User office proposal handling and analysis software

TL;DR

This paper discusses the development of a modular, secure, web-based user office software for proposal handling and data management at research facilities, emphasizing security and portability.

Contribution

It proposes a flexible, extendable software architecture using common web technologies, addressing security concerns like denial of service attacks.

Findings

Designed a web-based system with Apache, MySQL, and PHP

Addressed security issues such as denial of service attacks

Focused on creating portable and modular software solutions

Abstract

At FRM-II the installation of a user office software is under consideration, supporting tasks like proposal handling, beam time allocation, data handling and report creation. Although there are several software systems in use at major facilities, most of them are not portable to other institutes. In this paper the requirements for a modular and extendable user office software are discussed with focus on security related aspects like how to prevent a denial of service attack on fully automated systems. A suitable way seems to be the creation of a web based application using Apache as webserver, MySQL as database system and PHP as scripting language.