comparison Sphinx/source/faq/improving-interface.rst @ 0:901e8961f46e

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author Sebastien Jodogne <s.jodogne@gmail.com>
date Fri, 22 Apr 2016 12:57:38 +0200
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1 Orthanc Explorer is not user-friendly enough for my use
2 =======================================================
3
4 Orthanc is designed as a lightweight service for medical imaging,
5 where the word *service* must be understood in the sense of
6 `service-oriented architectures
7 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service-oriented_architecture>`__. As
8 a consequence, Orthanc is conceived as a robust back-end server
9 (command-line) that aims to provide the most simple and generic
10 support of DICOM. To state it differently, **the primary focus of the
11 Orthanc project is not on the user interface**.
12
13 However, Orthanc comes out-of-the-box with :ref:`Orthanc Explorer
14 <orthanc-explorer>`, its default Web user interface. **Orthanc
15 Explorer is designed for administrative, low-level purpose.** It is
16 also used by the development team to test the features of Orthanc as
17 they get introduced in the REST API. Orthanc Explorer is mainly
18 targeted towards a technical audience (notably system/network
19 engineers, `PACS
20 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picture_archiving_and_communication_system>`__
21 managers, medical physicists, and researchers).
22
23 **Non-technical audience** (physicists, patients, administrative
24 staff...) **might expect an user interface that is more user-friendly
25 than Orthanc Explorer**, and/or that integrates more features (such as
26 sorting resources, access control lists, tagging images, beautiful
27 layout...). If you need such a more advanced `user experience
28 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_experience>`__ so that Orthanc
29 better fits your clinical workflow, you will have to develop a
30 separate, custom Web interface on the top of the :ref:`rest`, maybe as
31 a `plugin
32 <https://github.com/jodogne/OrthancContributed/tree/master/Plugins>`__. Any
33 front-end Web developer could take care of this task using well-known
34 JavaScript frameworks (such as Meteor, AngularJS, Ember.js...).
35
36 It is possible that an official plugin that provides a more advanced
37 user interface will be developed in the future (provided we find
38 funding for this development). In the meantime, you can also contact a
39 company that provides **commercial support on the top of Orthanc** and
40 that might have developed an advanced user interface. Currently,
41 `Osimis <http://osimis.io/>`_ is the only company ensuring such
42 corporate services, but others might show up in the future. A `contact
43 form <http://www.orthanc-server.com/orthanc-pro.php>`_ is available on
44 the official Web page of Orthanc.