Architecture¶
This video by Chris Callahan at UVM Extension's Agricultural Engineering Program provides an overview of the basic structural layout and architectural design of FarmOS with Michael Stenta of Farmier. farmOS uses areas, assets, logs and people as key components of its farm data management approach. Learn about how these features interact to provide a flexible platform for farm record keeping and management. Available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1wXD_K7Y_aI
Entity types¶
farmOS is architected using four Drupal entity types:
- Farm Assets
- Logs
- Taxonomy Terms
- Users
The Entity system in Drupal provides a standardized way of representing different types of objects, and includes mechanisms and APIs for adding fields, creating relationships to other entities, and performing actions when entities are created/displayed/updated/deleted. farmOS uses Drupal's entity system to represent all of its records.
The first three types (Farm Assets, Logs, and Taxonomy Terms) also use a Drupal concept known as "bundles". Bundles are essentially sub-types. Each bundle can have a unique set of input fields on it, which can be used to create different types of assets, logs, etc.
To learn more about how entity types and bundles work in Drupal, refer to An Introduction to Entities in the drupal.org handbook.
The following is a brief overview of the entity types that farmOS uses.
Farm Assets¶
The "Farm Asset" entity type is provided by the "Farm Asset" module, and is used to represent "assets" or "things" in the farm. farmOS comes with a core set of asset types, including Plantings, Animals, and Equipment - and more can be added via contributed modules.
Logs¶
The "Log" entity type is provided by the "Log" module, and is used to represent various types of events that are recorded on a farm (eg: activities, observations, inputs, harvests, etc).
The "Farm Log" module provides a core set of log types that can apply to any kind of asset. Other modules can provide more specific log types - like the "Seeding" log type, which is provided by the "Farm Crop" module.
Taxonomy Terms¶
Taxonomy Terms are a core Drupal entity type, and they are generally used for categorization and tagging of things. Taxonomy Terms are organized into "Vocabularies", and farmOS provides a number of different vocabulary types that are used throughout the system.
Users¶
Users are a core Drupal entity type, and they provide the mechanism through which you can log into the system and use it. They represent all the different people who are involved with the farm, and they can be assigned roles to grant them different levels of permission.