Tour the interface
Erde is a single-page web application with four fixed regions: a header bar across the top, a collapsible navigation panel down the left, the content area that fills the rest, and a thin status bar across the bottom. The status bar shows live Server, Database, and Storage health on the left and the Erde version on the right. This page orients you to those regions so you know where each task lives before you start working.
What you see is shaped by your role. Five destinations are visible to every signed-in user; two more (Activity Hub and Admin) appear only for the roles that need them. See Users, roles & permissions for how roles map to access.
The navigation panel
The left panel is the top-level map of Erde. Select the hamburger button (Toggle navigation) in the header to expand or collapse it; Erde remembers the state between visits. When the panel is collapsed, each destination shows its label as a tooltip.
The destinations appear in this order:
| Order | Destination | What you do there | Who sees it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dashboard | Your landing page — an at-a-glance overview after you sign in. | Everyone |
| 2 | Imports | Bring lab and field data into Erde and review each Import before it commits. | Everyone |
| 3 | Data Analysis | Screen results, build a Crosstab, and explore data against your screening criteria. | Everyone |
| 4 | Data Management | Create and edit your core records — Sites, Projects, the directory, and configuration. | Everyone |
| 5 | Reference Data | Browse the shared catalogs (analytes, methods, units, and the like) that the rest of Erde draws on. | Everyone |
| 6 | Activity Hub | Track notifications and recent activity across your work. | Internal users |
| 7 | Admin | Administer users, system settings, audit logs, and reference-data defaults. | Administrators |
Data Management is where most day-to-day work happens; the rest of the tour focuses there.
The two gated destinations
The last two items are not visible to everyone:
- Activity Hub appears only for internal roles — Administrator, Data Manager, Manager, and Staff. When you have unread activity, the item shows a presence indicator.
- Admin sits at the bottom of the panel, below a divider, and appears only for the Administrator role.
The header controls
The header holds the navigation toggle and brand on the left, and three controls on the right.
Documentation. The book button opens this documentation site in a new browser tab, so you can read along without leaving your work.
Theme toggle. The sun or moon button switches between light and dark mode. In dark mode it shows a sun (Switch to light mode); in light mode it shows a moon (Switch to dark mode).
User menu. The button on the far right shows your first name. Open it for:
- Your name, email address, and role(s) — three read-only rows that identify the signed-in account. The role row lists every role assigned to your account.
- Account — opens your account page.
- Report Issue — opens a form to send feedback without leaving the page.
- Sign out — ends your session and returns you to the sign-in page.
Inside Data Management
Data Management opens a landing page with four tiles. The first two are anchors you pick before working with their records; the last two are catalogs of shared records.
Figure: the four Data Management tiles and what each leads to.
| Tile | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Sites | The spatial anchor — pick a Site to work with its Locations, monitoring, and field features. |
| Projects | The work anchor — pick a Project to work with its Samples, Lab Reports, and Chain of Custody. |
| Directory | Organizations, laboratories, and contacts. |
| Configuration | Data Management Plans, Screening Programs, Programs, and Equipment. |
The landing page and the Sites and Projects list pages show no left sub-navigation. Once you open a specific Site or Project, a left sub-navigation appears with that record's own sections, so you can move between its child records without leaving it:
- Site: Overview, Locations, Monitoring, Projects, Access & Admin, Documents
- Project: Overview, Sites, Access & Admin, Screening, Samples, Lab Reports, Chain of Custodies, Documents
Creating a Site or Project
To create a record, go to Data Management → Sites (or Projects), then select the grid's Add action to open the Create Site (or Create Project) form.
The Add action appears only if your role allows it: creating a Site or Project requires the Administrator or Data Manager role (a Data Steward). Deleting one is restricted to Administrator. If you do not see the Add action, your account does not have create permission.
For a guided walkthrough, see Create your first project.
Working with data grids
Most pages present their records in a grid with a common set of controls along the top:
- Search — the search box narrows the grid to rows matching your text.
- Sort & filter — select a column header to sort by it; open a column's filter menu to narrow by that column.
- Columns — the column chooser shows or hides columns, and Erde remembers your column layout for that grid between visits.
- Export — download the grid as Excel (.xlsx) or CSV.
- Add and per-row actions (a ⋮ menu, and a right-click menu on a row) appear when your role allows them.
Large data tables
The biggest tables — Samples, Locations, Water Levels, Well Purges, Logger readings, Lab Report results, and Field Parameter sessions — can hold far more rows than a browser should load at once (a large site may carry tens of thousands). These grids load one page at a time from the server, which shapes a few behaviors:
- A page-size selector (50, 100, 250, or 500 rows) sets how many rows load per page, and a row count in the footer shows the total that match your current search and filters.
- Search, filter, and sort run on the server across the whole table — not just the rows currently on screen — so you always reach every match.
- Export downloads the entire filtered, sorted set (every page), not only the rows in view. The Excel (.xlsx) format holds up to 100,000 rows; for a larger table, export CSV, which has no row limit.
- Multi-select actions such as bulk delete (where your role allows them) apply to the rows on the current page. To act on a larger set, narrow it with a filter first, or work a page at a time.