PlanetCatfish.com

OK, so I am in the midst of a fairly large data submission when my browser hangs. I force quit and lose all the data in the process. Now I have to start over. Argh.

Is there a way to save partially submitted data so that this doesn't happen?

Kind of, just send the first half and (as long as you fill out your email and latin name) send the other half in a seperate submission, no biggie at my end. More than that is in Rusty's court - clog V2 essentially.

I think it is just a way of slowing you down.

Jools

I hate doing things in halves.

A browser crash will just put me off data submission for a while. That should slow me down enough to make you happy.

A full inbox is the webmasters equivalent of a soldiers full belly. Keep 'em coming!



Jools

Would an offline form be of any use? It could then be emailed or uploaded once complete.

Jools

Jools wrote:Would an offline form be of any use? It could then be emailed or uploaded once complete.

Jools

for the few that i have done in the past. the offline form would be great in my opinion.

ken walker

I've been trying to work out a way of acheiving this without days of work but also doing something useful. What I've come up with is a button on the cat-elog page which allows you to download a text file onto your PC.

This has all the data from the page pre-populated so you can easily edit what is there as well as add new data.

I can get this up and running in about a week. Would anyone use it?

Jools

Jools wrote: I can get this up and running in about a week. Would anyone use it?

Jools

yes i can do more work that way. ken

OK, I have now added a downloadable per species data form thing. To access it, go to the species you are interested in. We will use the recently added Akysis as an example. Its URL is

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/ak ... 1767_f.php

in your browser URL address line, change the .php to .txt

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/ak ... 1767_f.txt

Depending on your browser this will either download a text file or display it in the browser window. If the latter, copy and paste into a file called 1767_f.txt (that number will change with different species).

Being a windows user, I find the freely downloadable textpad ( http://www.textpad.com/download/index.html#downloads ) a great tool for this as it is just a text editor but it has spellchecking and other cool stuff.

Amend to your heart's desire, spellcheck and email it back as an attachment to webmaster at planetcatfish dot com.

How does that work for everyone?

Jools

PS If you guys like this I can change the "There isn't much data, click here to add some" links on the pages to access the .txt file directly.

PPS Yes, I know I could do this a lot more elegantly with XML, but text is much easier for everyone to work with.

PPPS This is better than the form method as it prepopulates and data already there.

HH, Shane,

Is this of more or less use?

Jools

I have not been working on any data subs lately, but this would work.

Doing it this way renders the submission page obsolete for me, though.

Well, the submission page has the advantage of being able to generate a list of species that have been sent in but have not yet been merged into the catelog.

The text file approach has the advantage that data already in the catelog is presented to the submitter to change or at least be cogniscent of when adding more data. You can also spell check it. Also, I may be able to automate the process but that has dangers for me to worry about too.

All in all, I prefer the text file and would be comfortable ditching the sub form process.

Anyone else?

Jools

OK, well nobody except mats used this so I guess it's not very exciting. I'll remove it for now.

Jools

jools

before you remove it can you send me the links via e-mail? will they still work if i submit to you?

kw

They're gone, but if you let me know what species you are interested in, I can reinstate them quite easily.

Jools

Jools wrote:They're gone, but if you let me know what species you are interested in, I can reinstate them quite easily.

Jools

that will work for me. i am now settling in to our new house and should be able to start helping out again on a more regular basis. i will take a look later this week and get the ball rolling.

kw

jools


i'm finally settled into our new home. i can help out now where ever you like. just recently downloaded zoogata #249 if you would like me to start there.

kw
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