[Odonata-l] OdonataCentral New and Improved

[John C. Abbott]

If you are a member of DSA or had registered with OdonataCentral earlier, you will have already received this email and I apologize for the duplication.  For everyone else:

At long last the new OdonataCentral is now up and running.  It can be
reached by any of the following url's :  www.odonatacentral.org,
www.odonatacentral.net, www.odonatacentral.com

Please note that if you linked to the old site using
http://odonatacentral.bfl.utexas.edu you should be redirected to the new site, but only to the home page.

The site has been completely overhauled and now uses php with Oracle as its
database backbone.  This provides for a much more efficient navigation and
delivery of information.

Some of the major improvements and additions to look for include, but are
not limited too:

(1)   a visual redesign

(2)   MyOC.  This feature allows users to login and use customized
interfaces.  Much like MyAmazon or MyEbay, the site remembers you and keeps
track of favorite locations and will allow you to easily track your record
submissions, or if you are a Record Administrator, manage the records in
your area.  We plan to implement much more with this, including a set of
preferences that will allow you to choose scientific, common or both names
to be used throughout the site.

(3)   The site is now worldwide.  The interfaces built will allow for the
addition of records from anywhere.  Features such as checklists, field
guides and the map distribution viewer are no longer limited in scope (just
in the underlying records!).

(4)   MyRecords interface is now much improved in terms of tracking and
submitting.  Submitted Records are automatically plotted and seen by all,
but tagged as "Pending" until they are vetted.  Users can change their
records at anytime as long as it is still pending.  A batch submission
process has also been developed.

(5)   OdonataDistributionViewer - this has been completely overhauled.  We
are still using GoogleMaps and GoogleEarth as our engine, but a completely
new application (like none I have seen) has been developed.  You can search
by taxa or geographic area.  It is world-wide in scope.  You can select to
view Google Maps or Satellite and choose to overlay (transparently or
opaquely) U.S. county boundaries on the map.  We are still facing speed
issues with this, but to overcome much of that, we have implemented a
"clustering" mechanism.  Basically, at broad zoom levels where there is a
lot of data, data is clustered instead of showing individual points.  You
wouldn't be able to discern the points anyway, so this helps speed things
up.  We are still looking at additional ways to improve speed with this
resource.  Records are indicated as clusters or points and pending or
accepted.  You can filter by the latter to increase data integrity.  We are
also now plotting data at their actual localities.  Dot Map data (indicated
as blue dots on the map) is plotted at county centers, but all other data is
plotted at the actual lat/long of collection.  This will allow users to
generate checklists and seasonality histograms for specific areas.  You can
also link to a specific species/geographic distribution and include them on
your own web pages.

(6)   Because OC has gone world-wide, we are now hosting a world catalog.
This is derived from several sources, but primarily from the Schorr et al.
list.  I have integrated Rosser Garrison's New World list into this however,
and have always defaulted to his list when there are discrepancies.  As a
result, you can now view/search either the World or New World catalogs.

(7)   I've added a "Resources" tab that will eventually contain all sorts of
useful information.  For now, there are subtabs that include the Taxonomic
Catalogs, OC Membership Directory, Taxonomic Notes, bibliography and Odonata
links.

(8)   There is now a tab for "Publications."  You can search and view the
DSA publications Argia and Bulletin of American Odonatology.  If you are a
current DSA member, all of these publications will be available to you.  If
you are not a member, then you will not be able to view the latest 3 years
of Argia or 3 volumes of BAO.

(9)   I have also added a tab for "Societies."  This has information
presently on DSA and the Odonata Survey of Texas.

Please change links on your web pages to reflect the new url,
http://www.odonatacentral.org.

We have worked hard to make the site compatible across platforms and
browsers. Not the following however.  Although the site looks gorgeous in
Safari, it appears that the Safari browser has an actual bug when dealing
with file uploads and there may not be a solution.  This has been reported
by others as well, basically it just hangs sometimes when trying to upload
files (which would apply to the record submission process on
OdonataCentral).

I welcome comments and feedback about the new improved site.  Please
remember OdonataCentral is a community-based server and project.  Its
success depends on users like you.  Thanks for looking at the new
OdonataCentral!

John

---------------------------------------------------------
John C. Abbott, Ph.D.
Curator of Entomology, Texas Natural History Collections
Section of Integrative Biology
1 University Station #L7000
The University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas 78712  USA

Office Phone: (512) 471-5467
Lab Phone: (512) 232-1896
Fax: (512) 475-6286
http://www.sbs.utexas.edu/jcabbott
http://www.odonatacentral.org
Email: jcabbott at mail.utexas.edu
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