Application design

Design details and issues

This portion of the Internet site contains many technical details and unresolved issues. It is intended primarily for those involved in the design and development of Species File Software. Other interested persons are welcome to review these pages. Unresolved design issues are shown in contrasting color. Version specific features are noted by highlighted text. Comments, criticisms and suggestions are welcome from casual readers as well as from members of the design group. The input will help us to produce a better service. Send comments to David Eades (send mail).

Software selected

The database behind the website was originally on FileMaker Pro, moved to MS Access, moved again to MS SQL Server. The greater complexity of SQL Server has made the task more difficult, but it has allowed the addition of more complex programming that does a better job of detecting and preventing user errors in updating the data.

Programming for the Orthoptera Species File was initially done with MS Visual Interdev. The web pages are published using HTML 4. The Active Server Pages (ASP) use Visual Basic Script. Client side programming is done using JavaScript. Web pages can be viewed using Microsoft Internet Explorer, version 4 and higher, or Netscape Navigator, version 4 and higher. Current work is done using Visual Studio.NET. The conversion from ASP to ASP.NET and from Visual Basic Script to Visual Basic.NET was completed in November 2003.

URL entry points

The recommended entry point is "http://[SpeciesFileName].SpeciesFile.org". Replace "SpeciesFileName" with the name of the taxonomic group such as "Orthoptera." In addition there are special entry points provided primarily for use in links from other websites, but available to anyone. When a specific taxon is desired, and the rank is subgenus or higher, use "http://[SpeciesFileName].SpeciesFile.org?TaxonName=" plus the name of the taxon. When the desired taxon is below the rank of subgenus, use "http://[SpeciesFileName].SpeciesFile.org?Genus=[genus name]&Species=[species name]&Subspecies=[subspecies name]". Any of these parameters may be omitted. Replace "[xxx name]" with the actual name. If a space is included within a name, quotation marks must be placed around the name. For those who coordinate data with a TaxonNameID, an additional entry point is "http://[SpeciesFileName].SpeciesFile.org?TaxonNameID=" plus the value of the TaxonNameID.

Some additional entry points are supported, either because they were used in older versions or because some users store bookmarks in their browsers. Although these other entry points work now, there is no assurance that they will continue to work in the future.