[Babase] how to get in the missing Mdates

Karl O. Pinc kop at meme.com
Thu May 21 11:27:43 EDT 2009


On 05/20/2009 01:13:13 PM, kfenn wrote:
>  Hi again Karl,
> 
> I found guidelines for rebuilding the auto Mdate for an individual:  
> SELECT rebuild_automdates('FOO'). This seems to be something we could  
> do to fix the missing mdates that are prohibiting the upload of  
> sexskin data. There is a warning however:
> Warning
> This routine should not be run while triggers (automatic data  
> validation) are enabled.
> 
> Aren't the validations always on?

Yes.  Which means that you guys pretty much can't rebuild the
automatic Mdates.  Which is lame.  But it seemed better than
either taking forever to come up with something better or having
nothing at all.

> 
> The documentation also suggests that we can make our own CYCPOINTS  
> row with an mdate and a source code of 'A' to make the database think  
> that it assigned an automatic Mdate. Is this a better way to solve  
> the problem? I'm finding conflicting suggestions in the  
> documentation. The AUTO MDATES docs makes it sound like it's OK, but  
> the CYCPOINTS page specificially says this may is a bad idea.

The key part is this:
<snip>
Automatic Mdate Generation

Babase cannot
distinguish manually entered Mdates with a Source
of A from automatically generated Mdates. Therefore it is not just
automatically generated Mdates that will be removed.
<snip>

If it's ok for your manually entered automatic Mdate to be taken
away by the system then it's ok to enter them.  My expectation
is that it's a bad idea to enter them.

> 
> 
>    Automatic Mdate Generation
> 
> A Mdate automatically generated from a Ddate will be removed when any  
> of the above conditions are no longer met, or when another Mdate is  
> automatically generated for the Ddate.^[108  
> <http://papio.biology.duke.edu/babase_system_html/ch04s05.html#ftn.id2precisely,  
> it is not a Mdate automatically generated from a Ddate that will be  
> removed but rather any Mdate will be removed that has a Source  
> <http://papio.biology.duke.edu/babase_system_html/ch03s10.html#CycpoinA,  
> and that post-dates the Ddate, and that has no Mdates, Tdates, or  
> Ddates, or periods of no observation (see CYCGAPS  
> <http://papio.biology.duke.edu/babase_system_html/ch03s08.html>) on  
> the interval between the Ddate and the “automatic” Mdate. Babase  
> cannot distinguish manually entered Mdates with a Source  
> <http://papio.biology.duke.edu/babase_system_html/ch03s10.html#CycpoinA  
> from automatically generated Mdates. Therefore it is not just  
> automatically generated Mdates that will be removed.
> 
> 
>    CYCPOINTS (Female Sexual Cycle Events)
> 
> Only Mdates are automatically assigned, and only Mdates may have a  
> Source of A (Automatic). Mdates may be manually given a Source of A,  
> although this may well not be a good idea as the Automatic Mdate  
> Generation  
> <http://papio.biology.duke.edu/babase_system_html/ch04s05.html>  
> process may remove the A row at any point. It is even less of a good  
> idea because automatic Mdates are /not/ validated, so it is quite  
> simple to enter an invalid automatic Mdate.
> 
> 
> 
> BTW, the documentation for Rebuilding AutoMdates says CENSUS in a  
> place where I think it should be CYCPOINTS. There are no Mdates  
> anywhere on the census table...
> 
> 
>    Description
> 
> This procedure rebuilds the automatic Mdates  
> <http://papio.biology.duke.edu/babase_system_html/ch04s05.html> on  
> the CENSUS  
> <http://papio.biology.duke.edu/babase_system_html/ch03s13.html> table  
> for a specific individual.
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks again,
> Tabby
> 
> 
>-- 
> Tabby Fenn
> Research Assistant
> 
> Dept of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
> 401 Guyot Hall
> Princeton University
> Princeton, NJ  08544
> 
> 609 258-6898 (Ph)
> 609 258-2712 (Fx)
> 
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> 

Karl <kop at meme.com>
Free Software:  "You don't pay back, you pay forward."
                  -- Robert A. Heinlein



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