New functionality in the Adding plants screen

[ideasguy]

You may have wondered why you had to pass through the GA100S00 screen when adding a plant in GA004, GA037 etc.
It was all tied in with the "big picture" - the Master Database (Mdb).
As announced recently, the Mdb is now downloadable and readily available to all users.

Its also grown to a staggering 30,000 plants.

I wanted to make sure it was used, so Ive been working on GA100S00 for a couple of weeks now,to make it very quick to check if a plant is in the Mdb when adding a plant to your database.
The result - you will be able to locate a plant by typing only a few characters.
You dont have to go scrolling down through 3,444 plants In the Rosa listing, or 3,600 plants in the Genus Rhododendron!

The majority of the plants names in the Mdb are compliant with the RHS Plant Finder database.
This resource will help you to resolve any doubt about the correct name for a plant.

If you havent done so already, please download and install the latest version of the Master Database
http://www.cultivars.co.uk/dl/Master-dl.exe

Now download GA004.
http://www.cultivars.co.uk/dl/GA004-dl.exe

When installed, start GA004
Should indicate Version 46

Click the Add/Get a plant button
You are now in the screen Ive been working on GA100S00

Heres one important feature.
On the right of the screen, the Master Database should appear under the caption:
Master Databases found on this computer
If not, let me know.

Entering plants with Botanical Names
This option is selected by default (the pop-up, top of screen is set to Keying a genus name for a plant
Play around with the various search buttons, within the Genus Rhododendron.:
a) List all

b) Within
e.g. was, ter

c) Species
e.g. dichroanthum, viscosum

d) Cultivar
e.g. Dopey, Roland Cooper, Patricia

Add a plant to your database, using the Add from Master button

Play with switching between the Master Database and MY database (thats YOUR database on disc)

Entering plants with Common Names
Click the pop-up to switch from Keying a genus name for a plant to Keying a Common name for a plant
1) Play with the Within search option
Note that other options are not suitable for this mode and are hidden
e.g. Lav will return Lavender etc
der will return lots of things

2) Switch between Master and MY databases and search your own database

Feedback would be much appreciated

[NightHawk]

I'll get around to testing this new feature for you George as soon as I can.

We're getting a few more orders coming in for our labels at the moment, so that's keeping me busy.  You may have noticed the drop off of active postings from us recently - there's your reason.  I'm diving in now whilst I've got the chance.  Can't keep paying customers waiting you know.

People are planning ahead to get their Christmas labels ordered from us.  Just posted one set this morning to Ireland as it turns out.  County Mayo.  Not quite in your neck of the woods, but in the right area. 

I'm sure Malcolm will be keen to do some testing of this feature for you, so at least you'll get some other feedback fairly quickly.  (Who will be first.  )  It's not a contest as you know, but a little healthy rivalry never comes amiss. 

Laurie.

[ideasguy]

Hey, thats great news on the business front, Laurie. County Mayo is a great place for fishin' (so I'm told) and a lovely part of the country.

Ive edited the initial posting (above) folk.
You can now play with searching for plants with Common names.

[NightHawk]

Thanks for that George.

It's hats off to you George.  Your ongoing improvements to the software are coming in leaps and bounds.  All your hard work is much appreciated and every user of your programs are reaping the benefits. 

Even the members who are not active on the Forum, I'm sure are extremely grateful as well.

Yet another gold star is awarded to you. 

Laurie.

[ideasguy]

GA100S00 was one of those nagging things.

I knew it needed updating to make it easier for the user, and to make it tap into the wealth of data in the Master Database. It took MUCH longer than expected, but I'm delighted how it all worked out.

Due to time considerations, I was on the point of making it work for Botanical names only, but that little Within feature offered a fantastic solution to searching for Common Names, and I had it working in less than an hour.
Having done that, and started to play with it, I suddenly realised how valuable it was!

Mind you, I need to judge the success by the feedback from the users, so looking forward to some feedback.

