I’m wondering if anyone knows if there exists any definitions for the database fields? I’m more of a data person than a conservation person, so I’m wanting to understand the technical side of the database so my bulk uploads can be most accurate.
For instance - the ‘date’ for a record - should this be the date the trap was checked? or the date an animal was caught/detected?
Similarly - does the trap ‘status’ pertain to how you found the trap when you visited, or how you left it?
These are probably easy questions to answer on their own, but I have more and a formal definition for all terms on the database would solve most (if not all) of my queries. I’m a little surprised that it’s not in the FAQ…
If there isn’t currently one in existence - would somebody like to help me create one? We could create a shared document for the community that’s added-to by everyone (like a Wiki) to keep it updated.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I’ve recently started as a Community Liason for Trap.NZ, and part of my role will be to update our Help section, FAQs etc. to make Trap.NZ easier for everyone to use and understand. Your feedback is really helpful and I’ll take it on board as I go through this process. I’ll look into creating a community wiki too as there’s lots of knowledgeable folks on these forums who already help out others on individual forum topics - it’d be great if they could share their knowledge in one place that’s easy to find for other users.
To answer your specific questions:
The ‘date’ for a record is the date the trap is checked, regardless of whether there’s a catch or not.
The ‘status’ of the trap is how you found it when you checked it.
Can the Database field names please stay the same as well. The uid field change a couple of months back and all of my reporting scripts failed.
So I changed the my scripts and then last week the field name went back to the way there were three months ago, and the member ship userid is truncated again
The tech team have said they’re not sure what you’re referring to. They did update the CSV exports to match the imports and improve consistency across the reports. Could you please send us an email on support@trap.nz explaining what you mean?
If the membership userid is still being truncated for you, can you please attach a screenshot or a copy of the file to your email?
