Exploring data
Overview
If you use the iRecord website this page will be very familiar. I've included a link to the 'Using the new Explore pages' article on iRecord in addition to the documentation I've produced here.
This page outlines the tools we have built in to Nature Counts for exploring and filtering the biological records. There are two explore records pages, which look and function mostly the same except for one main difference:
My records
the url for this page is ../explore/myrecords
This page is accessible to all logged in users and only shows the records of the person who is logged in.
All records
The url for this page is ../explore/all-records
This page is only accessible to logged in users who have the Staff role (see more about roles here: Site admin ) and this page shows all your data in your Nature Counts system.
Page layout
Filtering toolbar
Both of these pages use the same filtering toolbar (see image below) which the videos below show you how to use. See Records for what all pieces of data in a record mean.
The search box is a general search that will search all data fields for the search term that you specify. For example if you search for 'Robin' it will being up all species records for the species Robin, but it will also bring up records recorded by people called Robin. The status selector lets you filter records based on it's status in the iRecord verify system. The main part of the toolbar (what, where etc.) are seven buttons which if you click on them they bring up small pop-up windows that let you filter the data.
You can save a filter by entering a name for your filter in the box to the bottom left of the toolbar and pressing the save button.
Map
Once you've filtered the data you will see a map showing the geographic spread of the data using circles where the darker circles show where records are more highly concentrated. For example this is what the map for Sheffield's data looks like.
You can change how the map is displayed by moving the mouse over the layer symbol in the top right of the map which gives you these options:
The first set of options gives you options for the background map layer.
The second set of options lets you decide how to visualise the data. The first two options, 'All records in current filter', show the data either as the grid map made up of circles where the darker blue represents more records (see image above), or as a heat map (see image below left).
If you select either of the options described as 'Distribution of species in selected row' then it will produce a map for a the species that you have selected by clicking on a record in a row (see image below right for example)
Example map with setting selected: All records in current filter (heat map)
Here, I have selected the row for a record of a Blackbird by clicking on the record in the table below the map. Because I have selected 'Distribution of species in selected row (heat map)' the map is now showing all Blackbird records. The map layer has turned orange to remind you that you're only looking a single species.
This is a really useful feature if you quickly want to compare the distribution of two species because you just click between two different records. Another example where this feature is useful is when you've got a record for a species and you want to compare where this record is relative to the other records you hold for this species.
Table filters
Below the map you will see a table of records which you can use to do some finer filtering and sort the data:
Jump to the section below 'How to use the table filters' for more information about how to use this the table filters.
Explore page overview
An overview of the explore all/my records page
Link to video: https://youtu.be/mRKPAH8IYKg
How to use the filtering toolbar
- What -Selecting by species or species groups
3. When - Filtering by date or age of record
2. Where - Filtering by location or geographic area
4. Who, Record ID, Quality, Source
Getting nice photos from Nature Counts
This is a really useful option for getting photos for social media etc.
On the Quality tab select this option:
Then it will only show records with photos attached
How to use the table filters
At the top of the table filters we have 5 tabs.
Records: each row is a separate record
Species: gives you a summary table for each species with their taxonomy, how many records you have for each species, and the date for first and most recent record.
Families: essentially the same species tab but classified by family level.
Families: essentially the same species tab but classified by species group (flowering plant, bird etc.)
Downloads: Any downloads you generate using the data on the Records and Species tabs will appear here.
Videos below go through how to use each of these tabs.
Downloads tab: how to download the table of data you have made using the filters
How to View and edit a record you have submitted
This video also appears in the submitting records section of the Nature Counts guide but we have also included it here because it shows you how to look at the details of a record. I have shown it being used from the 'My Records' page but it works the same as if you were using it from the 'All Records' page. If you have the 'Staff' role you can edit records from other recorders.
At the bottom of the table we have the paginator (manages what page you're on). You can change cycle between previous and next pages and you can change how many rows per page from 30, 60, or 120. The download button will download all data in the table as shown in the video above.
Exploring data from iRecord and other sources (Staff only)
In Nature Counts, Wildlife Trust staff can access biological records from other organisations and recording schemes who host their records with the Biological Records Centre.
To access this data go to the menu and click on 'Explore' then 'Records from other sources'
The page you are then on has the same filtering functionality as all other explore pages but also shows data from other sources.
This page is filtered to only show records within your operational area. This area, and the data providers who's record appear here can be altered: Access to other data sources
Access to these records is strictly under the licence of each record, and if you wish to access data from any other providers would you get written permission to use their data before an admin as their data to this page.
You can determine the source of each record by holding your mouse other the value in the Src (source) column.
The first value is the ID of the website (for example 23 is iRecord) and the second value is the dataset within that website (for example 374 is the iRecord App records)
Downloading Survey Data
For downloading all data relating to a survey which includes any additional environmental data then use the Download records option.
Legacy (inactive) pages
How to use the legacy explore pages
The main explore pages use software called ElasticSearch which makes them a lot faster. We do also have some extra pages that are an old version of the page but we keep them there in case the ElasticSearch pages stop working for whatever reason. You can find these old versions at:
My records: ../explore/myrecords-v1
All records: .../explore/all-records-v1
Note that they can be very slow to load so by default only show the last 30 days of records.
The one advantage is that new records will show up in this explore page immediately whereas they can take a few minutes to appear in the ElasticSearch explore pages.
Here's a quick video showing how to use it and comparing it to the newer ElasticSearch explore pages: https://youtu.be/4wHH26nn75c