Potential features to be added

[MikkoVihtakari]

BioticExplorer (BE) is soon to go under institute-wide beta testing. There will likely be numerous feature suggestions for the app. I list ideas for improvement with thoughts about them here. If you have a feature request, please list it under and I will add it to the list.

• Optimize database data collection. At the moment BE collects (loads to memory) the data after the fetch data step. Then each operation uses lazy_dt() to do operations on already assigned memory and collects the data.tables to memory once the operations are done. These operations are repeated all over the script. This is hardly the optimal way and one could try to optimize the approach. How much the optimization would save time and memory should be profiled first. This is an advanced task and requires Ibrahim's magic.
• Add all figures to download. Individual figures still missing.
• Add snapshot information. Ibrahim.
• Improve growth models under Individuals & ages -> Species plots. Mikko.
• Add ICES areas and Cruise series. Ibrahim.
• Add gear categories. Mikko.
• Add hierarchical data tables. This request comes within the StoX project team and it is uncertain whether it has value. A list of column names for each Biotic data table is required. Please convince us ;)
• Add length distribution under Individuals & ages -> Species plots. Mikko.
• Improve Individuals & ages overview. Mikko.
• Find a server for the app that can support institute-wide use. Ibrahim.
• Make support for cruise report templates. This suggestion came from Johanna. I suggest making a good figure export functionality instead and letting people paste the figures in their reports. One could keep the "Cruise report" radio button and make it select figures that most people would like to have in their cruise reports as a shortcut.
• Make unit conversions to work for database data. I still think it is better to convert the units in the code than to the database as vectorized calculations take almost 0 seconds with data.table. Added columns increase the file size. Maybe Ibrahim has an opinion on this?

[MikkoVihtakari]

Hierarchical data tables added: bb6bed9

They are still likely bugged.

[MikkoVihtakari]

Improve individuals & ages overview: 091ae87

Might require age data overview figure still.

[MikkoVihtakari]

Add snapshot information: 14de620

Also improved the indexing and associated boxes. These features are now complete.

[MikkoVihtakari]

Improve growth models: 3a5b40b

Could still be improved but must be good enough for now. This update introduces more crashes that have to be evened out as they come.

[MikkoVihtakari]

Add length distribution and finish Individuals & ages figures: ea257f9