1 Reply by Nick

  • Nick
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  • Registered: 11-05-2006
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Re: TaxonomySearchRequest - refined search based on TaxonGroup

Hi

I currently run the TaxonomySearch and then filter the results out where I only want a specific TaxonGroup (e.g. insect - beetle (Coleoptera)). However this is surely putting a lot more load on the NBN server than if I could search for a name limited to by TaxonGroup(s) and would also speed up the query. I am sure there is a way of doing this efficiently but can't figure it out :|

Can anyone suggest a solution?

Cheers

Nick

(ePlanning Project Manager) Aberdeenshire Council

Nick's Website

2 Reply by andyb

  • andyb
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Re: TaxonomySearchRequest - refined search based on TaxonGroup

Hi Nick,

The taxonomy search request only takes a name or taxonversionkey as parameters. I think we aniticpated it being used to give taxonomic information including synonymy and lower taxa for quite a specific search term i.e. not something like 'beetle', which I've just tested and does take a while to generate a response!

From your post, I'm not sure what you are using this service for.  However, would the species list service be more appropriate? You can add a number of filters to that including taxon reporting category and geographical region. You get a species element in the response, which contains basic taxonomic information.

If I'm way off the mark, could you let me know what you want to use the service for?

Cheers,
Andy

3 Reply by Nick

  • Nick
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Re: TaxonomySearchRequest - refined search based on TaxonGroup

Hi Andy

The current search works really well if you know say the genus. However, what I was thinking is how to improve the search capability for the general public.

The type of query I was thinking of is where the partial name is 'Frog' and it is an 'Insect'. Another example would be 'Otter' and 'Mammal' to limit the response a bit. Currently how the search works is to retreive all the responses and filter out the required ones - not terribly efficient.

The other application for this is not just in retrieving taxonomic information (including TVKs) for displaying but also to assist us in designing data entry forms that people can use to submit records with the correct TVK. So basically, whilst there are ways round it, I was wondering if there was a way of refining queries without post retrieval filtering.

I will have a look at the Species List Service - perhaps that is what I should have been using all along :|

Cheers

Nick

(ePlanning Project Manager) Aberdeenshire Council

Nick's Website

4 Reply by andyb

  • andyb
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Re: TaxonomySearchRequest - refined search based on TaxonGroup

Hi again, Nick,
I can see how developing this web service to allow filtering by taxon reporting category could be a good idea, especially for online data entry.
One caveat about this service at the moment. If the Gateway does not contain records for a particular taxon, you won't get a match to the dictionary i.e. it works in the same way as our search engine. A few people are using the service as a dictionary and wondering why they are not getting hits for some taxa. It looks like we should review this in the light of the use people want ...
Cheers,
Andy

5 Reply by Nick

  • Nick
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Re: TaxonomySearchRequest - refined search based on TaxonGroup

Hi Andy
I think that there is scope for reviewing the purpose of the dictionary. For example, I am trying to sort out some of our data on our web site. One of the problems is that the system that I have coded does not display data for poorly formed TVKs. It therefore occured to me that it would be cool to have a tool that can check for TaxonVersionKeys that are badly formed, find the correct TVK (call it the parent TVK) so that we can correct our data on the fly.
The problem is that if you search on a TVK (see example http://212.219.37.104/NBNWebServices/ex … Search.jsp e.g. NBNSYS0000005133 is the parent, NHMSYS0000332266 is a child and NHMSYS0001771990 is badly formed - the latter two don't search), it only works for the parent TVK, not for child (Synonym etc) or badly formed. So what I have started is compiling an online database that uses searches on the parent TVKs and stores the child and badly formed TVKs. That way I can do reverse searches to find the parent TVK.
However this is long-winded and the problem is that it is not dynamically updated whenever the main dictionary is updated.
So from my perspective, this would be an additional feature that would be most helpful so that can search on TVKs that aren't the parent.
Hope that makes sense
Cheer
Nick

(ePlanning Project Manager) Aberdeenshire Council

Nick's Website