Contents

Dashboard Documentation

The Solar Forecast Arbiter Dashboard is a web interface for managing solar observation and forecast data and for evaluating solar forecast accuracy. This documentation provides step-by-step examples of how to perform common activities on the Solar Forecast Arbiter dashboard. Use the Contents menu to navigate between each activity. Each section includes instructions and screenshots.

Be sure to read the Getting Started section for instructions on how to access the current version of the dashboard. Please see the data model documentation for more details on how the Solar Forecast Arbiter organizes metadata (Sites, Observations, and Forecasts) and time series data. Additional training materials are available in our workshop repository.

Getting Started

To register an account in the Solar Forecast Arbiter, navigate to dashboard.solarforecastarbiter.org and click on the login link. You will be prompted with an Auth0 login window. Click the sign up tab and enter your information. Auth0 is a secure authentication service that has numereous security credentials and undergoes routine audits.

You will receive an email from Auth0 to verify your email address. You are required to verify your email before accessing the Solar Forecast Arbiter.

In order to upload data to the Arbiter, generate reports, or receive data from other users, you will first need to associate your user account with an organization account. To establish a new organization or to join an existing organization, contact help@solarforecastarbiter.org

Create New Site

  1. Navigate to sites listing page using Sites link in the left sidebar. At the top of the Site listing click Create new Site.

  2. Enter the metadata for your Site. Selecting a site type of Power Plant will prompt you for additional fields.

    • Weather station site creation form

    • Power plant site creation form

  3. After submission, you will be redirected to a Site page which displays the new Site’s metadata and allows you to create associated Observations and Forecasts (see Create New Observation or Forecast).

    Power Plant Site Page

Create New Observation or Forecast

To create an Observation or Forecast, an associated site must already exist (see Create New Site).

Create New Observation

  1. Navigate to the Site listing page using the Sites link in the left sidebar. Select the site for which you are adding an Observation.

  2. Click the Create new Observation button on the Site page.

  3. Enter metadata for your Observation. On submission, you will be redirected to an Observation page which displays the new Observation metadata and a link to add Observation data (see Upload Data).

    • Observation form
    • Created Observation page

Create New Forecast

  1. Navigate to the Site listing page using the Sites link in the left sidebar. Select the site for which you are adding a Forecast.

  2. Click the Create new Forecast button on the Site page.

  3. Enter metadata for your Forecast. On submission, you will be redirected to a Forecast page which displays the new Forecast metadata and a link to add Forecast data (see Upload Data).

    • Forecast form
    • Created Forecast page

Upload data

To upload data, an associated Site and Observation or Forecast object must already exist (see Create New Site or Create New Observation or Forecast). The instructions here will describe the process of uploading data using the dashboard. Uploading data may be automated using the API, see https://api.solarforecastarbiter.org/ for detailed documentation.

Upload Observation Data

  1. From Sites listing page, click on a site.

  2. Click Observations to find the Observations listing for that site.

  3. Select an Observation. Click Upload Data on the Observation page.

  4. Select the file type, this will display an example of the expected file format. Click Choose File and select the data file to upload.

    • CSV format
    • JSON format

Upload Forecast Data

  1. From Sites listing page, click on a site.

  2. Click Forecast to find the Forecasts listing for that site.

  3. Select a Forecast. Click Upload Data on the Forecast page.

  4. Select the file type, this will display an example of the expected file format. Click Choose File and select the data file to upload.

    • CSV format
    • JSON format

Download Data

The instructions here will describe the process of downloading data using the dashboard. Users may also utilize the API to download data. See the API documentation for details.

Download Observation data

  1. From Sites listing page, click on a site.

  2. Click Observations to find the Observations listing for that site.

  3. Select an Observation. Click Download Data on the Observation page.

  4. Specify a date range, timezone and format, and click download.

Download Forecast data

  1. From Sites listing page, click on a site.

  2. Click Forecasts to find the Observations listing for that site.

  3. Select a Forecast. Click Download Data on the Forecast page.

  4. Specify a date range, timezone and format, and click download.

Create New Report

  1. Use the Reports link on the left sidebar to view the reports listing page. Click the Create new Report link.

  2. Enter the report name and a start and end for the period to analyze. To pairs of Observations and Forecasts, start by selecting a Site. The forecast field will populate with a list of forecasts located at the site. Selecting a forecast will populate the observation field with observations field with observations that match the forecast’s site and variable. Click the Add Forecast, Observation pair button. Multiple Pairs can be added by repeating this process. Pairs can be removed by clicking the ‘x’ on the right side of the forecast & observation table.

    After clicking submit, you will be returned to the report listing page where you will see the newly created report with a status of pending. The Arbiter will process the report and then set its status to complete. You may then view the web version of the report.

Permission/Role management

This section describes the user interface for managing data acces through roles and permissions. An accompanying workflow description can be found in the Data Access Workflow Document.

User, permission and role administation can be accessed by clicking the User Administration link in the Account menu in the top right corner of the site.

Note that these menus are meant to assist organization administrators in viewing and managing permissions, and users without admin privileges may not see anything on these pages.

Users

Unlike other types of data, Users are only created through the signup process outlined in getting started.

  • The Users tab will list the users you have access to administer or view.

  • Clicking on an individual user will list information about the user and their roles. Roles may be revoked from the user by clicking the Remove link on the far right of each row of the listing.

Granting roles to a user

  • The Add Roles button will display a list of roles that are not already granted to the user. Roles are granted to the user by clicking the checkboxes of the roles to grant and clicking Submit. Roles can also be granted from the Roles section of the admin menu.

Create New Role

  1. Navigate to the roles listing with the Roles tab of the admin menu. This page will list all of the Roles you have access to administer or view.

  2. Click the Create new Role button. You will be prompted for a name and description of the role and a list of permissions the role should have. Check the boxes next to each permission that the role should grant and click submit.

  • Created Role pages

    Clicking on an individual Role will list information about it and the permissions associated with it. Use the tabs below the metadata section to switch between the list of permissions on the role and a list of users the role has been granted to.

    Role permissions listing Role users listing

Granting a role to a user

  • The ‘Grant Role’ button will display a form for sharing roles with a single user at a time. Enter the user’s user ID and click submit to share the role.

Create New Permission

  1. Navigate to the Permissions listing with the Permissions tab of the admin menu. This page will list all of the Permissions you have access to administer or view.

  2. Click on the data type you would like to create a permission for in the “Create new Permission” box. You will be prompted for a description of the permission, the action the permission allows and a list of objects. Click the checkboxes for each object that the permission should allow its action on. Selecting Applies to all will cause the permission to affect all current and future objects of the permission’s type.

    Permission form for observation permsission

  • Created Permission pages Clicking on an individual Permission will list information about it and the objects it applies to.