Move extra bits from old README to other files

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ The following is a set of guidelines for contributing to Paricia, a Python-based
 
 - [Installing Paricia](#installing-paricia)
 - [Tests](#tests)
+- [Synthetic data](#synthetic-data)
 - [Continuous integration](#continuous-integration)
 
 ## Code of Conduct
@@ -150,10 +151,11 @@ While the prerequisites above must be satisfied prior to having your pull reques
 If you want to install Paricia from scratch, follow the steps below:
 
 - Run `docker-compose up --build` (requires [Docker](https://www.docker.com/) to be running)
+- After downloading and building the images, Paricia should now be available via a web browser in `http://localhost:8000/`.
+- Create **admin** user running `python manage.py createsuperuser`.
 - If you want to load initial data (variables, units, stations...):
   - In a separate terminal run `docker exec -it <name_of_docker_container> bash` e.g. `docker exec -it paricia-web-1 bash` to start a bash session in the container. You can find the name of the container in the Docker Desktop GUI, or by running `docker container ls`.
   - Run `python manage.py shell < utilities/load_initial_data.py`.
-  - Create **admin** user running `python manage.py createsuperuser`.
 
 ### Tests
 
@@ -165,6 +167,16 @@ For that to work, development-related dependencies needs to be installed. To do
 python -m pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
 ```
 
+### Synthetic data
+
+Synthetic data can be added to the database for benchmarking purposes using one of the scenarios in `utilities/benchmarking` or creating one of your own. To do so:
+
+- Populate the database with some initial data for the `Station`, `Variable` and all the required models (see the *Getting Started* section).
+- Install the development dependencies (read the *Tests* section)
+- Run your desired synthetic data scenario.
+
+If you run one of the built in ones, you should see a progressbar for the process and, if you log in into the Django Admin of Paricia (`http://localhost:8000/admin`), then you will see the records for the `Measurements` model increasing.
+
 ### Continuous integration
 
 Pre-commit hooks are set up to run code quality checks (isort and black) before committing. To run these locally, you will need to `pip install pre-commit` then `pre-commit install`. Now, quality assurance tools will be run automatically with every commit.

docs/code_structure.md

@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+# WIP: Database and code structure
+
+## The database is split into several applications
+
+- **Station:** Everything to do with physical stations including their location, region, ecosystem etc.
+- **Sensor:** Information on physical sensors including brand and type.
+- **Variable:** Information about measured variables including units, max/min allowed values etc.
+- **Importing:** Entries are created in this app when datasets are imported, storing information on the the raw data file itself, the user, time of import etc.
+- **Formatting:** Definitions of the different file formats that can be imported, including specifics around delimiters, headers etc.
+- **Measurement:** The actual time-series data is stored here when raw data files are imported. A separate model (table) exists for each variable type.
+- **Management:** User management.
+
+## Non-obvious links and associations
+
+- A `DataImportTemp` object is created when a data file is initially uploaded and functions are run to check its validity and the time range, variable type and station involved, and therefore whether any data would be overwritten. A `DataImportFull` object is created to confirm the import, creating entries in the Measurement app. Each `DataImportFull` is related to one `DataImportTemp` object.
+- Each `Sensor` is linked to a `Station` and the `Variable` it measures via the `SensorInstallation` object.
+
+## Project structure
+
+- The top-level directory contains various config files and directories for git, github, docker and pip.
+- Each django app is in a subdirectory and `djangomain` contains the main django settings, views and urls.
+- The `static` directory contains the static files for the project.
+- The `templates` directory contains the templates for the project.
+- The `utilities` directory contains helper functions for the project.
+- The `tests` directory contains all unit tests for the project.

docs/contributing.md

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{!CONTRIBUTING.md!}