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The German Archaeological Institute’s (DAI) take on a field research documentation system.

Introduction

Combining features of GIS, photo management, and database management systems in a unique and integrating manner, Field aims at facilitating archaeological workflows by reducing the overhead of using multiple systems. Developed in-house by the DAI’s information technology department, it targets the needs of the institute’s excavations, older ones as well as those to come. Due to the nature of its adjustable data model and the fact it is open source software, any interested third party is free to reuse and adjust it to their needs.

The main application is currently Field Desktop, with Field Mobile as an upcoming alternative still in early development. For the time being, if you are a researcher interested in using Field, we would suggest to first have a look at Field Desktop.

While it is possible to run just one Field Desktop installation for your project on a single machine, the strength of Field is its capability for automatic database- and filesyncing between different Field Desktop installations. You find some examples for syncing setups below.

For institutions that consider using Field, we would recommend setting up FieldHub which may serve as a centralized syncing server for all your researchers.

Field Desktop

Field Desktop is the main desktop (MacOS, Windows or Linux) application for collecting data.

Installation

You can install the latest version of Field Desktop by downloading it from the GitHub releases page. Choose the installer for your operating system.

Manual

See the application's internal manual.

Syncing network examples

Here are some network topologies currently in use.

Field Desktop installations only

This setup does not require a FieldHub server installation. All researchers sync between their machines (laptops or desktop PCs) via local area network.

flowchart LR;
    A[Researcher A] <--> B[Researcher B];
    A[Researcher A] <--> C[Researcher C];
    C[Researcher C] <--> D[Researcher D];
    C[Researcher C] <--> E[Researcher E];
    A[Researcher A] <--> E[Researcher E];
    
    classDef default color:#fff
    style A fill:#008B00
    style B fill:#008B00
    style C fill:#008B00
    style D fill:#008B00
    style E fill:#008B00

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Field Desktop installations and institution's FieldHub server

If your institution wants to collect all research data centrally, you may setup a FieldHub server instance and let all your researchers sync to it.

flowchart LR;
    Hub[FieldHub Server] <--> A[Researcher A, Project A];
    Hub[FieldHub Server] <--> B[Researcher B, Project A];
    Hub[FieldHub Server] <--> C[Researcher C, Project B];
    Hub[FieldHub Server] <--> D[Researcher D, Project B];

    classDef default color:#fff
    style Hub fill:#00008B
    style A fill:#008B00
    style B fill:#008B00
    style C fill:#008B00
    style D fill:#008B00

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Field Desktop installation as a pseudo proxy server

If bandwidth is a concern on excavation, you may also use a desktop PC or laptop on site running Field Desktop as a local 'pseudo server' to collect data and facilitate syncing to your institution's FieldHub server. This will reduce redundant upload/download bandwith usage compared to the topology variant above.

flowchart LR;
    Pseudo[Pseudo Server] <-->  Hub[FieldHub Server];
    Pseudo[Pseudo Server] <--> A[Researcher A];
    Pseudo[Pseudo Server] <--> B[Researcher B];
    Pseudo[Pseudo Server] <--> C[Researcher C];
    Pseudo[Pseudo Server] <--> D[Researcher D];

    classDef default color:#fff
    style Hub fill:#00008B
    style Pseudo fill:#008B00
    style A fill:#008B00
    style B fill:#008B00
    style C fill:#008B00
    style D fill:#008B00

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Mix and match

The topologies above can also be combined.

flowchart LR;
    Pseudo[Pseudo Server, Project A] <-->  Hub[FieldHub Server];
    Pseudo[Pseudo Server, Project A] <--> A[Researcher A, Project A];
    Pseudo[Pseudo Server, Project A] <--> B[Researcher B, Project A];
    Hub[FieldHub Server] <--> C[Researcher C, Project B];
    Hub[FieldHub Server] <--> D[Researcher D, Project B];
    A[Researcher A, Project A] <--> E[Researcher E, Project A];
    A[Researcher A, Project A] <--> F[Researcher F, Project A];
    G[Researcher G, Project A] <--> Hub[FieldHub Server];

    classDef default color:#fff
    style Hub fill:#00008B
    style Pseudo fill:#008B00
    style A fill:#008B00
    style B fill:#008B00
    style C fill:#008B00
    style D fill:#008B00
    style E fill:#008B00
    style F fill:#008B00
    style G fill:#008B00

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Post-project data usage

After field research documentation has been created using Field Desktop, there are several ways to process or publish your data.

• Export CSV/GeoJSON/Shapefiles from within the Field Desktop application.
• Access the underlying CouchDB (FieldHub) or PouchDB (Field Desktop) directly. CouchDB provides its own Rest API, but there also exist native libraries like sofa for R. An example sofa implementation by Lisa Steinmann can be found here.