The Digital User Office (DUO)

• Published in: Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment, 2005-07, Vol.546 (3), p.591-603
• Main Authors: Bertrand, Alain, Weyer, Heinz J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Apache server; Digital user office; Oracle database; PHP; Synchrotron radiation; User facility; User operation; Users
• ISSN: 0168-9002; 1872-9576
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2005.02.047

The Digital User Office (DUO) has been developed at the Swiss Light Source (SLS) of the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) in order to deal efficiently with the large number of users typical of a synchrotron radiation facility. DUO is based on an Oracle database. Thus, in addition to the canonical functions expected from such a system, such as support of the proposal processing and preparation of conferences, it offers additional novel functions. Active linking of the DUO database to other databases permits the creation of computer accounts, automatic setup of experiment parameters at the start of a measurement or preparing information on publications for reporting semi-automatically. Developed initially for the SLS at the Paul Scherrer Institut, DUO is currently being extended to include in an integrated central PSI user office the user communities of the other large facilities at PSI: the neutron spallation source SINQ, the μSR facility SμS, and the proton accelerator. Currently, the system is dealing effectively with far over one thousand users per year and hundreds of proposals so that in terms of scalability the multiplication of these numbers expected in coming years should present no problem.