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Topic: Import wizard matches

Following on from this thread in the Species Dictionary section

http://forums.nbn.org.uk/viewtopic.php?id=4730

I was wondering if it might be possible to sidestep the delays in updating the preferred vascular plant list by inserting records into the table IW_Matched_species?

I was thinking to take a table of all of the name changes & using the rucksack builder tool to create a list of recommended TLIKs (and list keys) for the 'old' names & then combining these with the new names & inserting these into the table.

The problem has become more urgent since MapMate has now incorporated the Stace 3 changes into its dictionary so any data we receive from MapMate users may now contain names which are not in the R6 dictionary.

Are there any pitfalls anyone can identify to this approach?

Rob Large
Wildlife Sites Officer
Wiltshire & Swindon Biological Records Centre

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Re: Import wizard matches

There used to be permissions problems with accessing the IW_Matched tables but this was rectified in v6.18 so they are now easier to use. If you are importing matches from an Excel file via the SQL Server wizard, activated by right clicking NBNData then selecting Tasks – Import Data, take care that fields that should be null are actually null and don’t contain the word ‘NULL’. If they contain the word ‘NULL’, the matches aren’t remembered when using the R6 import wizard. It is also worth noting that the Match_Checklist_Key isn’t necessarily the key for the checklist the Matched_Key belongs to. When doing the search to find matches in the R6 import wizard, the matches used will be those with Match_Checklist_Key set to the key for the checklist selected when the Search button is clicked.

Sally Rankin, JNCC Recorder Approved Expert
E-mail: s.rankin@btinternet.com
Telephone: 01491 578633
Mobile: 07941 207687

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Re: Import wizard matches

Rob

Did you ever get round to doing this?  I need to import over 400,000 flowering plant records from MapMate into Recorder so I'm keen to cut down the number of species name matches I will have to do, especially because of the Stace 3 name changes.

Andy Foy
Systems Manager
Greenspace Information for Greater London (GiGL) CIC
www.gigl.org.uk

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Re: Import wizard matches

No Andy I haven't done it yet I am afraid. Too busy trying to solve intractable IT problems at the moment.

Rob Large
Wildlife Sites Officer
Wiltshire & Swindon Biological Records Centre