Diversity Collection

Entities, contexts, usage and languages

DiversityCollection may be used in diverse contexts like collection management, observations or field mapping. To ensure that a user working in a certain area will see the descriptions corresponding to his domain the DiversityWorkbench provides the possibility to define corresponding contexts.

To set the context and the language for the program choose Administration - Customize display … from the menu. A window will open as shown below where you may select the language and the context which should be used. By default the language will be set according to the settings of your operating system, however, you may change it here. The default language within DiversityCollection is English. If you select a certain context, the tables in the lower part of the form will show you the special setting within this context. These settings are edited as described below.  

For the documentation of the tables used for the storage of the entity related data please see the section Entity tables.

To edit the entities choose Administration - Application description … from the menu. A window will open as shown below where you may edit the entities defined for the program.

Group for the display of the entity

If in a user interface certain entities should be displayed in a group, enter the name of the group here. 

Usage

If nothing is defined for the usage of an entity, it will be handled according to the rights of the user. In certain context an entity may be set to e.g. read only, inapplicable or not used. In case of the later two possibilities the entity will not appear in the interface of the program. For example, transaction management (e.g. loan) will not be handled with a mobile device, thus the corresponding entities will be set to “not used”. Use the Insert new usage button to insert a new usage for an entity. To edit the possible usages choose Administration - Usage … from the menu.

• inapplicable: An entity which may not be applied in a certain context will not be shown in a user interface, e.g. the depositors accession number in the context observation. 
• preset: An entity will have a preset value, e.g. ‘determination’ for the identification category in the context observation.
• read only: An entity may not be changed.
• hidden: An entity should be hidden from the user interface.   

Context

The default context is General. Thus, in the beginning you will find all representations within this context. Within the representation, when a certain context is missing, the program will search for a representation in the parent context until a representation is found. To edit the context choose Administration - Context … from the menu. A window will open as shown below where you may edit the context.

Representation

An entity may have differing representations in different contexts. For example a CollectionEvent may correspond to an observation or gathering in other contexts. Use the Entity and Representation menu to fill in missing entries. If an only if entity should receive a different title or description in the user interface, enter the values in the table. If nothing is defined in a certain context, the program will walk up the tree defined with the parent code (see the image above) to find available values for the title or description of the entity. The highest entry in the hierarchy is the context General with the language English. If you define deviating values for the display text, the abbreviation or the description, you must at least enter values in the highest entry (General, English) as a default value for all other entities. 

Language

TThe default language used in DiversityCollection is English. Thus, in the beginning you will find all descriptions etc. in English. All representations may be defined for any language. Use the Representation menu to automatically fill in missing entries of a language. If there are changes in the original description of tables or columns in the database, choose

Representation - Update descriptions according to database/strong> from the menu to import the updated descriptions for the English version and context “General”.

Entity

To insert missing entities use the Entity menu. To insert all missing tables of a database choose Entity - Insert all missing tables … from the menu. A window will open listing the missing tables. Use the [Exclude: … ] field and [Requery] button to remove certain tables from the list, e.g. if you do not wish to define entities for log tables, enter *_log and then click [Requery]. You may repeat this until the list contains only tables you wish to use.

You find corresponding functions for single tables and for entries in a table. The later function is restricted to tables with a primary key with one column. A window will open where you map the columns, provided for the entity documentation to columns in the table, of which you wish to import the entries (see image below).

This may be necessary, if e.g. certain entries in a table should not be used in a certain context or if you wish to translate the contents into another language. 

Diversity Collection

Enumerations

There are several enumerations resp. lookup tables, that by default contain predefined entries. All these tables and the content of some of these are listed here. An example for the design of these tables is shown below. For an introduction see the video .

As a database owner you may edit the content of these tables keeping in mind, that changes may have unprecedented effects in the program. So you should the test the effects after changing the data before keeping changes. To access these tables choose Administraion - Enumerations from the menu. Depending of the table you select a window as show below will open.

Extended options

For enumerations with different design the window will change.

Project dependency

For enumerations with a optional dependency on the projects the data are linked to an example is shown below. For an introduction on this topic see the video:

Images

Some enumeration tables provide the option for setting images that are linked to the selected entries shown in the client. For an introduction on this topic see the video:

Special tables

For the tables LocalisationSystem and Property (properties of the collection sites) the content of certain columns can be edited as shown below.

Diversity Collection

Customize the main form

The main window can be customised in several parts. To change the visible parts in the main window select Administration - Customize display … from the menu. A window (see below) will open where you can select the groups which should be displayed. In the first tab you can change the visibility for the taxonomic groups and material categories.

