1 Reply by charlesroper

  • charlesroper
  • charlesroper
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Re: Species Microformat

It would be good if Indicia (and the Biodiversity Observatory, if you're there Martin) made use of the Species Microformat. If you've not come across Microformats (uF's for short) before, here's an intro:

http://microformats.org/wiki/introduction

Here's an example of the kind of thing you can do if you're using them in your markup:

http://24ways.org/2007/unobtrusively-mapping-microformats-with-jquery

So the Species Microformat provides a stanard way to mark-up a taxon name simply by using a standard set of class names. Here's the proposal (the standard is still in development) with some examples:

http://microformats.org/wiki/species-strawman-01

The most prominent example of the Species uF in the wild is on Wikipedia in the "Taxoboxes" that are seen on each species page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Taxobox

Example:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otter

Charles Roper
Digital Development Manager | Field Studies Council
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2 Reply by kitenet

  • kitenet
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Re: Species Microformat

Thanks for the reminder about this Charles, will add it to our list of things to consider.

Martin

P.S. I guess we could start using the "public name" for Biodiversity Observatory, which is "iSpot" - a bit easier to type!

Martin Harvey
Biological Records Centre
CEH Wallingford

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3 Reply by johnvanbreda

  • johnvanbreda
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Re: Species Microformat

Hi Charles

Good idea, it would definitely make sense for us to use species microformats to markup taxon info on Indicia driven websites. The core of Indicia (which we are working on now) is actually a middleware so doesn't generate the markup that will be presented on the online recording sites. However we are also working on PHP classes that will provide quick and easy ways of building up data entry forms and browsers that use the middleware - it would make sense for these to markup taxon names using the microformat. You'd be then free to use these classes or implement your own.

In fact we should have a look for other microformats to support as well, for example geo ones that give us spatial support for free.

Another thing that crossed my mind is support for LSIDs (see http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yA_9zofX1ME). That may also apply to the Biodiversity Observatory?

I'll add these ideas to our feature suggestions list.

Cheers

John van Breda
Biodiverse IT

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4 Reply by charlesroper

  • charlesroper
  • charlesroper
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Re: Species Microformat

johnvanbreda wrote:

In fact we should have a look for other microformats to support as well, for example geo ones that give us spatial support for free.

Yes, definitely. You could use hCard for people, adr for locations, geo for coordinates and the date-design-pattern for dates.

Charles Roper
Digital Development Manager | Field Studies Council
http://www.field-studies-council.org | https://twitter.com/charlesroper | https://twitter.com/fsc_digital

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5 Reply by charlesroper

  • charlesroper
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Re: Species Microformat

For information:

http://bioformats.org/

Nothing directly relevant, yet, but one to watch.

Charles Roper
Digital Development Manager | Field Studies Council
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6 Reply by johnvanbreda

  • johnvanbreda
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Re: Species Microformat

Hi Charles

So far, we've been working on the client data entry form builders and mapping tools, where microformats are perhaps not so relevant. It's on our list of things to do when we start writing data browsing tools. It should be quite fun when it's all working! I notice the default script for the species microformat includes an nbn species dictionary search.

Cheers

John van Breda
Biodiverse IT

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7 Reply by johnvanbreda

  • johnvanbreda
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Re: Species Microformat

Hi Charles

The species microformat, or other microformats, are now be supported in the reporting engine in Indiciaa. There is a demo in the Recent Observations in Survey report which tags the species names.

Cheers

John

John van Breda
Biodiverse IT

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8 Reply by johnvanbreda

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Re: Species Microformat

I've now made the species checklist grid control support the species microformat, which is quite nice since whilst you are using a grid based data entry there are quick links to things like the NBN search or WikiImages for each species in the grid. That feature will be in the next release (not in v0.2).

Best Wishes.

John van Breda
Biodiverse IT

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9 Reply by charlesroper

  • charlesroper
  • charlesroper
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Re: Species Microformat

John, have you got a demo of the new checklist grid control I can check out?

Charles Roper
Digital Development Manager | Field Studies Council
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10 Reply by johnvanbreda

  • johnvanbreda
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Re: Species Microformat

Hi Charles

There are some demos at http://testwarehouse.indicia.org.uk/mod … /index.php.

Cheers

John van Breda
Biodiverse IT

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