Diversity Agents

Module Related Entry

The DiversityWorkbench is a set of components for building and managing biodiversity information. Each of which focuses on a particular domain and provides services for the other modules. For an introduction see a short tutorial Video starten.

To use the service of an external module you need access to the database of this module and optionally the module application placed in your application directory. Entries related to an external module have a standard interface in the main form.

Linking to a datasource or module

There are 4 options to link the content to a datasource (or module).

  • Local database
  • Remote database
  • Cache database
  • Webservice

There are two differnt approaches for providing content for the textbox. Either as a autocomplete list (, , ) or by searching values on base of the entered text in combination with a combobox ().

For the autocomplete lists just start to type and the corresponding entries will be listed where you can choose the entry you are looking for. To set the link including additional information provided by the original source (, ), you just have to leave the textbox. The program will then contact the database to which the entry corresponds and insert the additional information including the link to the source database.

The next paragaphs show how to uses this linking. The colours of the pins are automatically set when a datasource is set. The colour indicates if the current set datasource ist set to the local, remote or cache databse or to a webservice. To select one of the datasources, click on the  button and choose among the sources.

Local database

The values shown in the autocomplete list are taken from the entries in the local database.

This is the default. To refresh the content or slect the local databse as source, click on the pin button, choose the first empty entry of the list and click OK.

Remote database

To set the datasource on a remote database, choose a database from the list.

Either a database available via a linked server (e.g. [TNT.DIVERSITYWORKBENCH.DE,5432].DiversityTaxonNames_TaxaVaria see below) or a database on your local server, starting with e.g. DiversityTaxonNames for taxa in the identification

Next you will be asked to choose a project within the selected source. In case there are additional options you may be asked e.g. for taxa to restrict the content to a checklist provided by the datasource. The pin button and the textbox will change their color to orange to indicate the current source type. The autocomplete list is then generated based on the content in the remote database. When you leave the textbox the software will automatically add additional information from the selected source and set the link as shown below.

 

Cache database

To provide data via the cache database these data must be first imported as source as described in the link to cacheDB chapter.

This option provides faster access to remote data e.g. on linked servers . To choose a source from the cache database, click on the pin button and select the entry CacheDB from the list (see below) and click OK.

Next you will be asked to choose among the sources provided by the cache database. Choose your preferred source and click OK. The button and the textbox will change their color to to indicate the current source type. Now the values for the autocomplete list will be based on this datasource. Just start to type and the corresponding entries will be listed where you can choose the entry you are looking for. To set the link including additional information provided by the original source, you have to leave the textbox. The program will contact the database to which the entries in the cache database correspond and insert the additional information.

Webservice 

To set the datasource on a webservice, choose a webservice from the list as shown below. The pin button and the textbox will change their color to blue to indicate the current source type.

To get data from the webservice, you have to enter a search text in the textbox and click on the combobox button to search the webservice for matching entries. Choose among the provided results to fill the textfield and the set the link to the webservice.   

States and functions of the interface

There are several states and functions of this interface:

  • 1: the value is only set in the local database with no connection to the remote module. In this state you may either type the value or select it from the values which are already available in the database (see above).

  • 2: the value is related to the remote module.

If you wish to set a relation to the remote module you have 2 options:

Option 1

Click on the pin button to select a source as described above.

An overview for all settings can be found under Administration - Customize display - Settings.

Charts

After the source is set to a database of the DiversityWorkbench certain datasources provide also charts for the selection of taxa or terms. Click on the chart button to open a table where you can select one of the provided taxa resp. terms. Video starten

 

Option 2 Detailed linking with query option

Click on the amonite button. A window will open where you may select an entry from the foreign database. If the option for loading the connections is not set the connection to a database may not be established indicated by a button. Either requery all connections as described in chapter Connections or click on the button to open the database connections for the linked module. With this option you have the full range of query options as shown in the image below as well as access to additional webservices.

For DiversityScientificTerms you can use a hierarchy for the selection of the lists as shown below.

 

If the value has a relation to the remote module, the interface will appear as shown below with the content of textbox set to read only and a yellow background.

To release the connection to the remote module click on the button. If you require further information on the value, click on the button. This will open a form showing an overview of the related value.

If the client application of the module is available, you may inspect the details of the entry. To start the client application of the remote module click on the button. 

If the provided link does not correspond to a dataset in the source, you will get a message as shown below. Click Yes to remove the wrong link and replace it with a valid link. Video starten

 

Relation to a webservice

Some modules provide the possibility to link your data to an external webservice. For example, DiversityTaxonNames gives you access to the taxonomic names of IndexFungorum. To establish a connection to an external webservice click on the button. As with the link to modules within the DiversityWorkbench, a window will open where you are able to choose from either DiversityWorkbench modules or external Webservices. See chapter Webservice for further details