Build a Low-Cost ELN Using the Directories Pro Plugin for Data and Maps
Overview of this Website
This is an example of a WordPress Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) with geo-location capabilities that was built with some paid version of some plugins. The data in this website is from an NSF research project for testing soil samples. The project studied soil samples which contained bacteria that could break down the chemicals paraoxon or methyl parathion.
Since this is one of the few ELNs that easily incorporate the use of geo-locations and maps, this makes it a good candidate for the following types of mapping studies.
- Migrations of people, plants, and animals
- Biodiversity of plants and animals
- Mineral and energy resources
- Impacts of plants, animals, bacteria, and weather on the environment
- People groups for a number of purposes, including epidemiology, anthropology, archaeology, sociology, criminology, or econometrics
Please see our Help page for an overview of the main sections of this site.
Creating a Similar Website
Because this website uses the paid versions of some plugins, we cannot create an easy way for everyone to clone this site. But we have created some instructions for how to create a similarly functioning site. A short course of How to Build a Similar ELN covers the basics of what is required to build a low-cost ELN similar to this one. (The short course uses the free version of the Lifter LMS plugin).
To create a similar site to this one, we estimate that it will cost about $365 for the first year plus hosting costs. If you opted for less capable social networking capabilities, then you could build a similar site to this one for only a one time $95 cost plus hosting and $30 yearly. More details about costs are available on the Help page.
If such an ELN as this could meet your needs from a technical standpoint, then such an approach has numerous advantages over many other ELNs. These advantages include scaling up to hundreds of users and thousands of data points with little to no extra cost. These advantages are described in greater detail on MyLabBook.org.
Free ELN also Available
If you are more budget constrained or just want to try a free version that is similar to this ELN, then you can investigate a free Electronic Lab Notebook built with WordPress. An example of a free ELN with WordPress can be viewed at free-eln.org. Files that let you easily clone the free ELN are available at MyLabBook.org. Note that this free version uses the GeoDirectory plugin for collecting and displaying the data rather than the Directories Pro plugin that is used in the example of this ELN.
Assets Used on This Website
Unless otherwise notes, the icons and graphics have been obtained from the iconscout.com website and are licensed accordingly.