They don't appear to work any more.

Does anybody have the algorithm to generate NBN upload date_types? I imagine the Recorder6 database uses a function and takes the start date and end date as parameters to return D, DD, O, OO etc.

I want to embed it into a spreadsheet as a function in order to upload a large batch of records to the NBN. Ideally I don't want to have to import this data into our copy of Recorder6 just to obtain a date_type.

All of the other fields I can easily lookup i.e. NBN_taxon_key.

Thanks.

I am converting the Gateway REST response to an XML then transforming the XML using an XSL (transformation stylesheet).
I've just succeed in putting together a stylesheet that successfully converts the REST XML response into a csv, it should be usable by anyone and it's just so damn beautiful i had to share it!

You'll notice i am currently omitting the site key and taxon authority fields. This is because they are not always returned with a record and it was leading to file misalignment. Once i figure out how to include the node even when absent i'll post an update.

 <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output omit-xml-declaration="yes" method="text" encoding="UTF-8" />

<xsl:template match="@*|node()">
    <xsl:copy>
        <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()"/>
    </xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="/*"> <!-- add headers to sheet -->
<xsl:for-each select="*[1]/*[not(self::siteKey)][not(self::pTaxonAuthority)]">
<xsl:text>"</xsl:text>
<xsl:value-of select="name()"/>
<xsl:text>"</xsl:text>
<xsl:if test="position() != last()">
    <xsl:value-of select="','"/>
</xsl:if>
</xsl:for-each>
<xsl:text>&#10;</xsl:text>
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="TaxonObservation"> <!-- add values under headers -->
  <xsl:for-each select="*[not(self::siteKey)][not(self::pTaxonAuthority)]">
  <xsl:text>"</xsl:text>
   <xsl:value-of select="."/>
   <xsl:text>"</xsl:text>
   <xsl:if test="position() != last()">
    <xsl:value-of select="','"/>
   </xsl:if>
  </xsl:for-each>
  <xsl:text>&#10;</xsl:text>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="@siteKey" />
<xsl:template match="@pTaxonAuthority" />

</xsl:stylesheet>

I thought I'd like to document how I've done my authentication in a non-PHP way. As it happens, I've done it in Classic ASP (I know)! But the principles should apply to any language. I'll try and be as non-specific as possible.

You firstly need a way of posting to the Indicia warehouse. I'm using a MS component to do this, but any would do...

' Get a nonce from the warehouse
' NB, you need to set the request header to the correct format

url = ".../index.php/services/security/get_read_nonce"

Set xmlHTTP = CreateObject("MSXML2.ServerXMLHTTP.6.0")
xmlHTTP.Open "POST", url, False
xmlHTTP.SetRequestHeader "content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
xmlHTTP.Send "website_id=" & WEBSITE_ID

nonce = xmlHTTP.ResponseText

' Now we have the nonce we can combine that with our password to create our auth token...
' You'll need to have a way of applying a sha1 algorithm to it. I haven't included how I've done this.
' It's important that you sha1 the nonce, a colon then the password (in that order).

authToken = Sha1(nonce & ":" & PASSWORD)

You can then use the authToken to access the Indicia warehouse.

Hope this helps anyone who's not using the PHP toolkit.

Regards,

Steve.

I have successfully authenticated with the test warehouse and now I'd like to be able to get a list of UK species.

But I can't find out the correct URL / syntax to use.

I thought they’d be in a table I could access. For instance on a URL like this:

http://testwarehouse.indicia.org.uk/ind … ta/species

I can’t seem to find any help on this anywhere.

Thanks in advance,

Steve.

If different biological recording system providers and implementers could agree on a standard for referencing biological records, the worst of these problems could be avoided going forward. One way that suggests itself is by using the Open Software Foundation’s (OSF) standard for Universally Unique Identifiers (UUIDs) as implemented, for example, by Microsoft’s Globally Unique Identifiers (GUIDs).

As a community we need to start taking a proactive approach to developing technical solutions to the problem of duplicate records. The NBN (through involvement NBN Gateway, Indicia and iRecord), JNCC (through involvement in Recorder 6 development) and BRC (through involvement in iRecord) are key players in the development of UK biodiversity informatics systems and standards. Is there a debate within and/or between these organisations around the possibility of standardising references?
   
Whether UUIDs or another standard for assigning unique identifiers were used, the crucial thing would be that all biological recording software providers should implement it. If the influential organisations in the UK biodiversity informatics development community effectively promoted a standard to developers and users of biological recording software, then conformance to the standard would come to be regarded as a ‘selling point’ and more likely to be implemented.

Technically, a standardised reference needn’t be difficult to implement. In the first instance, it could simply sit alongside the reference systems currently used by existing software. The key thing is that it would be honoured when records move between systems.

Janet