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  • From: Richard Morris <webmaster@pfaf.org>
  • To: Permaculture Plant Database <pcplantdb@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [pcplantdb] schema stuff
  • Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 07:57:37 +0000

Bear K wrote:
Hello all,

I am very keen to have as much marked up as posible, I've attached an image of a page from where I've got to with the pfaf db. In it I've been trying to make things as graphical as posible with icons for edible and medicinal ratings, type of plant (Tree, Shrub, climber etc), height, width. The last three are included in resisable graphic which gives a proportional tree height (code and icons available on request).
To do this the data needs to be easily extractable, either
as fields or as marked up xml items.


I was actually going to suggest something along those lines. A book I have ('Edible Wild Plants') has a set of icons representing the different uses of the plant (flour, candy, milk, cooked greens, ...), I thought it would be cool to have a largely visual output for the plant information, including things like water use, light preference, etc. Given say 16 or 20 pixels each icon (aside from multiples like ranks, water, and light) you could present a lot of information in a small space. This could come in very handy if say there was a functionality to select a list of plants and then get a printable copy with info on the various plants. Of course this would just be one potential view option.

Yep, nice icons. We do need to be careful that the icons are effective communication, i.e.

------------------------------------------------------------------------



Regarding XML, which I also think could come in quite handy, one issue would seem to be the speed of searching single fields filled with XML for specific properties. Seems like a slow process. Is it there fast method I'm not aware of?

Should not be too slow. You could generally parse the data for one plant in a single pass, at only about 10K data per plant, this is not too
slow a task. BTW the web version of the pfaf db it works by parsing text files. Things are trickier if we wish to search by these terms.

I think it would also be great to have a relationship field for beneficial or antagonistic relationships between plants. In the DM (pg 62, 63) collecting this data is mentioned. Seems like a good place to gather it. Or was this already discussed?

Yep I this has been discussed at length. Guilds are relationships are high up the list.

Lastly, if ibiblio is slow to respond, I'm paying for hosting of OpenPermaculture with a rather good plan, so I can host there for a while if need be. I should be able to get chad an SSH account if needed. MySQL space is there, and available bandwidth.

Rich
--
Plants for a Future: 7000 useful plants
Web: http://www.pfaf.org/ same as http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/
Post: 1 Lerryn View, Lerryn, Lostwithiel, Cornwall, PL22 0QJ
Tel: 01208 872 963 / 0845 458 4719
Email: webmaster@pfaf.org
PFAF electronic mailing list http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pfaf






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