1 Reply by ThomasSchneider

  • ThomasSchneider
  • New member
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  • From: Merzig, Germany
  • Registered: 20-03-2007
  • Posts: 3

Re: 'Unknown' vague date not possible for Determinations

I need to enter determinations of herbarium revisions that have no revision date.
Trying this, I get a message back that says, "The Determination Date cannot come before the sample date".
The only possibility to enter a determination of which a determination date is unknown is to change dates (vague dates) of Survey Event and Sample as well.

I think it would be very helpful to change the plausibility check at this point, so that the vague date 'Unknown' can be entered.

Thomas SCHNEIDER

Teamleader Recorder D-Project
Delattinia, Merzig Germany

2 Reply by SimonWood

  • SimonWood
  • Veteran
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  • Registered: 09-09-2008
  • Posts: 63

Re: 'Unknown' vague date not possible for Determinations

In theory, you know that the determination date is after or equal to the sample date,  so ideally instead of 'unknown' you should be able to enter something along the lines of 'from sample date onwards'.  However 'onwards' functionality is currently only applicable to some of the vague date types, such as 'yyyy -'   (eg '1998 -' meaning some time after 01/01/1998 ) .  You cannot currently specify '24/12/2001 -'.   This obviously then causes issues if your 'sample date' is of the form dd/mm/yyyy, and you don't know the determination date. 

One poor resolution to this would be to change the sample date to just the year, then you can record an unknown determination as 'yyyy -'. 

I agree that the date handling needs looking at in this area.

Simon Wood
[url=http://www.dorsetsoftware.com/]Dorset Software Services[/url]

SimonWood's Website