Genotrack 2 - the G2 project

What is G2?

G2 is the next generation of Genotrack.

Why G2, why not just continue with the existing platform?

We've been working in our current database platform for some time. In the last 40 months, we've done more than 150 releases of Genotrack 1.x - some major, some minor. 

Over time, and particularly recently, it's becoming apparent that we want (and our clients want) features that are difficult to deliver on our current platform.

And the technology is improving all the time - it possible to do now things that were impossible not long ago, and we want to leverage these news technologies to ensure we're bringing you the best tools and the best user experience.

So we've elected to make a change.

After careful evaluation, we've selected a new, flexible deployment platform which has a number of advantages, including:

• The new platform allows us to deploy to all these platforms from a single code base:
  • Web based client - no installation issues, no upgrades.
  • Mac and Windows desktop clients - a web installable, auto-updating desktop version of the application.
  • iOS/Android deployment - one of the most common questions we get is: "does the software run on iPad?". It will - soon.
• Backend options and scalability - down the track, we will have the ability to deploy Genotrack using a range of backend databases. This gives us more option to scale the database and to integrate with your IT departments existing server farms and backup regimes (less hassle for/from your IT department)
• Better source control - the new platform integrates better with our development tracking systems, and has full support for version control (this is good for us).
• Better access - there are a number of issues with the current version which are directly tied to the underlying platform. The new platform will give us better control at all levels of the system, letting us root out some of the lower level issues that in the current platform we've had to rely on the vendor to fix (which hasn't always happened).
• More standards based - much of the platform we've chosen is open source, which means a huge number of people contributing useful capabilities to the underlying platform, and more options for integration with other systems.

And there's more, but I won't bore you with the geeky details 

The Roadmap

We previewed a very early version (proof of concept) of G2 at the ANZLAA conference in Hobart last year, and the initial feedback was good.

In late 2011, our we demoed the G2 Alpha 1 version to a few clients.

Today, we're releasing the G2 Alpha 2 version for initial testing. If you want to be involved in the testing and evaluation of G2, please contact us.

We're now in the process of developing and releasing "alpha" versions of the software to select clients. These G2 alpha releases are early pre-release (ie: not ready for production use) which we're using to get feedback on the direction we're taking, and to encourage suggestions and feedback on the product as we develop it. As always, you the client drive the direction of the software - tell us what you want and need, and we'll do our best to make it so.

While the timeline is still somewhat fluid, the current plan is as follows:

• 2012 - Q1 - Alpha Phase - preview and conceptual testing (limited access release).
• 2012 - Q2 - Beta Phase - feature set and implementation testing (wider testing access).
• 2012 - Q2/3 - GM Release - final candidate(s) released to testers prior to 1.0 version.
• 2012 - Q3/4 - Genotrack 2.0 Release - first "production" release.
• 2013 - Feature parity with Genotrack 1.x - Genotrack 1 deprecated.

We will obviously refine these dates as we progress, this is just a "ballpark" estimate.

All this is happening in parallel to our support for the existing Genotrack, though as we move forward, new functionality and features will be preferentially added to the G2 platform

The Transition

Transition sucks - we know that.

But another good feature of the new platform is that it can talk to our existing backend.

This gives us time. It means we can develop features for the new version in parallel to the existing code base, until such time as we reach parity between the two versions. At that point, we'll begin to transition to the new platform, and will no longer support the older version. So don't panic, we're not rushing into it, and we will work with you to ensure the transition (when it comes) is as smooth as possible. It's quite likely you'll have the option of running the two versions in parallel for some time.

In the meantime, you'll start to see new features being delivered in a cut-down version of the web client. The first of which will be the new researcher module, giving researchers a project based view of their animals, rather than the "traditional" colony based view. You'll hear more about that soon.

We will also be transitioning the reporting module into the web sooner rather than later, as it gives us better flexibility and the ability to potentially customise report delivery for individual clients.

How can you help?