diff --git a/.gitlab/merge_request_templates/Default.md b/.gitlab/merge_request_templates/Default.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..a8c5b719ad5f8e18c2fd68d2daa1e5c62f94d450
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitlab/merge_request_templates/Default.md
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+# Summary
+
+ Insert a meaningful description for this merge request here. What is the
+ new/changed behavior? Which bug has been fixed? Are there related Issues?
+
+# Focus
+
+ Point the reviewer to the core of the code change. Where should they start
+ reading? What should they focus on (e.g. security, performance,
+ maintainability, user-friendliness, compliance with the specs, finding more
+ corner cases, concrete questions)?
+
+# Test Environment
+
+ How to set up a test environment for manual testing?
+
+# Check List for the Author
+
+Please, prepare your MR for a review. Be sure to write a summary and a
+focus and create gitlab comments for the reviewer. They should guide the
+reviewer through the changes, explain your changes and also point out open
+questions. For further good practices have a look at [our review
+guidelines](https://gitlab.com/caosdb/caosdb/-/blob/dev/REVIEW_GUIDELINES.md)
+
+- [ ] All automated tests pass
+- [ ] Reference related Issues
+- [ ] Up-to-date CHANGELOG.md
+- [ ] Annotations in code (Gitlab comments)
+ - Intent of new code
+ - Problems with old code
+ - Why this implementation?
+
+
+# Check List for the Reviewer
+
+
+- [ ] I understand the intent of this MR
+- [ ] All automated tests pass
+- [ ] Up-to-date CHANGELOG.md
+- [ ] The test environment setup works and the intended behavior is
+ reproducible in the test environment
+- [ ] In-code documentation and comments are up-to-date.
+- [ ] Check: Are there spezifications? Are they satisfied?
+
+For further good practices have a look at [our review guidelines](https://gitlab.com/caosdb/caosdb/-/blob/dev/REVIEW_GUIDELINES.md).
+
+
+/assign me
diff --git a/src/caosadvancedtools/serverside/__init__.py b/src/caosadvancedtools/serverside/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..e69de29bb2d1d6434b8b29ae775ad8c2e48c5391
diff --git a/src/caosadvancedtools/serverside/helper.py b/src/caosadvancedtools/serverside/helper.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..360f287759e582e548808d22771ee296eeb785ca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/caosadvancedtools/serverside/helper.py
@@ -0,0 +1,279 @@
+# encoding: utf-8
+#
+# Copyright (C) 2019, 2020 IndiScale GmbH <info@indiscale.com>
+# Copyright (C) 2020 Timm Fitschen <t.fitschen@indiscale.com>
+# Copyright (C) 2019, 2020 Henrik tom Wörden <h.tomwoerden@indiscale.com>
+#
+# This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as
+# published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the
+# License, or (at your option) any later version.
+#
+# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
+# GNU Affero General Public License for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License
+# along with this program. If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+#
+#
+from __future__ import absolute_import
+
+import argparse
+import datetime
+import json
+import logging
+import sys
+
+import caosdb as db
+
+
+def wrap_bootstrap_alert(text, kind):
+ """ Wrap a text into a Bootstrap (3.3.7) DIV.alert.
+
+ Parameters
+ ----------
+
+ text : str
+ The text body of the bootstrap alert.
+ kind : str
+ One of ["success", "info", "warning", "danger"]
+
+ Returns
+ -------
+ alert : str
+ A HTML str of a Bootstrap DIV.alert
+ """
+ return ('<div class="alert alert-{kind} alert-dismissible" '
+ 'role="alert">{text}</div>').format(kind=kind, text=text)
+
+
+def print_bootstrap(text, kind, file=sys.stdout):
+ """ Wrap a text into a Bootstrap (3.3.7) DIV.alert and print it to a file.
+
+ Parameters
+ ----------
+
+ text : str
+ The text body of the bootstrap alert.
+ kind : str
+ One of ["success", "info", "warning", "danger"]
+ file : file, optional
+ Print the alert to this file. Default: sys.stdout.
