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Topic: Unable to export unparsed determiner names

I created a temporary survey, imported TempObservers and Unparsed Determiner, and attempted to export to Excel using Consolidated Recorders and Consolidated Determiners. The former retained the original names, while the latter exported them as "Withheld". This was the case whether I exported all records or selected from a single survey. I can see that the Unparsed Determiner name has been added to the appropriate Private tab.

During the import process, Recorder did not recognise Unparsed Determiners as a Determiner column and prompted me to either use the first Observer Name as the Determiner or provide a determiner name for all entries. I tried both options (selecting Withheld for the second option), as no third choice was available, but the result remained unchanged for Consolidated Determiner.

Any suggestions to resolve this?

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Re: Unable to export unparsed determiner names

Hi

There is  a bug in reporting which is causing an issue. If you have Management Studio installed the attached SQL script will sort it out.

Apart from this it looks like the process is working as it should.

TempObservers are held in the Sample table are not considered as Observers within the R6 data model. When TempObserver is used the actual observer is considered as 'Unknown' which is reported as 'Withheld'. The information held in TempObserver is a free text field which provides additional information which cannot be attributed to specific individuals. Similarly, as unparsed determiner column is just additional information. By definition,  Recorders and Determiners must be an identifiable with an entry in the Names structure.

When using TempObserver, the determiner can be handled in one of four ways.

1. Use the Recorder as the determiner. When  Tempobservers is used this will always be withheld as R6 considers the actual observer to be unknown, this making the determiner also 'withheld' (unknown).
2. Select a specific determiner from the list of Individuals held in the system and apply this to all records. For example this would allow the system user to identify themselves as the determiner.
3. Include a determiner column which can be parsed to identify the specific determiner for each record.
4. Include a determiner column which can be allocated to 'Unparsed Determiner'. The entries in this column will end up in Taxon_Private_Data.


The private tab on the Sample will show the TempObserver. The private tab on the Occurrence will show the Unparsed Determiner if allocated using option4. 

As far as reporting is concerned it should work as follows but an error in a script causes an issue with Consolidated Determiner.

Consolidated Recorder. This will pick up the actual Recorders for the record unless the Recorder is identified as 'Withheld'. In this case the entry TempObserver text will be substituted for the entry.

Consolidated Determiner.  If method 1 has been used then 'Withheld' will always be returned. If method 2 or 3 above has been used then the actual determiner as identified will be returned. If method 4 has been used and the unparsed determiner details will be returned but only if the actual determiner is unknown.

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ConsolidatedDeterminer.sql 1.7 kb, 2 downloads since 2025-06-03 

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Mike Weideli

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Re: Unable to export unparsed determiner names

Many thanks for this Mike, and for your prompt replies to previous queries. I can confirm the fix worked on my personal copy of Recorder 6 and will now pass it on to our IT department to fix the NESBReC version.

Regards