Documentation of image/credit updates

[burkmarr]

From Pete: "I'm starting to get a very small influx of new photos for a few species - only 4 or 5 photos at the moment - but is there an efficient and simple way of dealing with these, so that it's not all ad hoc?"

As it stands, it not very straightforward. The original process was:

1. Tom loads the images to the BSBI server that hosts them.
2. Tom associates a credit with each image.
3. The list of images and the associated list of credits are included as the values of two separate columns in the taxon spreadsheet that Tom provides to Rich.
4. From that spreadsheet Rich generates separate ‘caption’ files for each taxon which includes the lists of images and credits.
5. When a user selects a taxon on the website the caption file is read to retrieve the list of images and credits for the gallery tool.

If there are going to be frequent updates, we want to avoid steps 3 & 4 which involved regenerating all caption data for all taxa.

Since there are likely to be fairly regular updates/additions to the images then this image/credit data is completely unlike the other caption data which is, essentially, fixed and I think we need to handle it separately. So I propose:

• Rich to make a code change whereby when a user selects a taxon, the code first looks to see if there is a standalone file that specifies images and credits for that taxon.
• If the file is present, the images & credits are read from that file.
• If it is not present, the images and credits are read from the original caption file.
• Tom loads and curates new images and credit information as before, but develops a process to generate new image/credit data files for any affected taxa.
• The changed image/credit file is uploaded to the server.

At the moment Rich would do the last step, but it would be better to provide credentials to Tom so that he can do it directly.

[tangiblegains]

Hi Rich, Tom
I'll list the errant photos of species here.

1. Viola lactea - all images appear to be errors. I have new accurate photos for upload from Martin Rand - who do I send these to?
2. Ajuga pyramidalis - all images appear to be of the hybrid. I have vegetative photos that can act as a stop gap.
3. Catapodium rigidum - photo 4 seems to be C. marinum
   How shall we proceed?
   cheers
   Pete

[tangiblegains]

Hi Rich, Tom
A couple more photo errors spotted.
Salix myrsinites photo 1/3 is actually a photo of Salix repens
Salix lapponum photo 2/3 appears to be Salix lanata
cheers
Pete

[burkmarr]

@japonicus - have you had any thoughts on my proposal to change the handling of images/credits?

[tangiblegains]

Another photo to change. Juncus compressus photo is of J. tenuis I think. I have pics of J. compressus. Can we get this ball rolling soonish, please?

[kwal2]

A few more photo errors in the gallery:

1. Tolmiea menziesii - all three are photos are Tellima grandiflora. I have replacements if needed
2. Carex acuta - both photos in the gallery appear to be Carex nigra
   Cheers,
   Kevin

[sacrevert]

Rather than a never-ending thread, or separate issues, please use this spreadsheet to deal with photo management: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UC3qllQ6Svg-coQg4myB_MM8I-PTWSPKS9v3ZXhs2UA/edit?usp=sharing

This has one sheet for taxa lacking images, and another to document problems with existing photos. Please use that to organise actions with regards to errors and new photos. I have transferred any existing errors listed above. Please edit in the sheet if any of these are already dealt with.

I suggest that we aim for a new export of info for the Atlas website at the end of the year (i.e. Dec., 2024). If anyone wants to add new photos or edit in the DDb before then, then I assume they should consult Tom for access.

[sacrevert]

Just flagging this as I suggested that we might act on these at the end of this year @kwal2 @tangiblegains @burkmarr @japonicus

[burkmarr]

@japonicus - are you happy with the proposed method?

• Rich to make a code change whereby when a user selects a taxon, the code first looks to see if there is a standalone file that specifies images and credits for that taxon.
• If the file is present, the images & credits are read from that file.
• If it is not present, the images and credits are read from the original caption file.
• Tom loads and curates new images and credit information as before, but develops a process to generate new image/credit data files for any affected taxa.
• The changed image/credit file is uploaded to the server.

If so, we need to agree on a file format for the 'image files', i.e. the files that, for each image, specify the images and captions. My suggestion is individual CSV files named after the taxon ddbid, e.g. 2cd4p9h_xt4.csv, with two columns. These columns can be exactly the same as those you used in the full atlas extract: 'atlas image URIs' and 'atlas image photo credits'. For cases where all the images are to be deleted for a taxon (e.g. Juncus compressus), there should be no rows except for the column headers.

If we can agree on this format, I can go ahead and work on the necessary code changes. I can upload the new files to the Pantheon server if they can be produced before the end of the year. From Jan 1st I will be retired, but I will aim to document the procedure for uploading the files (via SFTP) to the server before then and Biren can help sort out access to the Pantheon project for someone else (e.g. Oli or someone from BSBI) to do future uploading.

[japonicus]

@burkmarr thanks for this suggestion, I'm happy with this approach. I'll send an example export early next week.