+
+ Returns
+ -------
+ None
+ """
+ print(wrap_bootstrap_alert(text, kind), file=file)
+
+
+def print_success(text):
+ """Shortcut for print_bootstrap(text, kine="success")
+
+ The text body is also prefixed with "<b>Success:</b> ".
+
+ Parameters
+ ----------
+
+ text : str
+ The text body of the bootstrap alert.
+
+ Returns
+ -------
+ None
+ """
+ print_bootstrap("<b>Success:</b> " + text, kind="success")
+
+
+def print_info(text):
+ """Shortcut for print_bootstrap(text, kine="info")
+
+ The text body is also prefixed with "<b>Info:</b> ".
+
+ Parameters
+ ----------
+
+ text : str
+ The text body of the bootstrap alert.
+
+ Returns
+ -------
+ None
+ """
+ print_bootstrap("<b>Info:</b> " + text, kind="info")
+
+
+def print_warning(text):
+ """Shortcut for print_bootstrap(text, kine="warning")
+
+ The text body is also prefixed with "<b>Warning:</b> ".
+
+ Parameters
+ ----------
+
+ text : str
+ The text body of the bootstrap alert.
+
+ Returns
+ -------
+ None
+ """
+ print_bootstrap("<b>Warning:</b> " + text, kind="warning")
+
+
+def print_error(text):
+ """Shortcut for print_bootstrap(text, kine="danger")
+
+ The text body is also prefixed with "<b>ERROR:</b> ".
+
+ Parameters
+ ----------
+
+ text : str
+ The text body of the bootstrap alert.
+
+ Returns
+ -------
+ None
+ """
+ print_bootstrap("<b>ERROR:</b> " + text, kind="danger", file=sys.stderr)
+
+
+class DataModelError(RuntimeError):
+ """DataModelError indicates that the server-side script cannot work as
+ intended due to missing datat model entities or an otherwise incompatible
+ data model."""
+
+ def __init__(self, rt):
+ super().__init__(
+ "This script expects certain RecordTypes and Properties to exist "
+ "in the data model. There is a problem with {} .".format(rt))
+
+
+def recordtype_is_child_of(rt, parent):
+ """Return True iff the RecordType is a child of another Entity.
+
+ The parent Entity can be a direct or indirect parent.
+
+ Parameters
+ ----------
+
+ rt : caosdb.Entity
+ The child RecordType.
+ parent : str or int
+ The parent's name or id.
+
+ Returns
+ -------
+ bool
+ True iff `rt` is a child of `parent`
+ """
+ query = "COUNT RecordType {} with id={}".format(parent, rt.id)
+
+ if db.execute_query(query) > 0:
+ return True
+ else:
+ return False
+
+
+def init_data_model(entities):
+ """Return True if all entities exist.
+
+ Parameters
+ ----------
+
+ entities : iterable of caosdb.Entity
+ The data model entities which are to be checked for existence.
+
+ Raises
+ ------
+ DataModelError
+ If any entity in `entities` does not exists.
+
+ Returns
+ -------
+ bool
+ True if all entities exist.
+ """
+ try:
+ for e in entities:
+ e.retrieve()
+ except db.exceptions.EntityDoesNotExistError:
+ raise DataModelError(e.name)
+
+ return True
+
+
+def get_data(filename, default=None):
+ """Load data from a json file as a dict.
+
+ Parameters
+ ----------
+
+ filename : str
+ The file's path, relative or absolute.
+ default : dict
+ Default data, which is overridden by the data in the file, if the keys
+ are defined in the file.
+
+ Returns
+ -------
+ dict
+ Data from the given file.
+ """
+ result = default.copy() if default is not None else {}
+ with open(filename, 'r') as fi:
+ data = json.load(fi)
+ result.update(data)
+
+ return result
+
+
+def get_timestamp():
+ """Return a ISO 8601 compliante timestamp (second precision)"""
+ return datetime.datetime.utcnow().isoformat(timespec='seconds')
+
+
+def get_argument_parser():
+ """Return a argparse.ArgumentParser for typical use-cases.
