Tools
TextGridLab – Support and Maintenance
Support and maintenance for the TextGrid Laboratory will be largely discontinued in the future. We will continue to offer support for existing projects. New tools have been developed for setting up and maintaining new projects, such as the new, practice- and community-orientated publication workflow called Fluffy, the TextGrid WebDav, the tgadmin Library and also our TextGrid Python Clients, whose development, up-to-dateness and use we support and which we are actively developing further. In addition, tools for project management and user administration are required.
The Fluffy Publication Workflow is not a replacement for all TextGridLab functions; it is a user-friendly tool with which you can reliably and sustainably import your research data into the TextGrid Repository, publish it and secure it there in the long term. The transition to the new publication workflow is accompanied by the use of external tools for editing and collaboration, and they are easy and convenient to use. Therefore, no mandatory pre-installation is required, as the Fluffy Publication Workflow is available on the Text+ JupyterHub or the Jupyter4NFDI JupyterHub. Detailed instructions on the new publication workflow can be found in the newly published article Fluffy Publication Workflow: Preserving Humanities Research Data with the TextGrid Repository by Ubbo Veentjer et al. (2025).
On the TextGridLab download page you can still download the TextGridLab for working with your data.
TextGrid WebDav
The TextGrid WevDav Service allows you to access data from the TextGrid Repository via WebDav API. The use of the service is not yet a complete replacement for the TextGridLab Navigator. It includes the display of the aggregation structures of a project and the loading and saving of TextGrid objects.
TextGrid Admin Library
The TextGrid Admin Library serves the most important administrative functions of some TextGridLab modules and is constantly being expanded to include required features. Among other things, project and user management functions are implemented, as well as methods of object management and authentication and authorisation. Some functions for publication are added to the Admin Library, they are also used by the Fluffy Publication Workflow.
TextGrid Python Clients
The methods of the TextGrid Python Clients implement the API of various TextGrid Repository services TG-crud, TG-search, TG-auth and others. They simplify the use of the TextGridRep API with Python.
TextGrid Model Metadata Library
The TextGrid Model Metadata Library extends the TextGridRep publication workflow with a pragmatic option for generating metadata from TEI and image files that are required for importing and publishing in TextGridRep. All necessary and extended metadata is extracted from the existing files and the required metadata structure is generated. Hand in hand with the TextGrid Admin Library and the TextGrid Python Clients, the Fluffy Publication Workflow is served.
Fluffy Publication Workflow
The “Fluffy” Publication Workflow simplifies the publication process in TextGridRep by integrating familiar tools such as TEI, XPath, Git and Jupyter Notebooks. This reduces the technical burden for users, and still ensuring quality control. For these reasons, we refer to the new workflow as fluffy, emphasising its ease of use. The workflow also allows for metadata enrichment without altering original data files, improving overall data and metadata quality and aligning with FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). TG-publisher, another GUI for the Fluffy Publication Workflow, is currently under development.