1 Reply by brianmiller

  • brianmiller
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Re: Importing multiple associated species to one record

I have some Lichen data which I am trying to import into Recorder 6. The data was originally in BioBase transfer format and Adit Limited managed to get it into spreadsheet format to import into Rec6. However, the way the data was recorded there are many cases where there is a lichen that was observed on multiple tree species and these associated species are separated by commas.

When I go to import these I thought the comma would be detected and would put all the associated species in against the lichen record. However, this does not happen and it only gives me the choice of associating one of the associated species. I did not complete the import as this was not what I wanted. I tried changing the comma in the original file to a semi-colon, but the same result.

You can add multiple related occurrences (I assume this is where the associated species import goes) manually, but is it possible to import multiple associated species to one record please?

Cheers

Brian

Brian Miller
(Conservation Officer (Buckinghamshire), BBOWT)

brianmiller's Website

2 Reply by Rob B

  • Rob B
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Re: Importing multiple associated species to one record

Hi Brian, the short answer is no.


Brian, this topic has been running for some time now, see this thread here:
http://forums.nbn.org.uk/viewtopic.php?id=33 and from there to the old Smartgroup. 

I've been trying to accomplish this for about  3 months now. The other handy thing would be to import sub-communities when dealing with habitat surveys. On an incidental note, anyone know if there will be a NVC update anytime soon?

Not that any of this will help you in the short-term, but it is relieving that you are not alone!

Cheers now, Rob.

3 Reply by brianmiller

  • brianmiller
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Re: Importing multiple associated species to one record

Rob,

Thanks for reminding me of the history of this. I had an email from the British Lichen Society saying they were currently "working with the NBN to develop a purpose built import to take lichen data from BioBase into Recorder", however, they "are not going down the associated species route at this stage". Not sure at this stage where they will place the associated species info, but hope to hear soon.

In follow up to the last message  in the thread http://forums.nbn.org.uk/viewtopic.php?id=33 :

"It would be relatively simple to add Report Wizard attributes or create XML reports that display related occurrence information - perhaps Mike or Charles could have a look at this?  You are right though, related occurrences are stored in the data model but there aren't currently any ways to use the data other than browse it."

Was any progress made on this one?

Thinking about my import of associated species problem, one way round it would be to import the multiple associations matching to the first one in the group and then manually add the others when the import has finished. This will certainly be quicker than adding all the data manually or even adding all the associated species manually!

Cheers

Brian

Brian Miller
(Conservation Officer (Buckinghamshire), BBOWT)

brianmiller's Website

4 Reply by Rob B

  • Rob B
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Re: Importing multiple associated species to one record

Hi there Brian,

Keep us posted how this method works out:

to import the multiple associations matching to the first one in the group and then manually add the others when the import has finished

I have tried to do this, but with potential imports running to thousands per survey, was really looking for something slightly more efficent. That and being able to report on them would again be handy!

Cheers now, Rob.

5 Reply by brianmiller

  • brianmiller
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Re: Importing multiple associated species to one record

Rob

Rob B wrote:

with potential imports running to thousands per survey, was really looking for something slightly more efficent.

Having tested this method, it does work well, but yes, if you have thousands it could be quite time consuming, but it only applies if you have multiple associations to the one lichen record. If it is one association the import process works fine... well, almost:

One other point about this, if you have a substrate listed for the lichen record on import, it adds the substrate to the associated species as well as the Lichen record. Not very helpful or accurate. You can either leave it or change it to None.

Cheers

Brian

Brian Miller
(Conservation Officer (Buckinghamshire), BBOWT)

brianmiller's Website