Combining structured and unstructured data in a configurable web-based logbook

A typical electronic logbook is designed as a general-purpose system for recording time-ordered events and actions and, therefore, allows for a great flexibility in recording information, but the data is unstructured. To better position it in a specific context (e.g., a, test facility, a group activity log) it needs to support both structured data (keyword, authors, etc) and unstructured data (text, title, attachments) in that context. To do this, a logbook system can define a set of attributes, possibly built as a hierarchy. These application-specific attributes will be associated with each entry. To be flexible, such a system has to be configurable to allow for tailoring it to each specific environment. The paper describes a design, functionality, and experiences with WebLog, a database-configurable electronic logbook developed with the J2EE Web technology. Various functional and technical properties of the system are discussed, including views, searches, threads of entries, an automated alerting system as well as integration with other applications