NBN GATEWAY VERSION 5.0 – Stage 1
Release date:  December 2012

This new version of the NBN Gateway has been released alongside the current version of the NBN Gateway and is available to view from the current NBN Gateway homepage. The new version has involved a major rebuild of the site incorporating new technology and has been initially limited to use with public data only. Over the next few months further NBN Gateway functionality will be added to this new version of the NBN Gateway in stages.

During this transition phase no further changes to the current NBN Gateway can be made. This includes changes to levels of access, addition of new or updates to datasets or administrative changes to organisations or datasets. Web services will continue to be available from the current version of NBN Gateway.

Stage 1 release has the following functionality available

Interactive mapping tool –can be used to map single species, designations, datasets, site and habitat boundaries. Ability to view record details is not available in this initial release.

Grid map report  – grid map technology has been updated to provide maps at a national and local vice county level, as well as expanding the list of grid squares for the species to include higher resolution grid references. Ability to download species records from the grid map will not be available at this stage.

Site and gridsquare reports  –report technology has been updated to provide maps and species lists. The reports have been expanded from 10km reports to include reports for all resolutions of grid references. These can be accessed by typing in the gridreference into the top search box. A limited number of sites are available to use in this release, more site will be added in the New Year.  Ability to view and download records for a site report will not be available at this stage.

Sites list for a species report  – report technology has been updated to provide list of sites for a species.

Browse datasets, species, sites and designations  – technology has been updated to provide a more generic search facility on the NBN Gateway.

Taxonomy pages  – the current taxonomy page have been incorporated into improved taxonomy pages. These pages include a taxonomic tree and species map at a national level, as well as listing species designations.

Metadata pages  – technology has been updated with an improved graphical interface for summarising records by year.

Administration pages – administration of organisations and datasets will not be available at this stage.  It will be included in the next stage release planned for early next year.

Setting access levels – user’s levels of access to datasets have been transferred to the new NBN Gateway according to the new access controls. In this release the ability to login to request, grant or update access rights will not be available but will be introduced in the New Year.

Channel Islands – the geographical extent of NBN Gateway has now been expanded to include the Channel Islands.

Loading of species dataset, including site and habitat layers, will recommence on the new NBN Gateway but not on the current version of the NBN Gateway in the New Year. Once loaded dataset s will now appear immediately on the NBN Gateway without the need to wait for the monthly updates.

The next stage of release, planned for the New Year, will introduce pages to allow administration of organisations and datasets on the NBN Gateway including requesting and granting of enhanced access for datasets. Improved download and reporting functionality will be introduced in the final third stage release.

Once all these stages have been released the NBN web services will be transferred over to the new version of the NBN Gateway and the current NBN Gateway to be switched off.

Further information on the changes to the NBN Gateway and the access controls can be found on the NBN web site: http://www.nbn.org.uk/Share-Data/Data-a … trols.aspx .  We would welcome any feedback, comments or suggestions over the coming months as this new version of the NBN Gateway is released – please contact us on access@nbn.org.uk.

Best wishes

Graham French
NBN Technical Liaison Officer