Add username of uploader to data

[david-roper]

Content

Currently the username is attached to the data only when its collected via forms. Should this behavior be replicated in the upload feature? If so, do we assume the user logged in and uploading data is the one that collected the data as well?

[gdevenyi]

Yes, the uploader should be the one associated with the data, there isn't really another choice

[david-roper]

@gdevenyi

@joshunrau made the good point that the uploader isn't necessarily the one who collected the data. He suggested that we could implement a checkbox to provide the option to attach the username onto the data or not. What do you think?

[gdevenyi]

If the user is bulk uploading, it is likely that the original person doesn't exist in ODC at all. I don't think this is worth it. If you upload, its your data now.

[joshunrau]

If the user is bulk uploading, it is likely that the original person doesn't exist in ODC at all. I don't think this is worth it. If you upload, its your data now.

In general, I agree. However, I think that it is flawed to assume this without any user intervention. In all other cases, the person recorded is known to be the person who collected the data; the person who uploaded the data is not the same. If you are using this for, as an example, determining effect of sex on the mice, then assuming this incorrectly will confound the data. In my opinion, it is much better to be explicit and require the user to sign off on this. Otherwise, if it is unknown who collected the data (or someone who does not exist in the system), better to have it null rather than have bad data. If people want to record free form text for who collected the data, they can add a form field for that.

[gdevenyi]

How do we do this without polluting the data model. I do not want free-form text for "who collected it", as that will break the existing intention of "auto tracking the user as metadata"

[david-roper]

@gdevenyi @joshunrau I have now made a draft to pr to include this feature #1344, we can discuss whether to include the checkbox (i.e. make attaching username optional or not) before making the pr official.