General Discussion : Notes during testing

From Megan Ralph - primary data entry grunt for these boxes

A few items I noted while testing and a suggestion or two

1. I did not add a nest name when I tried to create a new nest.  The software gave me an error to fix that field.  When I did so and tried to save the record, I got a popup window that prompted me to state the reason for editing the nest.  That seemed unnecessary as the record hadn't been created yet.

2. After I deleted a test nest, the nest page did not refresh, so none of our other nests records were displayed on the page.  I had to manually refresh to see the other records.

3. Is it possible to display the nestbox ID on the popup window that prompts to confirm the deletion of a nest?  Since it appears we are using production data, I was worried I would delete a real nest.

4. For those of us with a relatively large number of nests, having to scroll to select a nest when entering many observations is cumbersome.  I'm coping by using the Ctrl-F feature in the browser.

Edited to add:  one other issue I noted is that the size fields on the beta site for existing nests is being displayed incorrectly.  I attached screen captures from both version for our nest ELK01.

Comments:

Paul - SoftwareDev's picture

Megan, Those are very helpful points to have. Thank you.  #1 and #2 are things I had not seen in my own testing. #3 is something I thought about; I will increase its priority.

For #4, what would you see as the ideal method of listing a large number of nests for quick selection? Maybe an auto-complete field where as you type, it would filter the list to show matching results?

 

 

bill_ralph's picture

For #4, I dunno.  I think that's what you're doing now and it means that I then have a couple of extra keystrokes (or mouse movements which are even worse) For example:  I want to enter an observation for ELK01.  The autocomplete field shows me the nest, but I have to highlight it (arrow key down), then hit enter to select and open the record.  Then I'll have to mouse again to add the observation.  A shortcut key for that would be great now that I'm thinking about it.

 

Paul - SoftwareDev's picture

I'll think of some alternative methods.  It appears that all your nests have a 3-letter prefix followed by a number. Correct?

Would it help to add a control to first filter the visible nests to a certain prefix, then have a shorter list to find the box # in? I'm guessing the letters indicate a property or other area, and the numbers identify which box in that area?

bill_ralph's picture

The boxes we've added to date have a 3 letter prefix and a number, but as soon as I get the lat/long format question straightened out with Bill, I'll be adding others, at least one of which is alpha prefix/number/alpha suffix.  But right, the first two letters of the prefix indicates either property OR county and then the K indicates Kestrel.  So MEK is Merced County Kestrel.  (We've got other nestboxes for owls, wood ducks and passerines, but obviously none of that gets data entered here).

Just trying to visualize what would be most useful so that the keystrokes and mouse movements are kept to a minimum.

Something like - I type the nest ID (or portion thereof) into a search field, hit enter.  The page displays the results.  What would be great is if I could tab or arrow to the correct ID and hit enter. You'd still need to have a way to select the nest using the mouse by clicking on a hyperlink. 

Honestly for the kind of data entry I do what would be the most useful would be a grid where I could just enter the data, tab through the fields and then save the batch.  Or, import from a spreadsheet.  But that could be next year's upgrade project maybe? 

Paul - SoftwareDev's picture

Thank you. That's very helpful. I'll think about some ways to minimize keystrokes and mouse movements. I'll also research if the code libraries I'm using for the display grids could be modified to allow for entry too.

bill_ralph's picture

Note: I added another item in my original post above, didn't want it to get lost in the shuffle, thanks.

Paul - SoftwareDev's picture

Thanks for the screen captures, that helps a lot. The number discrepancy appears to be caused by a metric conversion running when it shouldn't. I'll find and fix.
 

Paul - SoftwareDev's picture

Regarding your item #3: I have inserted code to display the nest name in the title bars and buttons of the edit and delete popup windows and buttons.  To see this change, you'll likely need to go to the Nests app, hold down the shift key and click your browser's refresh button to force it to load the new source code.

It should look like this:

sample

 

bill_ralph's picture

Yes, that worked great for deleting a test nest.  Very reassuring!

bill_ralph's picture

I found one more little item while doing data entry for observations this morning.  I entered an observation for nestlings at 10 days old, and that nestling age was defaulted for the next nest observation that had nestlings.

Administrator - The Peregrine Fund's picture

Thank you for noting that. I'll see what I can find.

Posted in General Discussion by bill_ralph 9 years 11 months ago.