For Programmers

Scifeon is a development platform that you can use for creating highly customized data management systems for your lab.

The customization can be done at many different levels, from web-based configuration of the system through simple scripting to complex server- and client-side components. You can also add your own tables, columns and views to the database. The customization features are also integrated with a DevOps setup that enables you to automatically test and deploy updates so that new functionality can be deployed quickly and safely.

System Philosophy

Customization of the system to fit your workflows is critical to successfully realizing the potential benefits of better data management. If the system does not match your lab data to the system – typically involving a lot of manual copying-and-pasting of data and manual processing in various tools, such as spreadsheets and analysis tools.

You can save a lot of time, improve data quality and ensure data traceability with a tailored system.

Customization is done locally

We believe that system customization is best done by people close to the end user – for example, scientists with programming skills, in-house IT staff or local consultants. These are the people most familiar with your particular workflows, and they can act quickly.

We don’t try to force feed a lot of consulting activities as part of a Scifeon implementation.

Architecture

The Scifeon architecture can be visualized as a set of layers:

The foundation is a data management infrastructure and the customization framework. These parts, together with the general data editing (CRUD) functionality are the most mature elements.
We are currently focusing on building improved template support that enables web based system configuration of many features, and on the ELN and the Dashboard parts of the system.
The Spreadsheet component is currently being in the prototyping stage.
We have customized modules for managing FACS and MS (mass spectrometry) data. These can be used as examples or starting points for creating your own modules. We will gradually add more modules and better configuration support. Support for plate-based work (such as assays and molecular biology) is one of our current focus areas.

Developing Apps

There are several different ways of customizing Scifeon, all through custom apps created for your organization:

Templates for customization that doesn't require coding
Modern JavaScript, TypeScript and HTML5 to create web page elements
Custom database tables and views
JavaScript / TypeScript to create custom data processing
Complete HTTP/JSON API coverage

DevOps

We provide a DevOps infrastructure as part of the platform. You can use GitHub or another cloud version control system for your source code. And then our DevOps framework (based on Microsoft Visual Studio Team Services) can automatically run the tests in your app and deploy to test and production systems.

Software Development Kit

You can download the Scifeon SDK (software development kit) and run the entire Scifeon system (including web and database server) on your own Windows or Linux computer. Once the source code is pushed to a cloud Git repository, the DevOps system takes care of deployment to your Azure-based instance.

Cloud or On-premises

We can host Scifeon for you in Microsofts Azure cloud environment - or you can install it on-premises on your own servers

Cloud-based hosting of Scifeon is single-tenant, i.e. a separate web-server and database for each organization. Thus, you can have full access to the database.

System Parts

Scifeon consists of the following main components

A database; the default is Microsoft SQL Server, but we are planning to add support for Oracle and PostgreSQL
A webserver / middle-tier developed using ASP.NET Core 2
An HTTP/JSON based API, with OData support for querying
A single-page application front-end developed using modern JavaScript, TypeScript and HTML5
An Electron based native client for operations that require interactions with the file-system or local processes - currently at proof-of-concept stage

Essentially, what you can do through the user interface, can be done though the HTTP/JSON based API. This gives endless opportunities to integrate Scifeon into other systems - or integrate other systems into Scifeon.

Development Support

For development support, we supply

A software development kit (SDK) with a complete Scifeon instance running on your local computer
A cloud-hosted Git repository integrated with our testing and deployment pipeline
A DevOps pipeline with support for automated testing and deployment

If you prefer to host your production environment on-premises, you can still benefit from running test and staging instances in the cloud and delivering updates through the DevOps pipeline.

GIVE US A CALL

You can call us to have a chat about what Scifeon™ can do for you
or you can book a meeting to discuss the possibilities that Scifeon™ has to offer.

EMAIL US

You can also send us an email if you want to hear more about how Scifeon™ can change the way you handle data management

We provide scientists with data management systems and consulting for pharmaceutical and biotech research.

We offer unprecedented agility, flexibility and convenience to make a powerful alternative to Excel as your favorite research data management tool.

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