Collabright

Work with people outside your GIS provider with integrated version management, approval and e-signature flow

Comment 1

Collabright

The problem

Collaborative Conservation Planning is an important process in the Jane Goodall Institute. But the GIS users face a lot of trouble when they want to collaborate with external stakeholders and subject matter experts to improve a map. The inefficiency and manual handling of the collaboration process in the Institute's current workflow is the problem that we intend to solve.

Even though they want to share an interactive mapping experience with the stakeholders, bringing people from different technical backgrounds over to a system as complex as GIS isn't the best of options. And making a work-in-progress map publicly available is not desired either.

So they have to take a screenshot/ PDF export of the map and email it to everyone. Of course, they can't interact with an image/PDF file. And they can't annotate the map inside an email either. The only way to collaborate is to send emails back and forth.

Multiple review cycles often mean going through a very long thread of emails and keeping track of which feedback have been addressed and which are left. It's very possible that some notes and comments get lost in the translation.

Since there is no structured way to keep track of progress, it becomes very difficult to get a top-level view of the overall process. This can lead to human error, disagreements, and unnecessarily lengthy review process.

Learn more about the obstacles the institute face during a Collaborative Conservation Planning process as described by Dr. Lilian Pintea in this video:

Youtube link

The solution

Banner

Collabright is a collaboration platform that sits right between the GIS and e-signature services with integrated version management, approval, and e-signature flow. It allows users to create a virtual audit based on a map and invite external stakeholders as reviewers. Reviewers can comment and annotate on each version of a map while each version and review history is kept in sync with the e-signature envelope for the final sign-off.

See the full demo: https://youtu.be/75aKAiwrdYA?t=72

Features

Simple integrations

  • 🗺️ One-click integration with ArcGIS (OAuth 2.0)
  • ✍️ One-click integration with DocuSign (OAuth 2.0)

Audit

  • 🖊️ Create an Audit based on a GIS map
  • 🔗 Only the map URL is required to create an Audit
  • ✍️ An audit will be associated with a DocuSign envelope for the final sign-off by reviewers

Version management

  • 📎 Unlimited versions of a map can be attached to an Audit
  • 🌍 Map definition is fetched from ArcGIS when a version is released
  • 🖱️ Interactive map is built based on the definition for each version
  • 🖨️ PDF version of the map is generated to update the Docusign envelope
  • 🚀 Release next version when ready
  • 🤖 The latest map will be fetched automatically when you release the next version
  • 📝 Release as many versions of the map as required
  • 💬 Annotate and comment directly on the map in each version
  • 🦖 All history associated with a version is kept
  • 👀 Switch between map versions to see the review history and comments

Reviewers

  • 👥 Invite unlimited reviewers to review Audit
  • ✍️ Signers will be able to review and will be added to the associated DocuSign envelope as recipients
  • 👌 Non-signer reviewers will be only able to review
  • 📧 Reviewers will get personal and secure review link
  • 🙅‍♀️ Reviewers will not require accounts to review
  • ✅ Reviewers are able to submit their reviews (Accept/Request Change)

Comments and Annotations

  • 💬 Both GIS User and reviewer can annotate and comment on each version of the map
  • 🖍️ Draw circles, rectangles, polygons, etc on each version of the map
  • 💭 Reply to comments and annotations
  • ✅ Resolve comments, mark as complete
  • 🦖 Can comment in a past version of the map

Instant notifications

  • 💬 Email and In-app notification to GIS user when a reviewer makes a comment
  • ✅ Email and In-app notification to GIS user when a reviewer submits a review
  • 🔃 Email notification to the reviewer when a new version of the map is released

Integrated eSignature workflow

  • ✉️ DocuSign envelope is created and Audit's metadata is added for future reference
  • ✍️ Audit Signers are added automatically as envelope's recipients
  • 🔃 Envelope is updated automatically with the latest version's PDF of the map
  • 🖊️ GIS user can open and edit the envelope manually
  • 🔐 Full privacy and control over the envelope

Adding as contact

  • 👥 Add repetitive reviewers as Contact, add name and email
  • 🔎 Added contacts can be looked up using name and email during adding as reviewers
  • 🤖 Contact automatically added when a new reviewer is invited to the system

How we built it

Source Code

This project is open-source and available under the GPL-3.0 License.

Clone using Git

Clone the repository from Gitlab

git clone git@gitlab.com:mehamasum/collabright.git

Server Setup

Python 3.6 or later needed.

  • goto project root
    cd YOUR_PROJECT_ROOT_DIRECTORY

  • setup python virtual environment for project
    virtualenv -p python3.6 .venv

  • activate virtual environment
    source .venv/bin/activate # for linux
    .venv/Scripts/activate # for windowns

  • set environment variables
    cp .sample.env .env

  • Make sure postgress is running and set DATABASE_URL in .env

  • Make sure mailhog is running and set EMAIL_* in .env
    docker run -p 8025:8025 -p 1025:1025 mailhog/mailhog

  • Make sure redis is running and set REDIS_URL in .env
    docker run -p 6379:6379 redis

  • install backend (api) dependencies
    pip install -r requirements.txt

  • migrate database with the application models
    python manage.py migrate

  • run backend server
    python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000

  • run celery celery -A collabright worker -l INFO

Client Setup

Node.js 10.13 or later needed.

  • install frontend dependencies
    npm i

  • run dev server
    npm start

What's next for Collabright

  • Search with ElasticSearch
  • More secure Webhook deployment
  • Some small TODO features

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