Ringers of Jupyter: The Jupyter Notebook As Faux Web App
In the dark basement of an academic library, a project manager ponders. The current dilemma, involving data entry, metadata manipulation, and file management, is a poser. It requires a hefty dose of automation, a smattering of written instruction, a handful of hyperlinks, and manual examination of image files. Oh, and also, the scale of the project would require multiple workers, including student employees. The librarian, an amateur programmer, sighs. A polished web app could surely do the job, but feels far out of reach. A tangle of batch scripts and Python code, which the perplexed manager could happily patch together, seems like it would too intimidating and complex for student workers to run.
But what about Jupyter Notebooks? Could they, by providing a familiar web browser interface, mask hacky Python code and fill in the gap between the frightening command line and a full-fledged application? Could the library deploy Jupyter Notebooks at (small) scale, as a user-friendly, in-browser method of running handcrafted code? And could your library do the same?