In the second tab (see below) you can set

• visibility of the localisation systems displayed in a distribution map
• the localisation systems available for the selection in the drop down menus
• the collection site properties available for the selection in the drop down menus
• the source for the country list from a gazetteer
• the direction of the hierarchy derived from a gazetteer and written into the cached value representing the gazetteer entry
• the separator in the hierarchy derived from a gazetteer and written into the cached value representing the gazetteer entry

Defaults and miscellaneous

In the third tab (see below) you can add the name of the responsible person or choose the current user for several entries and show/hide the controls for the exsiccata.

Timeout

The timeout for web resources and databases either added manually or via linked server can be set to adapt to the velocity of the available net. If you set the Timeout for web response to 0, the application will ignore any resources retrieved from the web. By default these values are set to 30 seconds This is demonstrated in a short tutorial .  

Responsible

You can choose to either use the current user or a specified user as a responsible for new datasets for various tables (see image above).

Storage location

The source for the list for the storage location can be set as shown below:

• Taxonomic names from identifications within the selected specimen
• Storage locations already entered for the parts within the collection where the part is stored
• Storage locations already entered for the parts within the whole database

Template copy mode

There are 3 possibilities:

• Copy values from the template only if there are no entries in the data
• Ask the user if there are differing contents in data and template whether the template values should be copied into the data
• Copy the values from the template irrespective of any content in the data

Subcollection content

The display text for the content of the subcollection can be composed of the fields listed below:

• Accession number of the specimen
• Accession number of the part
• First identification of the first organism
• Storage location of the first part
• Locality of the collection event
• Collection date

The maximal content of a subcollection can be restricted hire for new parts can set here as well.

The default collection for new parts can set here as well.

Miscellaneous

Use translations: If the data fields for the exsiccatal series should be displayed.

Show exsiccata: If the data fields for the exsiccatal series should be displayed.

Show accepted names: With this option the names linked to DiversityTaxonNames will be checked for the synonymy status. Accepted names will be shown with a green color and for synonyms the accepted name will be displayed above the current name (see below).

Show valid names: With this option the valid names linked to DiversityAgents will be shown. Valid names will be shown with a green color and will be displayed above the current name.

Scan DiversityDescriptions: If accessible DiversityDescriptions databases should be scanned for links to the current dataset.

Load datasources: If the datasources on linked servers should be loaded together with the start of the programm.

Autocompletion

Use autocompletion for all textboxes: Available in upcoming version - If this option is choosen, textboxes will autocomplete starting with the specified text length.

You can choose the mode of the autocompletion. There are 4 options:

• Node: No autocompletion
• Append: Append the first fitting entry
• Suggest: Provide a list corresponding to the typed text
• Suggest & Append: Provide a list corresponding to the typed text and append the first fitting

Use query charts

Inclusion of charts for queries linked to modules: If you choose this option, you get access to data of linked modules via charts as described in chapter charts. Keep in mind that this option may slow down the application.

Query

To set the option for optimized queries and the option to remember the query settings as default, select the Optimized resp. Remember option. This will speed up the query in many cases as it will preselect data depending on the query restrictions, e.g. if you search for an identification and enter a taxonomic name the first identification matching the restrictions will be preselected in the main window. Aditionally the corresponding buttons in the query form will be hidden providing more space. 

Resources directory

The directory for the resource can be set with as shown in the area below. Here parameters for example the spreadsheets are stored. See chapter Resources for details.

Time for tooltip

You can set the time for which the tooltip should be shown. In the customize window the setting will be changed instantly while in the main windows the setting will only be effectiv after restart of the application. 

You have 3 options:

• Set the time the tooltip should be visible to 1 up to 5 seconds
• Set the time the tooltip should be visible to no limit
• Hide the tooltip

Transaction

Transaction display sequence

To customize the sequence and format of the transactions shown in the tree, choose Administration → Customize display … from the menu and then select the part Transaction (see below). If you want to change the default sequence and/or display type, click on the button. Use the and buttons to change the position of a certain type of transaction and choose one of the display types. To reset these settings to the database default, use the button. If your transactions are organized within a hierarchy, you can include the titles of the superior hierarchies with the Include superior transaction in title option. 

Transaction standard comments

As an administrator you can add entries to the Standard comments for transactions (see above) that are used to enter standard phrases into the comment field of a transaction.

Default currency

The default currency for all transaction payments in the database is Euro. To change the default currency click on the Currency button. 

Settings

The tab Settings shows an overview of all settings set by the user e.g. when linking the sources for identification to a certain database or webservice via the button (see below). Relations to Diversityworkbench modules include the database and the project as shown below. With the Reset button, you can clear the whole settings. These settings can not be defined here, but are set in the main form in the corresponding parts e.g. the identification. These settings are stored in the database for every user (UserProxy → Settings).