See also:
In order to organise the Bebras International Workshop, a lot of information is needed about the participants, concerning their background as a member of the community and their preferences for (accommodation during) the workshop. Traditionally, this information is gathered through several web-based forms (Google forms, say) that are filled in by the participants in the weeks before the workshop.
This web application aims to streamline this process by
The data will be stored in a database, which can be consulted online or from which subsets can be extracted in the form of Excel worksheets, by certain authorised users. Data remains stored over the years, so that participants need not fill in the same information every year.
The data stored falls into three different categories
Personal data Full name, email address, country. This information is used to identify the participant.
Background as a member of the community. This data is used by the task handling committee (THC) to set up working groups.
Preferences Accommodation, dietary requirements, etc. This information is used by the host country to make arrangements for the international workshop.
Important in this division is who has access to this data, the THC, the host, or both.
Note that the system treats the last two categories in a very similar way, so it is perfectly feasible to add a category in the future.
In 2025 only the THC part of the system will be implemented, as the host (South Korea) has already its own system in place to gather accomodation preferences.
We consider two types of user
Regular users can be granted extra privileges (see below).
Accounts for temporary users will be disabled after an event. Regular user accounts can also be disabled, e.g., when they have left the Bebras community.
In 2025 only regular users will be supported by the system.
Users can be granted certain privileges which allow them to perform certain actions. Privileges are granted only for the running year and can be restricted to one data category.
Basic Can see/edit their own data. Essentially everybody who is registered with the system has this privilege,
Overview Can see who of their country is participating in the workshop. Regular users have this privilege.
View data Can view/download the data for a specific category. Typically, all THC members will be given this privilege for the category ‘background’ and workshop organisers from the host country will be given this privilege for the category ‘preferences’. (It is possible to grant this privilige to a user, e.g., a board member, for more than one category.)
Edit forms Can edit the forms used to request information. Typically, one or two members of the THC will be given this privilege for the category ‘background’ while one or two works shop organisers will be given this privilege for the category ‘preferences’.
View personal data Can see names, email addresses and countries for all users (and not only for users of the same country).
Register new users (See also below) Can register new regular users (i.e., send a registration invite - see below). Can also obtain a list of all registered users. Distinguished between only for their own country vs. for any country.
Admin Can assign/revoke privileges to/from users. Can reset the system between subsequent workshops.
Do we allow users with a given privilege to grant that privilege to others? E.g., can one work shop organiser grant the rol of ‘view host data’ to another person? Should we split the admin privilege into smaller parts?
Note that users must indicate each year whether they will participate in the task editing process (if not, they are classified as accompanying person) and whether they need accommodation. The latter will be the case for most participants, but as we keep a history of previous years, the fact that a user is registered with the system does not necessarily imply that they will participate in the workshop.
As the web application will be used only a few times per year we would prefer not to use a password authentication system, as most people tend to forget passwords for this type of application and need to click the ‘forgot password’ link anyway. So we cut out the middle man:
To authenticate, people have to type in their e-mail address and click a submit button. This sends a mail to that email address with a link they can use to access the system. This link is valid for only a short amount of time (say, 20 minutes) and can be used only once.
Once logged in, the session remains active until no actions have been performed for a certain period of time (say 24 hours). Hence, the fact that the login link is only short-lived should not be a problem.
Time will tell whether we should also provide an alternative way of authentication for users that need frequent access (administrators) or for whom emails from the system tend to arrive in their spam folder…
New users are added to the system by being sent a ‘registration invite’ by someone with the correct privileges. (Note: this is not a formal invite to participate in the international workshop!)
Regular users can only be invited by someone of the same country with registration privileges, typically, the Bebras representative of that country. Temporary users can be invited by any registered regular user of that same country. Temporary users can not themselves invite other people. There are a few (admin) users that have the privilege to invite people independent of country.
To invite a person, you enter their email address in the system (and press a button). The system then sends an email to that person with a link that allows them to complete their registration (and enter their full name).
Registration of temporary users is disabled in the 2025 application.
Only an English language user interface is provided.
This is important for technical reasons - internationalizing a web application which originally was not intended to be, is an enormous amount of work. A single language application is much easier to program.