Overview

FairDM is an open-source Django-based framework designed to help research teams build modern, FAIR-compliant data portals without needing to write complex web application code from scratch. Whether you’re evaluating FairDM for a new project or deepening your understanding of its architecture, this section provides the essential context you need.

Tip

Evaluating FairDM? If you’re a developer assessing whether FairDM fits your research community’s needs, start with the Getting Started guide for a hands-on walkthrough. Then return here to understand the principles that guide the framework’s design.

FairDM Constitution

The FairDM Constitution defines the project’s core principles, architecture constraints, development workflow, and governance model. It serves as the foundation for all design decisions and contributions to the framework.

Key principles include:

• FAIR-First: Every feature must support or at minimum not weaken FAIR characteristics

• Domain-Driven, Declarative Modeling: Stable core models with declarative extensions

• Configuration Over Custom Plumbing: Registration and configuration, not boilerplate

• Opinionated, Production-Grade Defaults: Modern Django stack with sensible defaults

• Quality, Sustainability, and Community: Tests, documentation, and clear contribution guidelines

• Introduction
  • Who is FairDM for?
  • What problems does FairDM solve?
  • How does FairDM support the FAIR principles?
  • What makes FairDM different?
• Background
  • FAIR Data
  • Research Data Infrastructure
  • The role of FairDM
  • References
• Goals
• Features
  • Structured Core Data Model
  • Community Engagement and Collaboration
  • Project and Dataset Management
  • User-Friendly Data Access
  • Programmatic Access
  • Authentication and Access Control
  • Administrative Tools
  • Standards and Interoperability
  • Modularity and Customization
  • Documentation and Support
• Core Data Model
  • The Project Model
  • The Dataset Model
  • The Sample Model
  • Understanding the Measurement Model
• Contributors
  • What FairDM means by “contributor”
  • Why record contributors?
  • Where contributors appear
  • Identifiers and profiles
• Technology Stack
  • Django
  • PostgreSQL Database with Optional PostGIS Extension
  • Redis In-Memory Data Store
  • Celery Task Queue
  • Reverse proxy and TLS termination (deployment choice)
  • Backup and persistence (recommended)
  • Monitoring and logging
  • Deployment environment and management
  • Configuration via Environment Variables