mex-editor

MEx Editor – Technical Documentation

A simple and fast way to create and edit resources and activities — built for basic users, i.e. employees, not metadata specialists.

This documentation covers the technical building blocks of the MEx Editor frontend: components, classes, interfaces, services and modules. If you're looking for installation or usage instructions instead, see the project README.

Why this editor exists

Most RKI employees who need to describe research data or activities are not metadata experts. They simply need to capture what a resource or activity is, who is responsible for it, and how it relates to other entities — without learning a complex data model first.

The MEx Editor is designed around that constraint:

Simple — guided forms instead of raw metadata schemas, sensible defaults, and inline validation that explains itself.
Fast — common actions (create, edit, link, publish) take a few clicks, not a training session.
Safe — edits are applied as non-destructive rules on top of the underlying metadata, so automated updates never overwrite manual input.

How it fits together

The editor is a two-part application: an Angular client that the employee interacts with, and a FastAPI service that exposes editor-specific endpoints and proxies the wider MEx Backend.

Layer	Responsibility
Angular Client (`mex/editor/client`)	Renders forms, lists and detail views; talks to the Editor API
Editor API (`mex/editor/api`)	Serves editor-specific data under `/api/v0`, proxies `mex.backend` under `/api/v0/backend`
MEx Backend	Stores and publishes the metadata catalog

What you'll find in these docs

This reference is generated from the source and organized by the usual Angular building blocks:

Components – UI building blocks for editing resources and activities (forms, lists, detail panels)
Services – data access, state, and API communication
Classes & Interfaces – the shared models and contracts entities are built from
Modules – how the above are grouped and wired together

Use the navigation to browse by type, or search for a specific symbol by name.

Contributing to this documentation

Keep docstrings close to the code they describe — most of this reference is generated directly from TSDoc comments in the source. When adding or changing a public class, interface, or component, update its doc comment in the same change so this page stays accurate.

Contact: mex@rki.de · License: MIT