A short user guide is available to the right and below.

Please email us if you notice any corrections that need to be made.

Click the link below will bring a separate browser window with a list of the data tables available. Click whichever data table you are using. Reading the short user guide mentioned above will help you what to do next..

UCR Inventory FM Databases

A Botany Ph.D. student

Data Entry

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Welcome to the UCR Herbarium's Filemaker-hosted (FM) Inventory Databases

Important notes for UCR Filemaker-hosted (FM) web database users:

Log Out when you are done. You are automatically logged in as a guest. Logging out when you are done frees up the user slot you were using for another person. If you do not log out, the system waits some fifteen minutes before automatically logging you out.

Use only the buttons on the pages themselves to move between table and form modes and to do searches, sorts and other tasks. Avoid hitting your browser's back or forward buttons to return to previous views or to abort an operation. Doing so may cause a crash of the database web server.

If you get a hung web browser window (the cursor remains an hour-glass or a beach ball for an exceedingly long time, chances are that the UCR campus network has left the server in an ambiguous situation. Please contact us and we will relaunch the webserver.

Database User Guide

These database use the regular version of Filemaker Pro 8.5 as its web server. The initial page displayed by following the link lists four data tables, "Countries," "Families," "Inventory" and "Lichens." "Countries" gives the Internet two letter codes for the countries of the world, which are used in the UCR Inventory database. "Families" gives the three letter codes used to represent scientific families. "Inventory" provides access to the UCR Inventory. "Lichens" provides access to the Lichens (and associated fungi) part of the Inventory. Clicking one of the filenames will bring up the default web layout.

The web database server requires a web browser that can handle cascading style sheets and JavaScript. The recent MacIntosh and Windows versions of Netscape 8 and FireFox work well as do Internet Explorer 6 (for Windows) and Safari (MacIntosh). Opera 9 performs great as well, though earlier versions have a few problems in display (for example, the text on buttons is not discernible and the status panel does not appear initially without hitting a button in the data panel). The MacIntosh version of Internet Explorer (which has not been updated in number of years) has several display problems.

Manipulation of the current data table is done through a status panel on the left while the data is displayed in a large panel on the right. The display of the status panel is controlled by a small arrow (triangle) near the top of the line separating the two panels. Icons are used extensively to serve as clickable buttons for database manipulation commands, such as searches, sorts and record access. Holding the cursor over an icon generally brings a textual clue as to what the icon does (see the table below for most of the icon and action associations). The icons give the user much of the command of the data table a user at the server would have. Some of the icons are inactive because their actions have been disallowed (for example, changing the data table in any way). Those icons are not explained in the table below.

The web server allows access through a dropdown list to any of the data layouts available for the data table. The data table will start on one of the layout designed for the web. The other layouts designed for the web can be accessed through buttons on the layouts. Each layout can be viewed either as a form, list or table by choosing the corresponding word in another dropdown list. At the bottom of the status panel is the logout button.

The database tables are accessible to only five users (IP numbers) at a time. Logging out is important because a user slot is not available to someone else until the server times out the previous user after a certain time of non-use (15 minutes). So when you are done using a data table, click the logout button.

There are two basic status panels: browse and search. The table below shows most of the icons found in the browse status panel.
Icon Action Home (File List) Browse Mode (Active in Search) Search Help (popup or new tab/window) Sort (popup or new tab/window) Show all records (Post Search) More icons Omit Record (Post Search) Omit Multi Records (Post Search) Show Omitted (Post Search)   Less Icons Move to and fro through the records Go to record Modify last find	The search icon sets up the system for a search. The status panel changes from the browse panel to the search panel. The data layout changes to allow the field entry of the search values. Once you click on the search icon, you should not change layouts because of the shift in the function of the layout. Changing layouts in that situation cause an error message when you consequently click on a field to enter a search value. This problem can be corrected by clicking the "Perform Find" button that appears in the Search status panel on the left. This action will generate another error message. By clicking ok on the error message, the server will reset the layout to accept inputs for a search. Both the Help and Sort icons bring up another window (tab) or a popup window. If your browser is set to prevent popup windows from automatically popping up, you may have to take some action within your browser to see them. Your browser may not move automatically to the new window (or tab). You may have to move there manually. The help evoked by the Help icon is far more extensive than the help presented on this page. Some of the icons are useful only after a search that restricts the number of accessible records by some selection criteria. Those are marked by the phrase (Post Search). The Omit icons eliminated the current or the specified records from the Found Set of records. The "Show Omitted" icon shows the records not found by a search. The "Modify last find" allows you to go into search mode with the previous search values available in their fields without retyping them so you can easily modify them to your present requirements for a search. The Home icon takes you back to the list of available data table. To move through the records, click on the icon that looks like an openned binder. You can also move to a particular record in the sequence by typing in its position number in the Record: text box and click the "Go to Record" icon.
Icons specified to the Search Panel are given below:
Icon Action Add a Request Duplicate a Request Delete a Request	Searches are done by requests. A request is essentially a layout with its fields set for entry of search values. Filling different fields with search values effect "and's:" criteria all of which a record must meet to be selected (e.g., Collector = "Sanders" and State = "CA". Adding a request effects an "or:" criteria one of which a record must meet to be selected (e.g., State = "NV" or State = "CA"). Click the "Omit" checkup in a request eliminates records matching the criteria from the found set. Omits need to be the last requests in a set of connected (added) requests since they eliminate records from the found set.
Any comments on access with other browsers would be appreciated as would any suggestions for layouts for web users.