The field notebook became an app.

Tools and open software

Tools built by the group

GNAFOR Field Collector

A web application for systematic data collection in tropical forage grass experiments. It runs on a phone with no connection in the field: records stay on the device and only reach the spreadsheet when the collector closes the day. Published in SoftwareX and registered with Brazil's patent office.

10.1016/j.softx.2026.102828

Real app screens · scroll inside the device to see the full screen

• 1 Sign in Collector name and individual code, issued by the supervisor. The name stamps every record.
• 2 Canopy height Five readings per unit, always alongside morphogenesis. Block, treatment and date travel with the record.
• 3 Morphogenesis Pseudostem and individual leaf lengths, each leaf tagged as expanded, expanding, senescing, dead or cut.
• 4 Herbage production Herbage mass and sample components.
• 5 Tillering Tiller counts by category, feeding the population demography.
• 6 Close the day A summary of the day's records and the upload. This is the only step needing a connection — and once sent, records are final.

Access. The app is not open to the public: use is authorised per class and per project, with individual codes. Researchers or lecturers wanting to run it on their own experiment should write describing the design — we reply with what is possible.