”To arrest the decline of, and to enhance the water vole populations on Anglesey such that population networks are viable in the long-term.”
As soon as the records were loaded, it was possible to run standard reports and graphs, and begin to analyse the data. Most interestingly, it was possible to map records across the survey area and AditSite made it possible to map details of the relevant surveyors and landowners alongside the data recorded on the water voles.
Initial consideration was given to extensive use of the existing facility for AditSite user-defined fields. However the sheer volume of additional data together with the need to impose some structure upon it made that solution look less attractive. What was needed was an extra detail screen dedicated to the needs of the Vole Project that could be accessed during normal data input.
The AditSite support team took into consideration that fact that the Vole Project might well wish to refine their data input screen in the light of experience and that other projects and organisations might have a similar requirement in the future. The new, user defined, Document Input Screen was born as a standard AditSite feature. This allows AditSite users to define a custom data entry screen with their own data fields, captions and selection lists (probably the most useful feature of all).
The data collected by the custom screen is stored as embedded XML* within a special AditSite database field. The stored data can be selected, reported and plotted just like any other data recorded using AditSite.
You can see a screen shot of the first draft of the Vole Project special input screen by clicking on the thumbnail below:
The Anglesey Water Vole Project works very closely with several other organisations (CCW, Environment Agency, etc) both on the island and on the adjoining mainland, and needs to share data with them. Because of varying computer-based and manual systems, extensive use is made of the data export facilities within AditSite. Should other organisations join or contribute to the project then the AditSite support team will be there to ensure that any unique data interchange requirements can be met.
* XML stands for eXtensible Mark-up Language. This is fast becoming the data interchange standard for just about every sort of computer based system. It has the advantage of great flexibility combined with the fact that it is possible to make sense of the data without the aid of a dedicated program. Many programs like AditSite (and including your Internet browser) can read and display structured data stored using an XML format.
