pcplantdb

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

Bear Kaufmann wrote:

> Good points John. Note also that were still working on a reasonable 
> HTML front end for this, it'd be nice to get on to the rich client, but 
> I think we still have a ways to make this good and functional.
> So, on that note, and considering what is in the DB as it stands take a 
> look at Chad's advanced search @ 
> http://dev.permaculture.info/advanced.html
> As a starting point, could we regroup these, or most of these into 
> inputs-outputs?
> As I see it:
> Inputs:
> Hardiness
> Suitable Locations
> Tolerates
> Prefers
>
> Outputs:
> Fast growing Slow growing Fixes nitrogen Scented flowers Provides food 
> for wildlife
> Uses
>
> I'm not sure where or if Habit can go some where. Though the Habit -> 
> of -> Tree ->  supports -> Vines, so we might be able to reinterpret 
> some habits to those ends.
>
> Looking at Suitable Locations...
> It seems like we might want to set this up to go 2 ways.
> Right now, there are values for the input side. For example plants that 
> grow in heavy shade.
> But this is also an output, some trees produce heavy shade. So if a 
> user adds a tree that outputs heavy shade, one of the searches for 
> plants would be those that need heavy shade.
> How to represent this, especially in an HTML client is an interesting 
> challenge. The user would want to find plants that handle heavy shade, 
> but only Under the Tree. Some search values apply to the whole guild's 
> environment (hardiness, unless we figure for the potential to create 
> micro-climates), some only to a subsection heavy shade under tree, high 
> pH under Pine Tree, etc.
>
> I think as a start we can try to re-factor the advanced search into the 
> inputs-outputs model.

Use arrays of nested (cascading) options checkboxes. Fill out form, 
perform search, save entire results to a user session cache. Fill out 
form again & do search, save results to another cache - when done 
searching - perform an inputs-outputs matching report for user.
Discover guilds or compatible groups, design systems, go and plant with 
plan in hand.
Could PIW do anything like this?