pcplantdb

[Richard Morris <webmaster@pfaf.org>]

Chad Knepp wrote:
>  > Tried to login in, (even though I didn't have an account on dev),
>  > just got "Your are not currently logged in" message rather than
>  > a login failed message.
>
> Issue this one so I can remember.  This reminds me that one of the big
> changes in the server API is returning good descriptive error messages
> to the client.

I tried to but I'm getting Error 502 Bad Gateway.  The proxy server 
received an invalid response from an upstream server.
If you think this is a server error, please contact the webmaster.

This might be my fault as I'm suppose to be making the switch to 
broadband today which could cause problems.
>  > Email confirming login got caught by my spam filter. I guess a bit more 
>  > text in the email with some blurb about "welcome to piw..." would help 
>  > it get past filters.
>
> Another good issue... got any text to contribute?
>
> Speaking of which, we should have a page during account creation that
> informs the user that use of this database constitutes consent to
> license thier contributions under the CC license.
>
>  > Adding a common name worked. I'd like to
>  > a) specify the language of the name.
>
> Adding language support (to more than just common name) will be a
> pretty major feature... I'm going to suggest that we push this to post
> 1.0... unless you just mean a tag that says what language this common
> name comes from.

A Tag would be good.
>  > b) Add a citation for where the name came from.
>
> Easy enough, also could be a reference (like [134]) to an actual
> reference.  Little concerned with how to display this info sanely
> unless we break the common name field down to a much more verbose
> format such as:
>
> Common names:
> Blahblah pant, contributed by UserX (USA, deep south colloquial)
> ...

After a bit of though what I might do is create a number of different 
accounts in my name, one for each dataset that I pull information from, 
this would allow appropriate citation. Most of the info I submitted 
today should really be credited to tanman rather than myself.


> Good issue material.
>
>
>  > I've added some info from the Tanplants database
>  > for Abies balsamea. http://dev.permaculture.info/cgi-bin/eden.py?plant=7
>
> Very cool.
>
>  > A few points: I'd like to make some of the terms added marked up, i.e.
>  > similar to the Uses. Specifically suitable location.
>  > 
>  > I'd like to add some other book references.
>
> Yes, adding new references was one of the things I forgot to include
> in my Todo list.  References should also be first class objects and
> be able to attach comments to them.
>
> It looked like you were doing references in the comments.  I see
> things like (36,63,74,75).  Do these correspond to the references in
> the dataset?  
I'm afraid not, these are references from the tanplant data with a 
different reference scheme, and hence new books to add. I'm still trying 
to get hold of the exact references for these.

> If so, here's how to do the markeup.  First, I've been
> putting [] around them, not ()... might be good to be consistent but
> not ultimately that important.  The markup is kfml (Kung Fooey Markup
> Language) and for references looks like <link ref="36">36</link> where
> 36 is the reference id.  The link tag can be used to embed any kind of
> url information that Eden is aware of such as <link search="True"
> basic_string="Malus domestica">Apple</link>.  

Cool.
>  > Length of Comment titles is limited. I'd like to add ones a little bit 
>  > longer.
>
> It's currently limited to 40 characters.  How many do we want?  75?

75 should be fine.

>  > Apart from these I'd say superb, great, wonderful. This is really 
>  > getting close to a great realization.
>
> Thanks for the positive feedback.
>
>  > Adding the tanplant data was relatively painless, being able to add it 
>  > as sub comments to other parts really help in organizing info.
>
> Agreed, but looking at the data you added makes me think that some of
> this stuff should be elsewhere... not in comments.  Root habit being
> one of the things we talked about previously.  Five of the comments
> have description in the title, which makes me think it should go in
> the description.  Could we start an issue around schema changes so I
> really start doing it.  I can think of at least the following to add:
> root_habit, root_width, root_depth, fruit_desc., nut_desc.,
> seed_desc., leaf_desc., stem_desc., flower/inflorescence_desc.,

Indeed. I think now is the time to really start getting the schema 
discussed. Probably wait until after your break for this.

I'd sort of like an open schema so it would be easy to expand it.
I.e. if it looks like a a schema entry it is a schema entry.

I've been meaning to try and consolidate the recent discussions on 
schema in a wiki page.

Interesting relationship in the data I added.
"Bees utilize this plant for honey."

> You may notice that pages with lots of comments (such as the one you
> worked on) load really slow.  This is because I forget to index the
> columns it's using and there are close to 40k comments.  This will be
> fixed in 0.3.1.

Hasn't seemed slow to me. Wait till by broadband happens, then I'll notice!

Rich