Some tedium in PDB

go_vols, is it possible when posting a new plant to do all of the 'fill in the blank' descriptive items without having to constantly click 'return to the plant' link after submitting? Takes a long time to do as it stands. Thanks.

Darius, that's really a question for Dave.

But a bit of history, in case you're wondering:

We have now tried two approaches to the PDB - the first one was "fill in everything" in one fell swoop. Which is fine when:

a) the contibutor feels confident enough to add everything; and
b) the contributor takes the time to do it.

Unfortunately, conditions a) and b) didn't occur simultaneously very often. So that left holes in the data, which could only be edited by someone with editing abilities, and there are very few of us - and lots of entries.

So, Dave took a different approach when he reprogrammed the PDB, and made the sections rather autonomous.

Which has been fantastic for allowing many people to access a single entry.

But...when we have someone with a) and b) conditions again, it is a bit frustrating for them.

I wish there were an easy solution but unless Dave can wave his magic wand (without spending thousands of programming hours and pulling out all his hair), I'm not sure there is one.

terry, I thought that might be the reason. Since I don't post to PDB very often, it's only a minor annoyance anyway. Thanks.

I think Baa brought this very issue up somewhere around the time of the PDB relaunch. I agreed to spend some time and try to find a compromise between the two methods, but I didn't really program it for that. Thus shoe-horning in the additional feature will take some work.

I do prefer the current method over the old one. I think its much more scalable and better for the readers and the database itself (if inconvenient for folks like Baa, Darius, Poppysue, Vols, etc).

I can't foresee a time when I'll actually do this. It's just a lot of work that I'd rather spend doing other things. Not enough gain to justify it.

dave

i feel this is an incovenience too... which i believe some people posting on Plants Database just leave other pertinent information to the database.

whenever i try to add to the Plants Database, i always have all the information in front of me to fill all vital info. i find it too taxing to be going back and forth. the very reason i often times hesitate to add plants i have around to the Plants Database.

just my humble opinion

ma vie

This message was edited Tuesday, Jul 30th 7:42 PM

This message was edited Tuesday, Jul 30th 9:01 PM

Dave

To bring you up to date on the current Baa opinion *G* I agree with you on what you have done in many respects here. It is tedious but it also enables more thought process time while entering an answer and you don't miss anything out unintentionally. I'm always re-editing my PDB entries when I first place them up and the way the set up is now I do it much less because I'm less likely to miss it out.

I like the new way better, too. It is kind of inconvenient to do it the new way when compared with the old, but I've gotten around that by going down the page, right clicking and opening new windows for all the ones I have answers for. Once each one is answered, I just close the window. This is still a bit tedious, but it's a lot better than waiting each time for the new page to open, just for you to answer, then waiting to go back to the main page for the plant. If you do this, just make sure that you don't have any other windows for anything else open ~ are only working on one plant at a time ~ or it could get confusing real quick!

Since I never posted to the old one, I really cannot make a comparison nor do I wish to, as I'm really okay with this one. My original post was more of a comment anyway. I do find that I have easily been able to add a tidbit or two to plants already posted... just by filling in some blanks. I also am learning to get all the info. before I start if it's a new plant for the PDB. Just haven't figured out how to change the Family, Genus and Species when I post it wrong. (What's a Family, or a Genus, or a Species? ... she says grinning!)

That's an Ooofta with a capital O. I just programmed a script to allow a member to set -all- options on one page.

When you add your plant, then go to the plant's entry and click on "Add all options". You can then scroll down and set them all. Of course, just skip any that you don't want to set.

I tested this and it works very well! Quite handy!

dave

Good work, Dave! I'll check it later when I add a couple more plants. Thanks!

Thank You Dave :)!!!

I just used it on my Klondike Cosmos (I just added the plant) and it ROCKED!

Wow!!!! Thanks, Dave! It works like a charm!!!!!

love the change dave. it wasn't bad the other way, for me, but I like this a lot

Awesome! Thanks, Dave!