1 Reply by ChrisR

  • ChrisR
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Re: Tachinid maps

Hi

I'm new to the forum, so I'll probably ask a lot of silly questions - apologies in advance! ;)

I manage the Tachinid Recording Scheme website - currently using self-coded PHP/MySQL. I'd like to move over to a platform based around WordPress (or possibly drupal if someone can give me a good reason for using it), which means doing a couple of things:

1. populating my own taxon database with the NBNSYS codes.
2. developing PHP modules that interface with the NBN web-services system to retrieve maps etc.

With regard to #1 is there any way that I can generate a simple CSV/XML containing all current/valid species names in the taxon database relating to Diptera-Tachinidae, with the NBNSYS code? I currently hold the BRC species number against each species but I am guessing you don't have that so I'll have to rely on genus/species as my key?

When I have the NBNSYS codes in my database I feel that it should be a simple job to issue calls to the NBN web-services server but I'm having real trouble making sense of the help pages. There is a very basic introduction to dynamic pages but then it seems to drop the user in at the deep end with Java & .NET. Is there a simple PHP tutorial for retrieving maps for a species?

Thanks in advance - ChrisR.   :)

Chris Raper, Manager of the UK Species Inventory, Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity,
Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD.  (tel: 020 7942 5894)
also Tachinid Recording Scheme (http://tachinidae.org.uk/)

2 Reply by Jim Bacon

  • Jim Bacon
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Re: Tachinid maps

Hi Chris,

Good reasons for using Drupal include
- use by others in the community including the Biological Records Centre, the Natural History Museum, Open University (iSpot), British Dragonfly Society and more. See http://www.nbn.org.uk/Useful-things/On-line-recording.aspx for a tutorial by Stuart Ball.
- plug in module for online recording and reporting using Indicia.
- plug in module for displaying NBN maps (not published and I'm not sure quite what state it is in but we are using it and it is something we could share and you could build on.)

I can extract a csv report from the BRC database of genus, species, BRC code and NBN code. I just had a look and there might be a few holes to plug but it is probably 99% there.

If you want, you can also completely side-step calling web services for NBN maps by calling them indirectly through the BRC website. See http://www.brc.ac.uk/schemes/NBNWidget/Easy_Maps_v6.pdf.

Some PHP instructions for calling web servicese here http://www.nbn.org.uk/Guidebooks/Web-services-documentation/the-web-services/Species-List/PHP-tutorial.aspx and here http://www.nbn.org.uk/Guidebooks/Web-services-documentation/the-web-services/Taxon-reporting-category-list/php-tutorial.aspx and here http://www.nbn.org.uk/Guidebooks/Web-services-documentation/the-web-services/Grid-map/php-tutorial.aspx

Jim Bacon.

3 Reply by ChrisR (edited by ChrisR 30-08-2011 09:11:46)

  • ChrisR
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Re: Tachinid maps

Hi Jim

I will have another look at drupal, you're right - it certainly is popular in the recording/museum world so I chould perhaps make sense to go that way. I've always gone with WordPress in the past because it has a lot of available plugins and themes, which means less development by me ;)

The CSV would be very useful - thanks - just the fields you mentioned. If you like I can send you back a CSV after I have imported the NBN codes ... that would include all the new species in the British list. I have noticed that your taxon dictionary has most of the new ones but is missing a few species. Anyway, I'll PM you my email addy.

In the end I have done direct calls to the new interactive mapping, as you suggested ... here is the site: http://tachinidae.org.uk/blog/ (still in development obviously). But it would be nice to display a small (slightly bigger than thumbnail) map in the old-format (non-interactive) map for each species. Here is an example species page: http://tachinidae.org.uk/blog/?page_id= … mp;q=15701 so I will have a play with that today.

Thanks again, Chris R.

Chris Raper, Manager of the UK Species Inventory, Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity,
Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD.  (tel: 020 7942 5894)
also Tachinid Recording Scheme (http://tachinidae.org.uk/)