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DATABASE - Tamborine Mountain Natural History Association Inc

The following menu is for the New Database under development based on the Current Database linked in the Database dropdown menu above. The new one is approx: 35% complete.

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Observations

The Mapping here is currently offline or in limited development display. Google has changed its Mapping Api requirements and we are investigating on-going use of their Apis versus alternate systems. We apologise for the current limitations on use of maps here.

Details

The first Observation table is for registered or public user access as determined appropriate from time to time. Settings for that table allow controlling user level access to meet those display needs. This table is not automatically updated when reference tables are updated as it is not set-up as a relational database. It is derived from a periodic text export of label data from the "Obs Management" table. This allows several benefits like:

  • Verification of data and relationships to occur in Obs Management table by special users
  • It takes advantage of database software auto-generation of search filters using selection by drop-down or auto-complete which solely relate to data in the table and not relational lists from reference tables where list names may not all have data in the table
  • By inclusion of just this table in the site database it then becomes available for various Joomla extensions that allow Joomla Administrator constructed additional database searches which are not available in the primary database software. Usually these additional extensions do not allow connection to the second MySQL database where the primary observations and reference data is stored.


The Obs Management table is for Special users to keep a relational database of observations updated for reference table data changes. Special users can also choose to use this table for their observation searches once they feel comfortable with it variance of use of search filters. Some points on its use:

  • The Search filters may only allow a text field for typing the user's search term or part thereof. It does not always allow auto-creation of drop-down or auto-complete filters due to an issue with there function on relational data mentioned in the thread Search Filters and Relational Data Drop-Down Selection
  • The relational data based on reference table ids does allow some field data to be automatically linked to the record in the reference table such as for a location or species name record
  • This table pre-dates a system glitch (may already be resolved) that stopped Google maps displaying in Form views for a record


Please note that both tables limit display of Google Maps to the Form or Map Visualization sub-menu. Also Visualizations limit to 200 place markers on a map. There is a daily limit allowed by Google for map generation and this practice helps us stay within those limits.

Also using the 2 table system allows for simpler database software settings so that future web managers may better understand and adapt to managing the database. It avoids inserting of far more complex SQL commands that would take substantial extra learning by them.

Content Popular Tags

Why does attentiveness to nature matter? In a very fundamental sense, we are what we pay attention to. Paying heed to beauty, grace, and everyday miracles promotes a sense of possibility and coherence that runs deeper and truer than the often illusory commercial, social "realities" advanced by mainstream contemporary culture. ... Our attention is precious, and what we choose to focus it on has enormous consequences. What we choose to look at, and to listen to--these choices change the world. As Thich Nhat Hanh has pointed out, we become the bad television programs that we watch. A society that expends its energies tracking the latest doings of the celebrity couple is fundamentally distinct from one that watches for the first arriving spring migrant birds, or takes a weekend to check out insects in a mountain stream, or looks inside flowers to admire the marvelous ingenuities involved in pollination. The former tends to drag culture down to its lowest commonalities; the latter can lift us up in a sense of unity with all life. The Way of Natural History, edited by Thomas Lowe Fleischner and published by Trinity University Press (Texas)