To Do List

This page records desired enhancements to Babase, and possibly includes priorities. We can also use it to list front-ends under consideration and their pros and cons. Information on needs and changes to babase can also be found in the BABASE list archives in e-mails from Tabby Fenn, Lacey Maryott, Niki Learn, and Patrick Onyango.

Custom Programs

Upload and wwwdiff

High priority

• Warning system. Current system only reports errors, not warnings. (Warnings can be produced manually, probably.) Have ability to defer warnings for later and an ability to permanently ignore them.
• Automation of revision history for babase data with ability to undo changes
• Have wwwdiff show line counts when different.
• In wwwdiff have the "by word, not tabular" mode show individual spaces. Currently when there's a difference in the number of spaces in the 2 files you can't tell by looking at the output. (Whitespace needs to be changed to the non-breaking-space html entity.)

Ranker

High Priority

• Fix Anomalous interaction occurances (requires some extensive code clean up)
• Fix Rnktypes queries so that the correct subset of individuals is produced for each rnktype.
• Coding flexibility into the time intervals for which the matrices are produced.
• Creating a 'Print Matrix' Function which prints the matrix and the statistics for the matrix in a text format on a single sheet of paper (may require adjustment of font size)
• Allow scrolling within the matrix and between matrix and stats
• Ranks based upon previous month's ranks, not in alphabetical order. This was not discussed during the CC, but is important

Lower Priority

• Alternatively place the stats in a seperate, recallable window. A 'Fit' vs '100%' zoom option might work too, but these options are less urgent.
• Automated extraction of rank reversals
• Display Month/Year of Currently Displayed Ranking

Database

High priority

• Finish bringing SWERB data into Babase.
• Bring wounds and pathologies into Babase from pending.
• Add the entry dates for immigrant males. These are already in pending and would be easy to update and pull into Babase.

Medium priority

• Add subgroup data to Babase, including designation of subgroup membership and perhaps secondary membership for other individuals who move around within a day.
• Bring project-specific data (Patrick's, Nga's, Catherine's, Courtney's, etc.) into Babase, possibly starting with Catherine's GPS data.
• Old point sample data - finish filling in missing columns and add observer column. Integrate with new point sample data in Babase.
• Have REPSTATS and CYCSTATS automatically updated. MDINTERVALS and MMINTERVALS too.
• Add Line Numbers and more useful descriptions as needed to Error Messages in the Upload program

Low priority

• Predation and Human Disturbance (now in pending)
• Hybridgene (include freeze # and datestamp) and hybridmorpho (both now in pending).
• Neonatal Assessments (now in pending).
• Monitoring Points - a different type of focal monitoring data from late 1981 to mid-1994; entered by Catherine Markham and Melissa Bowlin for the timestamped quad locations (now in pending).
• Deathnotes table (pulling notes on deaths out of demography notes, where they currently reside).
• Add grp column to additional views.

Psionload error message enhancement

The error messages which are produced by Psionload are a bit raw, and we have some suggestions on a couple of them. I'm sure we'll come up with more as we have only seen a few of the error messages thus far.

{{{ "Error: Pntid *****, Nghid *****, Neighbor after statdate blah blah (dead neighbor)"}}}

• ---Pntid and Nghid are irrelevant as the file doesn't actually go into

the system, and can't be searched, it can thus be removed.

Also in the Psionload program, it would be helpful if at the beginning of each error message, the name of the focal animal could be displayed. This makes searching for the error to fix it much easier.

Comment: This is all the same problem. The database does not have the focal individual at-hand when the neighbor is inserted. It just has the neighbor row. I can have the DB query itself to find the focal individual to enhance the error messages. Easy, but involves adding extra code each time an error message crops up.

Unprioritized

• Looking at the fecal schema and bringing those tables into the offical Babase. That means reviewing the table structure, possible modifications and validation, and documentation. Reviewing the data-loading procedure, perhaps making a view or writing programs to facilitate loading data.
• Integrating conception and birth ranks for individuals, especially in the earlier years of observation where month-to-month ranks aren't available. That means possibly creating a new table structure, possible validation and documentation. Review of the upload program to possibly facilitate uploading this data.

phpPgAdmin

Needs Work

High priority

• Make changes requested by the PPA team to get our custom changes (the "Done But" below) into PPA. (Currently we're waiting on the PPA team for feedback.)

Medium priority

• Add drop down menus for easier identification of tables and views by category (increasingly important as more and more tables are added and more users are navigating Babase).
• The ability to insert/update/delete the database through views in the same way it can be updated through tables. There are two categories of functionality here, individual row maintanence and bulk uploads.

• Bulk uploads are useful for the regular addition of data. It can be worked around by using the custom Upload program (or by use of the Unix interface, which does allow bulk uploads to views.)

• Individual row maintenance is useful for manual corrections. It can be worked around by using sql to update the database rather than a GUI.

Low priority

• A 'find' feature for the editing and updating of rows.
• Don't show stuff we don't need to see:
  • Estimated row count column
  • The column with the "Empty" button
• Have the column headings in the tables and SQL output "stick" on the screen.
• Making the "Show Statements" option in SQL window checked by default, with the option to uncheck the box.
• Don't show things on the screen that the user does not have permission to use.
• Add links to tech specs for easy access from within Babase.
• Embedding R.

Done But

What's listed here has been done but is waiting for inclusion in the offical phpPgAdmin code.

• Rapid display of large amounts of information.
  • Text output of query results added
• The ability to download data directly from a query without having to load the data into a table first.
• SQL command history.
• COPY TO support in user-supplied SQL.

Unreleased

What's listed here has been included in the official phpPgAdmin code, but has not yet been released to the public.

Code Management

• Code cleanup and publication.
  • There's some leftover unused code that should be removed.
• A better system for installing the documentation and programs on the website directly from the code repository. The current process is error prone. This will also make it easy for anybody who downloads the code to install and run the website part. And make it easier to put babase on a cd.

Someday in the far future....

• Make up a block diagram showing the different software pieces and how they talk with each other.