Merit Schema

The illustration below is a logical view of the subset of the ecodata schema that is used by the MERIT application. Entities exclusive to BioCollect are not illustrated here.

Entity	Description
Project	A Project is the primary entity in ecodata. A project in MERIT will contain a series
Site	Sites are usually related to a single project but can be associated with multiple. Activities take place at a site
Activity	An activity represents work/events undertaken at a site during a period of time
Output	Outputs record data about activities
OutputMetaData	A JSON file that describes the data in an Output type and how it should be displayed in a form
ActivityMetaData	A JSON file that describes an Activity type, which Outputs are required and whether they are optional or mandatory.
Report	A Report relates to a set of activities that were performed by a Project (usually) during a period of time. Reports have a simple lifecycle where they can transition from new -> not submitted -> submitted -> approved.
Organisation	Organisations relate to a collection of project. The relationship can be as a grantee, service provider or sponsor.
Program	A Program is a collection of projects and sub-programs.
Document	Documents are a mechanism to allow files to be attached to ecodata entities. They can be informational, photo's or logos.
UserPermission	The UserPermission entity is the mechanism ecodata uses to implement an access control list (ACL) for other entities. Most permissions relate to Projects but Program and Organisations also have separate permissions
Record	Records are optionally generated from Activity and Output data. They are the mechanism via which ALA occurance data is produced for import into the ALA BioCache.
AuditMessage	All changes to data in ecodata will result an an AuditMessage being created and stored.