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documentation/docs/explained/about.md

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+# About DSMR-reader
+
+## Project goals
+- Provide a tool to easily extract, store and visualize data transferred by the DSMR protocol of your smart meter.
+- Allow you to export your data to other systems or third parties.
+
+
+**Data transfer protocol support**
+
+- **MQTT**: Push data from DSMR-reader to a generic message broker.
+- **REST API**: Push (telegram) data from a generic HTTP client to DSMR-reader.
+- **REST API**: Pull data from DSMR-reader from a generic HTTP client.
+
+Any integration should be possible this way, either using generic scripts or even **plugins**.
+
+DSMR-reader only supports the builtin mentioned above and unfortunately cannot support every other (technical) integration that exists in the world.
+
+
+## Architecture
+<small>*Below is a very shallow schema of DSMR-reader's architecture. Note that it's subject to be (eventually) outdated.*</small> 
+![Drawing](../static/drawings/DSMR-reader-Architecture.svg)
+
+
+## Languages
+- The entire application and its code is written and documented in **English**.
+- The interface is available in both **English** and **Dutch** (detects your **browser's language preference**).
+- This documentation is only available in **English**.
+- Any [support and communication](https://github.com/dsmrreader/dsmr-reader/issues/new/choose) is available in both **English** and **Dutch**. 
+
+<small>*This documentation used to be available in **Dutch** as well, but the latter was dropped along the release of DSMR-reader v6.x, to be able of spending most time into either development or support.*</small>
+
+## Hardware requirements
+
+- RaspberryPi 4+ or similar.
+- P1 telegram cable or a network socket when using ``ser2net``.
+- A smart meter supporting any of these DSMR-telegram versions: ``v2`` / ``v4`` / ``v5``.
+
+
+## Software requirements
+
+- **OS**: Any operating system that supports Docker containers. DSMR-reader runs in a container to ease upgrading.
+- **Disk space**: 1+ GB - Depending on your smart meter and the amount of readings you want to preserve.
+- **Database**: A [supported](https://www.postgresql.org/support/versioning/) PostgreSQL database. <small>Other databases _may_ work as well, but are not supported for this project.</small>
+
+<small>Note that this project is built with [Django Framework](https://www.djangoproject.com/), which determines which versions are actually supported.</small>
+
+
+## Screenshots
+**Dashboard**
+
+The dashboard displays the latest information regarding the consumption of today.
+You can view the total consumption for the current month and year as well.
+
+If your meter supports it, you can also see your gas consumption and electricity returned.
+
+![Screenshot](../static/screenshots/about-dsmrreader/dashboard.png)
+
+----
+
+**Live graphs**
+
+The live graphs plots the most recent data available, depending on the capabilities of your smart meter.
+
+![Screenshot](../static/screenshots/about-dsmrreader/live.png)
+
+----
+
+
+**Archive**
+
+The archive allows you to scroll through all historisch data captured by the application.
+All data can be viewed on different levels: by day, by month and by year.
+
+![Screenshot](../static/screenshots/about-dsmrreader/archive.png)
+
+----
+
+
+**Compare**
+
+This page allows you to simply compare two days, months or years with each other.
+It will also display the difference between each other as a percentage.
+
+![Screenshot](../static/screenshots/about-dsmrreader/compare.png)
+
+----
+
+
+**Trends**
+
+This page displays a summary of your average daily consumption and habits.
+
+![Screenshot](../static/screenshots/about-dsmrreader/trends.png)
+
+----
+
+
+**Statistics**
+
+This page displays your meter positions and statistics provided by the DSMR protocol.
+You can also find the number of readings stored and any excesses regarding consumption.
+
+![Screenshot](../static/screenshots/about-dsmrreader/statistics.png)
+
+----
+
+**Energy contracts**
+
+Summary of all your contracts and the amount of energy consumed/generated.
+
+![Screenshot](../static/screenshots/about-dsmrreader/energy-contracts.png)
+
+----
+
+
+**Export**
+
+This pages allows you to export all day or hour statistics to CSV.
+
+![Screenshot](../static/screenshots/about-dsmrreader/export.png)
+
+----
+
+
+**About**
+
+Shows the 'health' of the application. Any issues will be reported here.
+You can also easily check for DSMR-reader updates here.
+
+![Screenshot](../static/screenshots/about-dsmrreader/about.png)
+
+----
+
+
+**Support**
+
+Assists you in finding the information required for debugging your installation or any issues.
+
+![Screenshot](../static/screenshots/about-dsmrreader/support.png)
+
+----
+
+
+**Configuration**
+
+The configuration page is the entrypoint for the admin interface.
+
+You can type any topic or setting you're searching for, as it should pop up with clickable deeplink to the admin panel.
+Or you can just skip it this page and continue directly to the admin panel.
+
+![Screenshot](../static/screenshots/about-dsmrreader/configuration.png)