Set up checklist

Creating a new NC site

This page acts as the master checklist of all the things required to deploy a new Nature Counts site.

As you go though this checklist for a new site it's good to keep track of it using the NC site set-up tracker (in the D4N google drive).

The Checklist

Joining the project

This step is non technical. Before we start making a Nature Counts site for a Wildlife Trust it's good some official commitment. This stage usually involves some initial meetings to showcase the Nature Counts site and functionality through a Google meet (or similar) with screencasts and answering any initial questions about how NC works etc. For the initial set of partners there has been a standard payment and the initial project brief provided to partners outlines what they get in return for this contribution eg. number of hours of support etc.

• Sign up to the project and provide letter of participation

• Provide payment to SRWT for the hours it takes to set up site and initial training.

Storing and accessing data in the BRC warehouse (See Dataflow and licensing)

The BRC warehouse is where the biological records are actually stored. There are two parts to this set up, paperwork and technical. In terms of paperwork you need to sign a BRC warehouse agreement 

• Sign BRC warehouse agreement having decided on:

  • License?

  • Visible on iRecord explore?

  • iRecord verify?

  • Automatic upload to NBN?

• Get developer (John van Breda or the BRC (Martin Harvey) to set up access of BRC warehouse data to get the website ID number for the new partner's NC site (without this you can't set up a new NC site)

Getting the Drupal site up and running

This stage is a technical stage about getting the actual website up and running. We do this by essentially 'cloning' a copy of an existing Nature Counts site and then making changes to the cloned copy. Some of these stages have already been set up for partner WTs numbers 7 to 15. See Deploying a new NC site for details on this stage.

• Create the new database/site on the Drupal multisite

• Create record. subdomain with DNS record pointing to the Clook server

• Install Drupal on the new site

• Clone across template site using the backup and migrate module

• Change the sent from email address and (ideally) add a SPF record to domain to allow emails to go through spam filters 

• Set up the indicia survey builder key pair: Setting up survey builder 

• Set up google analytics: reCAPTCHA and analytics set up 

• Set up reCAPTCHA : reCAPTCHA and analytics set up 

Configuring the Nature Counts site to reflect your Wildlife Trust

Once the the site is set up, it will initially still refer to the Wildlife Trust that the NC site is cloned from. There's 2 types of changes here, cosmetic changes so that the text on the pages refers to the new site, and technical changes making sure that the explore records pages are showing data from the right dataset.

• Update terms and conditions to refer to the new partner Trust: Terms and Conditions 

• Setting up the default map position for users of your recording site: Indicia settings 

• Upload shapefiles for nature reserves: Sites 

• Add reserves that can be added to protocols: Tags for Protocols 

• Sensitive species lists: Sensitive species list 

• Edit all text references to the Trust 

• Change the website ID to the new ID in various settings (see Deploying a new NC site )

Launching the NC website

Once the site is up and running it's time to start getting people using it. It's recommended to make some accounts for new users but then provide training for whomever at that Wildlife Trust is going to be the NC admin at that Wildlife Trust. This training is usually funded by the contribution they made in joining the project.

• Send invites to new users: Managing users 

• Training sessions

  • Getting started (for all staff)

  • Administering your NC site (for admins)

  • Exploring and analysing records (for reserve managers etc.)

  • Using NC for monitoring

    • Making protocols

    • Building survey forms

Hosting your data on the NBN Atlas (see Dataflow and licensing)

A final step is making sure that the NC data is transferred to the NBN Atlas

• Become a member of the NBN (optional)

• Set up your data provider profile (liaising with NBN)

• Set up the data resource and automatic transfer (liaising with BRC)

Ongoing support

• Make a full back-up of the NC platform

• See NCP maintenance