Recorder 6- Version 6.25.1.284 - Release Notes

Version

This version of Recorder 6 incorporates several major changes requested by users together with fixes for a number of bugs. Please read these release notes carefully before upgrading.

The version has been released as a Release candidate and has been in use by a few users for over a month. The issues they have raised have been fixed in this version of the release. If you have been using the Release Candidate (6.25.1.282) then you should run this upgrade.

Installation

After the upgrade please check in ‘Help/About Recorder 6’ that the release is 6.25.1.284 (5 July 2016) and that the database version is 000000AG.

Please note

  • Following this upgrade the four index tables must be rebuilt.
  • Users with external ODBC links to the R6 database will need to refresh the links to Index_Taxon_Name, Organism and Reference tables.
  • Users you have already implemented their own solution to the missing levels of Chiroptera in designations should check that their solution is still appropriate.

Changes – Fixes and Development

52 – Bug fix – Filter file not working properly in xml reports

64 - The password hint for new users has been revised to make the situation clearer.

226 – Bug fix – Related data for biotope now returning the related individual

303 - Bug fix –In the Admin Areas Dictionary show meta data now displays the correct information.

322 – Database version now showing in ‘About Recorder 6’

326 – The icons next to Locations, Individual and Organisations have been changed to indicate whether the Site is the custodian of the record. A round icon indicates that site is the custodian of therecord, or that the entry is system suppled. A square icon indicates that it is not. The purpose of this is to make it easier for users to choose the most appropriate Location, Individual or Organisation when matching or making selections during import. This is for use as a manual check only and does not restrict the selection. This option can be turned off (see Mantis 508).

Users who have imported information from trusted sites (e.g. from a central database) may wish to give preference to selecting data from these. Two settings in the Setting table control which site id’s get a round icon. ‘PrefLocs’ in the Setting table control the icon on Locations and ‘PrefNames’ controls the icon on Individual/Organisations. Initially these settings are populated with the Site Id of the system, but additional Site ID’s can be appended (comma separated). This can be done through Management Studio, MS Access or with a Batch Update (not provided).

332 – Access to help is available on-line through a new option in the help menu. Note that help has been updated to version 6.25. On line help is available from
Please not that this has changed from

411 – Bug fix – Export was not working when a Survey Tag was selected. Fixed.

447 – Import Wizard no longer requires a Grid Reference for a Location. It is also possible to have blank entries in the Location column. However, if a spatial ref system is specified then every entry will require valid grid ref.

The main aim of this change is to allow Samples and Events to be allocated the grid reference of the Location. To do this the grid reference column can either be blank or not present. Validation should prevent processing where the data can’t be imported into Recorder 6, however. Recorder 6 will now create entries with no grid refs in the Events or Samples providing there is at least a Location Name.

.

  • If a Location column is present, and there is a grid reference then this Grid Reference will be used for the event and sample. Recorder 6 will be able to create the Location if not present using the provided grid ref.
  • If there is no grid reference, but there is a matched Location then the Grid Reference for this will be used for the sample. If there is no matched Location and no Location name then the users will be required to use the contents of the Location column as the Location Name and the event and sample will not have grid references. Recorder 6 will not be able to create the Location unless a site centroid is provided. Where the Grid reference is blank and the Event/Sample obtains it grid ref from the Location this may result in rejected data if the grid ref is outside the bounding box of the Survey. This error can’t be picked up until the final stage as the grid reference is not known at the validation stage.
  • If a grid reference column is present then the process and there is a grid reference then the process will attempt to match by name against an existing location within the vicinity (2km) of the grid reference. If nothing matches, there id no grid reference in the column or more than one match is found then no match will be returned. If there is no grid reference column then the process will attempt a match on name only and return the location if as long as there is only one match on the name.
  • For more information please see the revised help system.

465 – The option to use the old import wizard has been removed from Options. If this has been previously ticked it will no longer be applied.

487 – Bug fix - Clicking on the Map to select the polygon when using XML Reports was not highlighting the polygon.

490 – Keyboard selection of Measurements improved. For example the left and right arrows now allow navigation.

500 – Bug fix – Common names could appear in a dictionary list, but not be found when searching on that list. Common names on a list will be found when searching on a list.

501 –Change to the way that Location name/Spatial Ref is displayed in the Location hierarchy. If there is no Location then the Location Name followed by the Spatial Ref. will be displayed.

