1 Reply by Janet Simkin

  • Janet Simkin
  • Janet Simkin
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  • From: Northumberland
  • Registered: 10-05-2006
  • Posts: 260

Re: Taxon occurrence data

We make heavy use of the Taxon_Occurrence_Data Data field to hold details of lichen positions and substrates, but this field is only 20 characters long. We need about 40 characters to import the information held in our old database and on record cards. Is there any way I can extend it, or do I have to plead for it to be changed in a future release?

Janet

Janet Simkin
British Lichen Society

Janet Simkin's Website

2 Reply by Lynn Heeley

  • Lynn Heeley
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  • Registered: 03-07-2008
  • Posts: 345

Re: Taxon occurrence data

Hi Janet,

Sorry for the delay in getting to your post.
I have logged your request and have asked whether there is a work around in the meantime - hopefully I will get back to you with an answer shortly.

Lynn

3 Reply by Lynn Heeley

  • Lynn Heeley
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  • Registered: 03-07-2008
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Re: Taxon occurrence data

You could make the changes in your own system as an interim until it is changed in core Recorder but I cannot guarantee when would be able to make this change and in the meantime this may cause complications when you export records (as the receiving database will not ahve the same field length). If this is not a problem then you could probably quite happily go ahead - however future upgrades (6.14) which will not have this change included may change the field length back (not sure how this works). Probably best to make do as best you can until we can make the change centrally. I've put it as high up the list as I can (ikely to be fairly minor in terms of costs so hopefully we should be able to get it in next FY but I can't promise).

Sorry to not have been more help,
Lynn

4 Reply by Janet Simkin

  • Janet Simkin
  • Janet Simkin
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  • From: Northumberland
  • Registered: 10-05-2006
  • Posts: 260

Re: Taxon occurrence data

Thanks for looking into this. We don't hold data of more than 20 characters in this field, just use it to import longer strings which are then split into multiple records, so a local change seemed worth trying. It didn't work though. MSE gave a warning that the changed table could take a long time to save and then the timeout expired before the save was completed. The message is:

'TAXON_OCCURRENCE_DATA' table
- Unable to modify table. 
Timeout expired.  The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding.

Presumably the timeout could be changed as well, just for this one operation, but I don't know how and don't like to meddle with things I don't fully understand. We are about to start importing a dataset for which the 20 char limit is going to be a real problem though, so if we could get this to work as a temporary workaround it would be a big help.

Janet

Janet Simkin
British Lichen Society

Janet Simkin's Website