1 Reply by Purgle Linham

  • Purgle Linham
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  • From: Wiltshire
  • Registered: 30-03-2009
  • Posts: 99

Re: NBN Exchange empty export

Hi
I'm trying to create updates of NBN Exchange exports using filters I've already used successfully (last time in March 2010) but after several hours of running it, it claims its saved the expected number of records to the relevant zip file but I find that the zip is empty except for the .xml file. I think this may have happened before but I can't find any mention of it here or in my notes. The number of records should be 491,706 (last time the number which exported successfully was 485,809 so a similar number). There is no error log anywhere that I can find so as far as Recorder is concerned the export worked perfectly.

I have made sure my Rec6 version/taxon dictionary/add-in is definitely fully up to date and revalidated all the surveys that were edited since last time.  I also thought I'd noted all the previous hoops I'd gone through but feel I must be missing something.  But what? Does this occur for anyone else and if so what did you do to get round it?  If it is a size issue then what is the cut-off point?  And if so could I just export records changed and added since the last time I ran it and have Graham stitch it to my original file?

Providing data to the Gateway is supposed to be relatively quick and painless after the first time but once again I've wasted the better part of two days trying to get the data out of our system.  Aaargh!

Thanks
Purgle
WSBRC

Purgle Linham
Wiltshire & Swindon Biological Records Centre

Purgle Linham's Website

2 Reply by sallyrankin

  • sallyrankin
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Re: NBN Exchange empty export

I have tested the NBN Exchange add-in by doing an export using a filter containing 5 surveys with a total of 205,191 species observations, and it worked as expected, although only 202,598 observations were exported. I did, however, receive a warning to say that there were invalid records in the data I was about to export and that these would not be exported. It took less than an hour on a laptop with little free space. Can you please confirm that you are using the latest version of the add-in: v6.13.2.24 of 21/01/2009. The More tab on Help – About ... will tell you the versions of the add-ins installed. Could you also try a small export just to check that the add-in is working on your system. Reports – Run – System reports – Statistics – St01 will tell you the number of observations per survey so that you can select small ones for the test. Presumably you have plenty of free space for creating temporary files, etc.

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

3 Reply by RobLarge

  • RobLarge
  • RobLarge
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  • From: Wiltshire
  • Registered: 15-07-2008
  • Posts: 812

Re: NBN Exchange empty export

Hi Sally

I can confirm that we are using the latest version of the add-in and also that we have used it before without a problem (perhaps when the whole dataset was smaller) and that Purgle has also successfully exported a smaller dataset as a test in the last week or so. There should be no problem with temporary file space, although that might depend where the temporary files were being created.

It is most worrying that we are not finding any error report generated, so we cannot even tell what might have gone wrong and whether it might be recoverable in some way.

Rob Large
Wildlife Sites Officer
Wiltshire & Swindon Biological Records Centre

RobLarge's Website

4 Reply by Purgle Linham

  • Purgle Linham
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  • From: Wiltshire
  • Registered: 30-03-2009
  • Posts: 99

Re: NBN Exchange empty export

Hi
I did say in my original post that everything was up to date. That was how I spent much of the first day of this enjoyable process! That and revalidating everything again to be on the safe side. After it failed the first time I ran the exporter on a small filter and it worked ok so I don't necessarily think its there that the problem lies.  However it is saying it saved X number of observations to a file when it isn't, so that isn't particularly helpful. I have a screenshot of this if its of help....

To reiterate the last time I ran it successfully (March 2010) there were 485,809 records in the export.  On Graham's advice I have run the filter a couple more times, first choosing the 'only export new and edited records since the last time you ran it' option and secondly with this option and also not including the comments field in case this was causing the problem.  Still no file produced either time. Without an error message I cannot even begin to think how I can find a problem within the data - which has successfully imported (and got through those validation checks) and been revalidated (more validation checks).

I also am surprised it ran so quickly on your laptop, Sally.  Just the first bit to when you choose the fields to export takes at least two hours. Ours is networked of course, so that might be why its that much slower? Please can you let us know exactly where it saves the temp file in this instance so we can make sure this isn't an issue?

Thanks

Purgle Linham
Wiltshire & Swindon Biological Records Centre

Purgle Linham's Website