502 –The volume column in the Reference table now accepts alphanumerical characters. Please note that if Reference data is included in an export from versions of R6 prior to 6.25 then it will not be possible to import the data into databases upgraded to v6.25 or above. Editing the file in MS Access is an option to work around this issue.

503 – The length of short name in the Journal table has been increased from 20 to 50 characters. Bug in selection fixed.

508 - The icons next to Taxa in the observation hierarchy have been modified to indicate the Validation State, whether the record is confidential and if it has zero abundance. Verified state (Black = not verified, green = considered correct, and red = considered incorrect.). Confidential records have a white centre circle and zero abundance has a dash in the centre of the circle.

Biotope entries have been similarly modified, but using square instead of circular icons. The colours reflect the validate state. Confidential and zero abundance do not apply.

The feature can be turned on/off through using the ‘Use Original Icons’ check box in Option Menu/Appearance tab.

509 NBN Exchange Addin – OSGB36 Lat/Longs are now automatically converted to WGS84 as NBN Gateway (despite what it says in the documentation does not support OSGB36 Lat/Longs). Note that this modification provides aUDF which may be of use elsewhere in converting OSGB 36 to WGS84. This change does not require the Addin to be reinstalled.

564 – Users can now alter the order in which Survey tags appear. Please note that the tag order is not determined by the hierarchy, but by a sort order which can be entered against the tag in Enhanced Term Lists.

572 – Option provided to allow the export of Private Data when exporting using NBN Access Database (zipped) option. An extra tick box is provided on the Data Export screen.

575 – Parsing of Determiner Names is now done in the same way as that for Observers names. This means that determiner names do not need to be in Title, Intitials,Surname format and can be in the same format as the Observers column. If there is more than person identified in the Determiner column then the first person will be used as the Determiner.

577 – Bug – Fixed problemwhere NBN Extract Produces File with Blank Dates (Affected SQL Server 2000 only)

578 – Higher taxonomic levels of Chiroptera now included in Index_Taxon_Designation

579 – Report wizard filter on Admin Areas

580 – Report Wizard Filter on Name Associates

583 – It is now possible to delete unwanted non-preferred Location names after a merge.

584- At the end of the import process users have the option to save the file. It is extremely useful to have the file if there is a problem with the import as it can be used in Batch Updates and Reports. The default has been changed so that the file will be saved unless the user choosesnot to.

588- The requirement to add either a bounding box or to specify a geographical area when setting up a Survey has been dropped.

590 – Bug fix – Import Wizard error file not being written in some circumstances.

593 – The Import Wizard can now import Watsonian Vice County numbers into the Sample_Admin_Area table.Please note that this is under more options as ‘Sample Vice County’. Vice County still works as before and allocates a Vice County as the Location if there is no Location.

594 – When searching for taxa a note “(can not expand)” willappear next to the taxa indicating if it can not be used to expand down the taxonomic hierarchy. This will mainly apply to taxa at family level or above. It may occasionally appear at lower levels. Where it appears against a genus or species this probably means that the taxon is ‘Redundant’ -i.e. not considered valid. Users are advised to check that they have made the correct choice.

596 –Bug fix - Survey Status now available in the Report wizard

597 – Lineage and Sort Order fields in Organism and Index_Taxon_Name table increased in length. Sort order now 36, lineage = 40. This has been necessary following the introduction by the NHM of additional levels in the Organism taxonomic hierarchy for some groups.

598/599 – Bug fix - Circle reports not working if all 4 corner or any corner options selected. Also a new report Ci6 in Geographic/Location Reports\Circle Report. Reports on records which are within the circle and gives a distance.

606 – Bug – Fixed error which occurred when deleting contents of Survey Tag field in Observation hierarchy.

607 – Taxon Reference (the reference which appears against the taxon occurrence) can now be used in the Report Wizard filters.

612 – Bug - Taxon Search should remember the last list or rucksack used during a R6 session. This was not happening and the search was defaulting to Current List after each search.

Reports –

Two new reports H9 and H10 have been added to the System/Supplied/Information menu. H9 will find and display various information about a taxon name. This ignores sub-genus and will take a wild card. It should be useful if you are uncertain which dictionaries a taxa appears on. H10 will list the Determination,Occurrenceand Sample keys for all user added taxa. Clicking on the key columns in the report will open the R6 record. Used in conjunction with H9 this report will provide a way of finding an changing users added taxa following a Dictionary update. This approach would be an alternative to using the ManageUserAddedTaxa addin if there were onlya few records to change.

Reports H1 and H2 and LN1 which were reported to have problems have also been fixed.