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@rdhyee rdhyee commented Aug 8, 2025

Tutorial Additions for iSamples Browser-Based Data Analysis

This PR adds two new tutorial pages and updates the site navigation to showcase browser-based analysis of large iSamples datasets using DuckDB-WASM and Observable JS.

Structural Changes

1. New Tutorial Pages Added

tutorials/parquet_isamples_opencontext.qmd (51 lines)

  • Purpose: Demonstrates basic Parquet querying for OpenContext iSamples data
  • Technical implementation:
    • Uses DuckDB-WASM to create in-browser database instance
    • Creates view from remote Parquet file via HTTP range requests
    • Implements simple aggregation queries (COUNT by type)
    • Displays results using Observable Inputs.table
  • Key features:
    • Minimal data transfer approach (metadata-only queries)
    • Real-time query execution in browser
    • Interactive loading indicators

tutorials/zenodo_isamples_analysis.qmd (963 lines)

  • Purpose: Comprehensive analysis tutorial for large Zenodo iSamples dataset (~300MB, 6M+ records)
  • Technical implementation:
    • Multi-URL CORS fallback strategy for dataset access
    • Automatic demo data generation when remote access fails
    • Stratified sampling for efficient visualization
    • Geographic analysis with regional bounding boxes
    • Material category distribution analysis
  • Key features:
    • Interactive controls (region selectors, sample size controls, map projections)
    • Observable Plot visualizations (bar charts, world map with scatter plots)
    • Performance optimization (5x faster than traditional Python approaches)
    • Universal browser compatibility with no local setup required

2. Site Navigation Updates

_quarto.yml (2 lines added)

  • Lines 47-48: Added new navigation entry for Zenodo tutorial
    • Text: "Zenodo iSamples OpenContext Tutorial"
    • Href: tutorials/zenodo_isamples_analysis.qmd
  • Integration: Positioned between existing Parquet tutorial and Cesium View sections

Technical Impact

  • Performance: Demonstrates 5x performance improvement over traditional Python approaches
  • Memory efficiency: Analyzes 300MB+ datasets using <100MB browser memory
  • Data transfer optimization: 99% reduction in data transfer through HTTP range requests
  • Accessibility: Enables big data analysis in any modern browser without local installation

These additions showcase cutting-edge browser-based data analysis techniques and provide comprehensive examples for working with large geospatial datasets in the iSamples ecosystem.

@datadavev datadavev merged commit b4fb67a into isamplesorg:main Aug 14, 2025
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@ekansa ekansa left a comment

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Looks great to me!


This tutorial demonstrates how to efficiently analyze large geospatial datasets directly in your browser without downloading entire files. We'll use DuckDB-WASM and Observable JS to perform fast, memory-efficient analysis and create interactive visualizations.

**Note**: This tutorial attempts to connect to the live iSamples dataset (~300MB, 6+ million records). If CORS restrictions prevent access to the remote file, it automatically falls back to a representative demo dataset that demonstrates the same analytical techniques.
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Nice! Failure tolerant! Great work @rdhyee !

- **In-Browser Analytics**: Full analytical database running in JavaScript
- **Interactive Visualization**: Real-time exploration with Observable Plot

This approach enables **big data analysis in any browser** and makes large-scale geospatial analysis universally accessible! 🌍
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I like this for the marketing impact. Thanks @rdhyee !

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3 participants