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Re: technical difficulties

Here are some of the fixes for the problem you encountered:

> Technical difficulties in biodiversity database        10/22/97
> 
> 1.  Species accounts are not registering in every search group.  For
> example, Opheodrys aestivus can be found by going into the herp group but
> does not appear on the database-wide genus or common name listing.  This
> is occurring for several species and by several different students.

This is because (as stated on the page itself) the search page is
"static" (not updated each time it is called up). We did this to make
the page come up faster (it can take several minutes for the dynamicc
version to come up because it has to do a new series of large database
queries). You can always hit the link in the statement:

 If you wish to use the most current version of this
 page (and are willing to wait), click HERE.

to get the up-to-the-minute (but slow) version.

To make this less of a problem, I will save a new static copy of the
search page. However, this problem will recur as new data is added
between updates of the "static" page, so keep the link to the dynamic
page in mind.

BTW, the reason the organism types and higher level queries MAY work
is that there may be many entries which share organism type or family.
It is only when a new name needs to be added to the search list (such
as when a new genus is added) that a discrepancy between the static
and dynamic version of the page exists.

> 
> 2.  Information on Limulus polyphemus was entered into the database but is
> not appearing on the website.  It is as if the account did not register.

I was able to find it on the dynamic page... This may reflect the
problem listed in 1) 
 
> 3.  An entered new observation did not appear
on the list of observations.  

> 4.  Database is not allowing the student to enter a new observation.  

Somehow the counter for new observations got set to a value less than
the current highest observation number... Not sure how that happened,
but it is fixed now...

> 5.  Successive editing sessions cause the program to have double spaced 
> lines.  

This is a known problem, but it will take a while to fix. As a
work-around, when multiple <P> entries occur one after the other, you
can edit out all but one of them. 

If you can tell me an entry where this is a particular problem, I will
see if I can find a quick fix to clean up the entries already in the
database.

> 6. Email address is not always being registered.  It sometimes comes up 
>as $mod_email.  

Yep, there is a bug there.... Let me know what you were doing
immediately prior to it forgetting your email address and I will try
to locate the problem.

> 7.  Only the email address of the first person to enter data on a species 
> is registered. Successive editors receive "no credit."  

Yes and no... For data entered into the database (although not the
large text entry fields), the old record is actually saved (but marked
for non-viewing), so the information entered by each successive editor
is obtainable, although not visible throuhg a normal search. 

However the real purpose of the "data entered by XXX" field is so we
will know who to contact about a problem with the information. That
person would be the person who most recently entered changes.

> 8.  Inability to use italics or underlines when entering directly into the 
> database.  Tracey has given me the html code for italics as <I> to turn 
> on italics and </I> to turn off.  

This is the correct solution.

> 9. Italics and underlines are not preserved when using copy and paste from 
> a word processor.  

Yep, but the problem is with the word processor or Netscape program.
That information is stripped off somewhere along the line. However,
you can use <i>italics</i> and <u>underline</u> commands in the text
after it has been pasted.


Thanks for your help in locating these problems. Keep up the good work!

    -John Porter

-- 
---------------+--------------------------------+----------------------------
John H. Porter |  Dept. Environmental Sciences  |  jhp7e@virginia.EDU
(804) 924-8999 |  Clark Hall, Univ. of Virginia |  jporter@lternet.EDU
(804) 924-7761 |  Charlottesville, VA 22903     |  (804) 982-2137(fax) 
---------------+--------------------------------+----------------------------
WWW page: http://www.vcrlter.virginia.edu/jhp7e.html