1 Reply by amb

  • amb
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Re: Importing Sample reference (and other unsupported columns)

I am mildly surprised to see that SAMPLE_REFERENCE is not one of the supported columns of the Import wizard, since I would have thought that this is a useful field for labelling/identifying Samples (possibly more used than the taxon occurrence Surveyors_Ref, which is supported). 

What is the best route for importing data when there are columns that are not supported by the Import Wizard?

Cheers,
Anne

2 Reply by charlesroper

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  • charlesroper
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Re: Importing Sample reference (and other unsupported columns)

Hi Anne,

There really isn't an easy solution. You could put in a feature request via the Feature Request section on this forum or you could ask someone like Mike Weideli to do a custom import for you.

Charles

Charles Roper
Digital Development Manager | Field Studies Council
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3 Reply by Lizzy Peat

  • Lizzy Peat
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Re: Importing Sample reference (and other unsupported columns)

We shove extra information (which won't fit anywhere else) in the comments box-
not ideal but at least the information is attached to the record- even if it is only text.

Best,

Lizzy Peat
HBIC

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4 Reply by charlesroper

  • charlesroper
  • charlesroper
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Re: Importing Sample reference (and other unsupported columns)

Another solutions might be to create a measurement. You could create a new measurement type of "Reference" and a qualifier of "Sample" (i.e. a "Reference of Sample"). This could then be imported via the import wizard. The "measurement" would be attached to each occurrence rather than the sample, though. You could then run a query (again, someone like Mike Weideli could write one for you) that would populate your real Sample Reference field based on your Reference of Sample "measurement". The query could be in the form of an XML Report. This would be much, much easier than a custom import, and much cheaper too - a hour's or two worth of work perhaps.

Charles

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 amb

  • amb
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Re: Importing Sample reference (and other unsupported columns)

Hi,
Thanks for these ideas and comments; they have given me ideas to chew on, but as Charles suggests, it is probably something that I should add as a Feature Request for future updates.  I don't really like the idea of saving the data somewhere else when it has its own field in the Samples table.

Cheers,
Anne