Avicenna 
Location Data Visualisation and Editing
[About] [Download] [Features] [Why] [State of development] [Technologies] [About the name]
What is Avicenna?
TopAvicenna is an application for the consolidation and visualization of location data. Locations can be imported from CSV and Excel-Spreadsheets. Avicenna allows arbitrary data to be attached to the locations and automatically consolidates locations with the same (automatically corrected) address from multiple sources. Imported data can be edited and finally exported to static images, tables or an interactive HTML document using JavaScript which can be embedded into your webpage or used in presentations.
Screenshots can be found on the the SF-Project page
Where can I download it?
TopOn the SF download page, you'll find
- avicenna_build.zip: A package containing the complete prebuilt application. It allows you to jump right into Avicenna without getting a headache. This also contains the streetData.db
- avicenna_src.zip: A repository snapshot, useful for development.
In any case you'll need the streetDb.db.bz2 which you'll have to extract into the "backend" directory (the pre built version already contains the database). This geocoding database is currently limited to Germany, so you may need to create your own one.
We also have prepared a short installation and development guide, you can find here.
What can Avicenna do?
Top Avicenna has the following features:- Import of CSV, XLS and XLSX tables, with arbitrary columns, as long as they contain (parts) of the address of the location
- Cleanup and consolidation of location addresses using either an online service or a street data db (db for Germany is available)
- Visualisation of the data as table and on an interactive map
- Multiple filter systems, from easy-to use to advanced logic trees
- Export of CSV, PNG and interactive HTML
- Database dump as internal format or as Excel document
- Can be used either as a desktop application or a web-application, as the application is built upon web technologies
Why was it created?
Top Avicenna has been created as part of the course "Techniken der Projektentwicklung" ("Techniques of Project Development") at Bielefeld University in the summer semester 2012 by "Team 2". The goal was to create an application that would allow a local christian charitable to organize their location data and visualize it for internal presentations.What is the state of development?
Top The application is considered to be fully usable, all available features are tested and work. You are encouraged to use the application, but please keep in mind that this was a student project that is now finished. We are not available for technical support, bug fixing or further development. Yet we hope that you may find this application useable. If you want to continue developement please contact the project administrators.Which technologies does it use?
TopAvicenna consists of a frontend, which is written in JavaScript entirely, and a Java-backend using the "play"-framework the frontend connects to. The backend does not deploy the frontend, which (in the default setup) resides in the file system. Yet you can easily make the frontend available with a webserver and let it connect to a central backend instance.
In order to provide a "desktop-like" user experience (where this is wanted), we have created a launcher written in Java that starts the frontend in the XULRunner and automatically connects it to the backend.
Why is the project called "Avicenna"?
TopAvicenna was a Persian polymath who is considered one of the most influential scholars of the so called "Islamic Golden Age". Later parts of his work were even translated to latin and spread over the western world.
Just as Avicenna's work was ahead of his time, and can be seen as a "bright light" compared to the "dark" christian medieval europe, we hope that our application will enlight you and your data!
Avicenna is Licensed under the AGPL v3.