Taxonomic Coverage page mockup

[Perumal Sambasivam]

Hi Matt/Matthew,

A few clarifications with respect to your comments:

1. "Not all taxa use the ranks listed in your table"

If we were to have a 2-col table of just the RankName and RankValue, I am
not sure how the user would be able to have recursive taxonomic
Classification (or is this not necessary?). Matthew and I had originally 
thought that by having it in a 7-col table (1 col for each level), we 
would create the recursive taxonomic classification without the user being 
involved in it. If the user had to define the taxon rank-values 
recursively, wouldnt it be a big hassle (opening so many dialogs one 
within another)?

Or, like Matthew suggested, in this same table, we could allow the user to 
define the rankname and rankvalue within each column. We could have a 
custom widget consisting of 2 textboxes or something like that.

2. As for the common names, that column would just be a list of all column 
names. I thought we cld have a dropdown box that just list all the names, 
with an entry "Add/Edit Common Name" , which if selected, would open a new 
dialog that shows the names for each level where the user can add/edit. 
But yeah we cld just have a list instead of a dropdown.

3. For coded values from the data tables, there is an option of importing 
the column values in the section names "Import Taxon Data"..the user could 
select the data table and the correct column in it for importing. 


-Perumal



On Wed, 11 Feb 2004, Matthew Brooke wrote:

~ Matt:
~ 
~ A few questions/discussion points regarding your Taxonomic Coverage page 
~ mockup comments:
~ 
~ 1) "Not all taxa use the ranks listed in your table..."
~ 
~ a) Perumal and I talked about the approach you describe before coming up 
~ with the current one, but the problem with a 2-col table is that every 
~ taxonomic definition would need a separate table (and probably a 
~ separate dialog), whereas perumal's mockup allows all the data to be 
~ presented clearly and concisely in one place. Even if we did a 2 or 
~ 3-col table, wouldn't we still need some kind of "summary" table like 
~ this one (compare with party dialog & party table) ? We figured that the 
~ clearest way to show the info was in this form, rather than a tree etc, 
~ and it also allows all entries to be editable in place (except common 
~ name - see below).
~ 
~ Would either of the following work?
~ 
~ i)  make the ranks (column headings) editable, but still use this 
~ layout? If a single dataset contains different taxon ranking methods for 
~ different entries (for example, if some rankings include Division, but 
~ others include Phylum), then we may still need to go to multiple tables, 
~ but would this be a much less-common scenario?
~ 
~ ii)  represent the info in tabular form without using col headings - so 
~ for each entry we could indicate the rank alongside the name; eg:
~ 
~   ... | Family: Flagellariaceae | Genus: Flagellaria | Species: 
~ guineensis | ...etc
~ 
~ ("|" pipes used to show where column dividers fall)
~ 
~ 
~ b) An additional comment:
~ 
~ "Common Names" can apply to any level of the taxonomy (I think?), but we 
~ obviously have a problem representing that in the table as shown (unless 
~ each entry has 2 lines?), so we resorted to showing an abbreviated 
~ "surrogate" list in the last column (like we do for party etc), which 
~ could be clicked/edited in some way to pop up a dialog showing which 
~ common names correspond to which ranks. However, a drop-down list (as 
~ shown in the mockup) probably isn't appropriate for the "common names" 
~ column - since this implies a choice to be made by the user.
~ 
~ 
~ 
~ 2) "When people use coded values in their metadata..."
~ 
~ The middle part of perumal's mockup shows a section entitled "Import 
~ Taxon Data" which, if I understand correctly, is where a user would be 
~ able to provide the taxon information from existing (or 
~ yet-to-be-imported) data tables, as you describe
~ 
~ M
~ 
~ 
~ Matt Jones wrote:
~ 
~ > Hi Perumal,
~ >
~ > That is a nice mockup.  A couple of issues come to mind.
~ >
~ > 1) Not all taxa use the ranks listed in your table.  For example, in 
~ > plants they use 'Division' in place of 'Phylum'.  There are many of 
~ > these variants, which is why in eml the system allows the user to 
~ > specifiy both the rank and the name (rather than fixing the rank to a 
~ > predefined set). So I would prefer a two column table containing 
~ > "Rank" and "Name" for the most precise rank provided by the user, 
~ > which might have values like "Species" and "Bosmina longistrosis".  
~ > You could also list common names in this table if desired as a third 
~ > column.
~ >
~ > 2) When people use coded values in their metadata (ie enumerations) 
~ > they'll be defining the codes in terms of taxon names, and that same 
~ > process can be used to fill out the taxon coverage info.  So that is 
~ > another way through which they might provide the taxon information.
~ >
~ > Matt
~ >
~ >
~ > Perumal Sambasivam wrote:
~ >
~ >> Hi All,
~ >>
~ >> For the taxonomic coverage page, I have a preliminary mockup (pls see 
~ >> the attachment).
~ >>
~ >> It consists of -
~ >> 1. A list for entering taxon names. The list consists of 7 columns for
~ >> each level of classification. A user could add a species name and 
~ >> specify
~ >> all the names in the hierarchy. There is also a column for the common
~ >> names.  It will be a dropdown box of all the common names of the whole
~ >> hierarchy. If user wants to add a common name, a dialog box is presented
~ >> with a customlist for each level and the user can add a common name 
~ >> to any
~ >> level.
~ >>
~ >> 2. The user can import the taxon data from a particular table. The 
~ >> column values will be read, an ITIS lookup will be done for each 
~ >> value to determine its level and values in the hierarchy above it and 
~ >> the values will be added to the above list. The user can edit any 
~ >> value, if needed.
~ >>
~ >> 3. The user can also optionally specify a new Classification system 
~ >> and identifier.
~ >>
~ >>
~ >> Please let me know your comments/feedback on this.
~ >>
~ >> Thanks!
~ >> -Perumal
~ >>
~ >>
~ >>
~ >>
~ >>
~ >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
~ >> Perumal Sambasivam
~ >>
~ >> National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS)
~ >> University of California Santa Barbara
~ >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
~ >>
~ >>
~ >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
~ >>
~ >
~ 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Perumal Sambasivam

National Center for Ecological 
Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS)
University of California Santa Barbara
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