Hi all,

I've been working on an online submission form for herpetofauna records for the Kent Reptile & Amphibian Group. I have a working example at:

http://www.kentarg.org/record_submission_form.htm - http://www.kentarg.org/record_submission_form.htm

I would welcome any feedback regarding the form. There are some very obvious omissions such as air temperature, precipitation etc. but I was aiming for something that could be used both by the general public and experienced recorders. Met info can always be added in the further comments box.

Currently the form generates html formatted emails with each category and response listed in a clear format, most unlike the

speak=adder+soup&gibberishspotted=on&submit1=submit+query

rubbish that web forms often generate!

Any comments about additions omissions very welcome, the next stage of development will be adding a facility to upload images and send them as email file attachments... after 3 days of keyboard bashing I now know 'how' to achieve this but it will take re-writing all the scripts :0(

Any way on a positive note, just think of the potential of the fully developed form to county recorders and arg's. Not only could it be used on individual county web sites, but it could also be developed to send records via email to the relevant county recorder or arg from a single source (like RAUK for example).. perhaps if there is enough motivation out there this project might attract a few donations to move RAUK to an SQL server in time???

Any comments or interest in developing this project let me know.

Thanks,

I feel that an embroyic online NARRS system developing here - the Essex Field Club have online forms and they generate lots of records from Essex, Around the UK and the World!

So I would encourage this to the max!

JC 

I have just seen the recording form - looks good - I would like to know if this could be developed as a National Amphibian and Reptile Recording Scheme - hey that sounds like NARRS - I feel that this would be an excellent project - how about it?

The HGBI can be involved - errrr linked with the RAUK Forum - with our coordinator Gemma Fairchild!

well done Gem

JC

PS Sorry for getting excited - but this is just what the UK Herp conservation movement needs!

It is live! Being very impatient it is already accessible and functioning on the KRAG site..

Thanks for the suggestions, changes and additions to the form categories are straightforward at the moment, it is when I re-code the whole form to upload pictures so that they can be attached to emails, that things will be a bit hairy, hence why I would like to work on refining the basic form at this stage.

I've implemented Lee's suggestions,

Below is the contents of an email generated from the form to give an idea of how effective it is..

Record Sent from KRAG Web Site

Species: unknown

Non listed species: looked a bit like a tortoise

Lifestage: Adult

Male:

Female:

Unknown: 1

Date: 04 08 2005

Time: 14 53

Town: Mundon

Site: My Garden

Grid reference: _ _ 00000 00000

Post Code: CM9 6PB

Method: Visual

Name: Gemma Fairchild

Address: -
My House
In My Street
My Town
CM9 6PB

Telephone: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

E-mail: gemma@herpetofauna.co.uk

Contact: yes

Comments: -
This is a silly test email to show how records generated by the online form are displayed in emails.

Just to say a big

THANKS!

to Mike Phillips at Kent BTCV for starting the ball rolling with KRAG's first record generated from our new form!

hmmm I think that could be slipped in, so it reads site name, nearest town or village, county, grid ref etc. under 'where'. I have added the grids for the rest of the UK (I hope) if I've missed any please let me know people!

Further development of the form is carrying on with a picture upload version that is un-viewable due to it being a little 'raw' for web users!

I could do with some help though, the kentarg.org service provider has an acceptable use policy restricting the upload of certain media files to its servers.. penalty loss of the account, however it isn't at all specific as to which extensions it actually disallows, hence I have to code for safe allowable file extensions and block everything else.

I need to let the form know acceptable extensions, so far the following extensions are enabled

JPG, JPEG, JPE, PNG, TIF, TIFF, GIF, BMP, RLE, PICT, TXT, DOC, XLS

Any other suggestions for picture file extensions (not media clips though) and acceptable files appreciated.

Many thanks

I would get onto HCT about this form lets get NARRS off the ground and into cyber space!

Jon

I've implemented David's suggestion at:

http://www.kentarg.org/record_submission_form_metdata_v01.htm - http://www.kentarg.org/record_submission_form_metdata_v01.htm

As I've said I won't be updating the live form until I implement the file upload facility, but there is a new section 'Weather?' on this non-active form, comments about format for met data or additions again very welcome.

Thanks to everyone who has given input so far.

Hi Mike,

they send the policy when you open the account, it basicly states (not a direct quote) that sound and other media files are not allowed. As it is a shared host I think they are trying to avoid people uploading MP3 and film clips that could slow the server down.

I think we will have to allow .doc and .xls for functionality though I realise there are possible problems.

One way I can get around the whole problem is to upload the files to memory and simply not write them to disk as I'm only capturing to attach them to emails. Though at the moment I would like the facility to save allowable files to disk at the same time.