Online proposal applications

In the last edition of ATNF News (issue 55) we discussed a new web-based application called OPAL that will replace the current system for telescope proposal submissions. OPAL will provide a set of web-based tools to help astronomers prepare and submit their telescope proposals and will also provide additional facilities for administrators, TAC members and telescope schedulers.

A user-specification document for OPAL was released in March 2005. This was extensively reviewed and feedback from astronomers and administrators has been incorporated in the specifications. The software for OPAL is now being written and tested, using a modular approach that allows the application to be developed and tested in manageable sections. OPAL is being written using Java and the Spring Framework and uses an Oracle 9i relational database for data management. The OPAL save file format is based on the Remote Telescope Markup Language (RTML).

We plan to complete the software coding for OPAL in July 2005 and will then spend about one month testing OPAL for robustness and for user acceptance before a full release in early September. Tutorial and help files will be provided on the ATNF web pages and users of ATNF facilities will be encouraged to try out OPAL and become familiar with it. We expect that OPAL will be fully in use for the ATNF applications deadline on 15 December 2005 for the 2006APRS.

Please email any enquiries to Jessica Chapman or Chris Owen.

Jessica.Chapman and Chris.Owen
(Jessica.Chapman@csiro.au and Chris.Owen@csiro.au)