1 Topic by Tim

  • Tim
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Topic: First time attempting to conduct data search, help please

Hi there, I'm attempting to use the NBN to search for species records for a specific site.

I'm afraid I've been unable to figure out how to do it. Any advice would be greatly received!

Thanks,

Tim.

2 Reply by kbalmer (edited by kbalmer 13-02-2014 13:08:08)

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Re: First time attempting to conduct data search, help please

If you are trying to use the Gateway website then start here: https://data.nbn.org.uk/Site_Datasets

If you are trying to use REST then this is the documentation https://data.nbn.org.uk/Documentation/W … tions.html

You will need to find the code for the particular site and use this as the featureID.

Here's the documentation for finding the site's ID https://data.nbn.org.uk/Documentation/W … ource.html

To cut a long story short
https://data.nbn.org.uk/api/taxonObserv … 3391003096
will give the species records for Barton Hills SSSI

https://data.nbn.org.uk/api/taxonObserv … 3391003096
will give a species list instead.

(I think).

Beware of coarse resolution records, e.g. 10km, which cannot be filtered out, so you may get information from sites a long way away showing up! I've asked for a fix for this which is hopefully on a list somewhere...

Keith

kbalmer's Website

3 Reply by Tim (edited by Tim 13-02-2014 13:35:34)

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Re: First time attempting to conduct data search, help please

Basically I have a grid ref for a point and need records for a 500m radius. Am I right in thinking I can actually only get 10km square results?

Or do I get a point code using the site ID link? Had a look at it and I'm afraid I couldn't figure out what it was getting at either.

Is there a dummies guide to using the gateway for an absolute beginner like myself? How do people normally go about learning to use it from scratch? The user guide on the website is confusing.

Thanks

Tim.

4 Reply by kbalmer (edited by kbalmer 13-02-2014 13:40:42)

  • kbalmer
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Re: First time attempting to conduct data search, help please

Tim wrote:

Basically I have a grid ref for a point and need records for a 500m radius.

The Gateway doesn't support this.

Tim wrote:

Is there a dummies guide to using the gateway for an absolute beginner like myself? How do people normally go about learning to use it from scratch?

Have you read through their documentation here: https://data.nbn.org.uk/Documentation/

Keith

kbalmer's Website

5 Reply by Tim

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Re: First time attempting to conduct data search, help please

Fair enough. I'm dyslexic and can struggle with written instructions. Perhaps that's it.

Thanks for your advice all the same.

6 Reply by Tim (edited by Tim 13-02-2014 15:43:42)

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Re: First time attempting to conduct data search, help please

kbalmer wrote:

Have you read through their documentation



The problem as a beginner at this is that the help resources start off with a user friendly interface but link immediately to pages like this: https://data.nbn.org.uk/Documentation/W … y%20-.html

...for which there is no (as far as I can see) explanation as to what it all means or is for.

7 Reply by matt.debont

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Re: First time attempting to conduct data search, help please

Unfortunately that is what we have at the moment, the API documentation was created for consumption by developers wanting to use the API as part of other applications.

We don't support a point and radius method at present, it is on the list of features in the future but I can't give any feedback on when that is likely to be done right now. If you want to do this you would have to generate a circular polygon and feed that to the API as one of the querystring parameters to this endpoint;

https://data.nbn.org.uk/Documentation/W … tions.html

The polygon would need to be in WKT format (to WGS84 coordinates), there is an example of how this can be done in this post;

http://forums.nbn.org.uk/viewtopic.php?pid=19404#p19404

Unfortunately that is all I can really offer at present, hope that helps a little

Matt Debont
Application Developer
Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Monkstone House, City Road, Peterborough PE1 1JY, UK

8 Reply by TomAugust

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Re: First time attempting to conduct data search, help please

I agree that the documentation is currently aimed at developers, and I think it does that fairly well.

Tim - I'm not sure what languages/software you usually work in but I'm developing tools in R for getting data out of the NBN. Admittedly it cannot get data for a given radius around a point such that you are after but it is designed for (and the documentation is written for) people with a basic understanding of R.

https://github.com/JNCC-UK/rnbn

Tom

9 Reply by Tim

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Re: First time attempting to conduct data search, help please

Thanks for the advice guys.

As it happens I've made some progress on my own. By using the map, finding my location and simply searching for individual species I've been able to find records of them by zooming out, allowing the map to load and seeing what is where. It's a little vague but better than nothing and is nice to be able to use the resource.