started” tutorials available here:

https://seiscode.iris.washington.edu/projects/seiscode

The site-wide header in SeisCode provides convenient navigation:

Seiscode infographic
Figure 1: Annotated screenshot of the SeisCode website welcome page. The most important links and sections are highlighted.

by Chad Trabant (IRIS DMC)

12:26:24 v.b4412d20