[NightHawk]

Superb, brilliant, surpassing excellence, out of this world - I'm running out of superlatives.  Okay, one more - great job. 

I've just ran through all your tests for this new feature and it works a treat.  Well done George.

That WITHIN feature is very powerful, and extremely useful.

Everything performed as you predicted, without any problems.

I have no adverse criticisms (or any criticisms if it comes to that  )

I'm quite certain you're going to get similar praise from some of our other members in due course.  (I see hands grabbing for the Thesaurus now to add to my descriptions.    )

Am I the first one then George?    I had to make this a priority whilst I had some free moments.  Phew!!!

Laurie.

[ideasguy]

Your first to the ball as always, Laurie!
I'm delighted with your test results and - those superlatives, well, gosh 

I provieded the Within option in FG some time ago. It's slightly more difficult with IG Pro, since each element of the plant name is stored in different fields, but it was quite easy to provide in that particular screen.

Heres some more info:
Within is good in the case where a plant name on the net is incorrect.
e.g. a frequent one is where the variety is alba or album
On the net, it can appear in single quotes, indicating that it is a cultivar.
In some rare cases, its a forma, or subvar in the Master Database (name verified on RHS web site).
Hence if you do a search for the plant by putting alba in the Cultivar field it wont find it.
By using the within button, it will.
Problem is, it is a little slower. The program searches ALL the plants in the genus when doing a Within search.
When doing a Species or Cultivar search, the program uses special indexes in the database, so very quick - hence you have the predictive text drop-downs when using those searches.
You wont notice the difference in a small genus, but the difference may be slightly noticeable in the larger genera like Rosa and Rhododendron.

[ideasguy]

Ive now updated this program to Version 47.
Click on the same download link above to get it.

New:
Ive added a Select button.
This is enabled when you search your own database (referred to as MY in the screen GA100S00)
When you Select a photo, the Plant selected is returned to the calling program.

With Version 47, Try this:
Start GA004
Click Add/Get a plant button
In the Exploring options, click My
Use the Within, Species, Cultivar options to find a plant in your own database.
Then click Select button
The screen closes, and the selected plant is put into edit, in GA100S36

[NightHawk]

Nice one George.

Works perfectly. 

Laurie.

[ideasguy]

Thanks once again Laurie. I'll be adding these to the Ideas Genie on the web download page over the weekend, for general use.

GA100S00 is a common screen, i.e. its used in a number of programs in IG Pro.
Heres two more Ive posted last night, again on the "Beta" site (cultivars.co.uk in this instance):

The Quick link Photos program GA030:
http://www.cultivars.co.uk/dl/GA030-dl.exe

The Reviews program GA032 (the one used for WPG)
http://www.cultivars.co.uk/dl/GA032-dl.exe
This has also been updated to work with the new style sheet plantlist.css, discussed in another thread on this forum.

[bossgard]

George: I?m attempting to do a complete housekeeping job on my computer, before I get back to data entries on IGP ver. 5. First of all I have done a complete external backup to DVD of my entire computer. And for the record I?m using AVG 8.0 for security.  I have several things I want to take care of:
(a)   In checking with the current program updates, I have quite a few to do.
(b)   Since GA046 ver. 44 is on the current program update list, I need to update that to ver. 46 (Now changed to 47?)
(c)   And I want to download current Mdb.
What is the proper sequence to follow so I finish OK? Thanks chief!!
 - Toby
P.S. Just read Laurie's and your latest postings, what do I do? Should I hold off for a while?

[ideasguy]

Great to see you back on-line Toby. We've missed you here!

Do the Master Database download first. It is up to date.

Ive posted the very latest updates to GA004, GA030 and GA032 on another topic on this forum for members to download and test.
I posted those updates on another server.

I'm happy with them now, so I'll update the Ideas Genie on the Web Product Support web site over the weekend.

I'll post a message here when Ive done that, Toby.
Hold off until I've done that - watch this space...