+
+ The parser expects a file name as data input ('filename') and and an
+ optional auth-token ('--auth-token').
+
+ The parser can also be augmented for other use cases.
+
+ Returns
+ -------
+ argparse.ArgumentParser
+ """
+ p = argparse.ArgumentParser()
+ # TODO: add better description. I do not know what json file is meant.
+ # TODO: use a prefix for this argument? using this in another parser is
+ # difficult otherwise
+ p.add_argument("filename", help="The json filename")
+ p.add_argument("--auth-token")
+
+ return p
+
+
+def parse_arguments(args):
+ """Use the standard parser and parse the arguments.
+
+ Call with `parse_arguments(args=sys.argv)` to parse the command line
+ arguments.
+
+ Parameters
+ ----------
+ args : list of str
+ Arguments to parse.
+
+ Returns
+ -------
+ dict
+ Parsed arguments.
+ """
+ p = get_argument_parser()
+
+ return p.parse_args(args)
diff --git a/src/caosadvancedtools/webui_formatter.py b/src/caosadvancedtools/webui_formatter.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..848f3e39b5607f828934a29a68b5bb94529a542d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/caosadvancedtools/webui_formatter.py
@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+# encoding: utf-8
+#
+# Copyright (C) 2019, 2020 IndiScale GmbH <info@indiscale.com>
+# Copyright (C) 2020 Timm Fitschen <t.fitschen@indiscale.com>
+# Copyright (C) 2019, 2020 Henrik tom Wörden <h.tomwoerden@indiscale.com>
+#
+# This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as
+# published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the
+# License, or (at your option) any later version.
+#
+# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
+# GNU Affero General Public License for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License
+# along with this program. If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+#
+#
+import logging
+
+from .serverside.helper import prefix_bootstrap
+
+
+class WebUI_Formatter(logging.Formatter):
+ """ allows to make logging to be nicely displayed in the WebUI
+
+ You can enable this as follows:
+ logger = logging.getLogger("<LoggerName>")
+ formatter = WebUI_Formatter(full_file="path/to/file")
+ handler = logging.Handler()
+ handler.setFormatter(formatter)
+ logger.addHandler(handler)
+ """
+
+ def __init__(self, *args, full_file=None, **kwargs):
+ super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
+ self.max_elements = 100
+ self.counter = 0
+ self.full_file = full_file
+
+ def format(self, record):
+ """ Return the HTML formatted log record for display on a website.
+
+ This essentially wraps the text formatted by the parent class in html.
+
+ Parameters
+ ----------
+
+ record :
+
+ Raises
+ ------
+ RuntimeError
+ If the log level of the record is not supported. Supported log
+ levels include logging.DEBUG, logging.INFO, logging.WARNING,
+ logging.ERROR, and logging.CRITICAL.
+
+ Returns
+ -------
+ str
+ The formatted log record.
+
+ """
+ msg = super().format(record)
+ self.counter += 1
+
+ if self.counter == self.max_elements:
+ return prefix_bootstrap(
+ "<b>Warning:</b> Due to the large number of messages, the "
+ "output is stopped here. You can see the full log "
+ " <a href='{}'>here</a>.".format(self.full_file),
+ kind="warning")
+
+ if self.counter > self.max_elements:
+ return ""
+
+ text = msg.replace("\n", r"</br>")
+ text = text.replace("\t", r" "*4)
+
+ if record.levelno == logging.DEBUG:
+ return prefix_bootstrap(msg, kind="info")
+ elif record.levelno == logging.INFO:
+ return prefix_bootstrap("<b>Info:</b> " + text, kind="info")
+ elif record.levelno == logging.WARNING:
+ return prefix_bootstrap("<b>Warning:</b> " + text, kind="warning")
+ elif record.levelno == logging.ERROR:
+ return prefix_bootstrap("<b>ERROR:</b> " + text, kind="danger")
+ elif record.levelno == logging.CRITICAL:
+ return prefix_bootstrap("<b>CRITICAL ERROR:</b> " + text,
+ kind="danger")
+ else:
+ raise Exception("unknown level")