CUCC Expedition: Data Maintenance Manual

Expo Data Maintenance Manual

Oh No! Something has changed.

It happens all the time,

so now you need to fix things.

Check the current status of the expo data first.

Changing Cave Names to Kataster Numbers

After a cave is surveyed, documented and reported to the Austrians, they issue a 'kataster number'. So now the data needs to be renamed to match the new name, e.g. Homecoming had to be renamed from 2018-dm-07 to 1626-356.

The recommended procedure is documented at new kataster number process

Do not despair - no nerd needed

OK, probably what you need is written up somewhere in the 7-stage 'complete process for recording cave data', possibly in one of the side-pages which you skipped through when you read it.

With a Basic Laptop

You already have the password, so just using troggle web pages and a basic laptop you can already do these things which have been "trogglized":

See configuring a Basic laptop.

With a Survey Laptop

A survey laptop has Tunnel and Therion, and you use it for cave survey production from raw data. Generally it is not what you use to fix things that have gone wrong - unless what is wrong is simply that something is missing because a job has not been done.

See configuring a Survey laptop.

With a Bulk Update Laptop

There are several standard data maintenance jobs that haven't yet got trogglized. So if:

See configuring a Bulk Update laptop. we will need to use the things* installed on the expo laptop or on your own laptop if you are not in the potato hut on expo. Filezilla will do most of what you need for moving files. We also have andftp Android instructions for file manipulation.

While Filezilla (including the digital key) is enough for moving files in expofiles, moving files in the version-controlled repositories means you need to find someone who knows git (see git cheatsheet) to clean up everything after you have finished.

* footnote: the 'things' include the digital key that allows the laptop to be trusted by the server, as well as various installed software.

Data maintenance task list

We have an online list of outstanding data maintenance tasks. See the 'Survey Data' to-do list

Clever use of Survex file editor

You will have seen this when following a link, e.g. from cave 204 to stitchthis.svx.

But if you hand-edit the address bar in your browser to, say,
/survexfile/caves-1623/2020-W-01/mynewcave.svx the page will load at that new address and pre-fill the editing window with default survex content. If you edit this in the webpage and then click the "Save this edited svx file' button (you will need to remove all the square brackets while you do that). This will create both the file 'mynewcave.svx' and the directory '2020-w-01' within the existing 'caves-1623' directory on the server in the :loser: repository directory.

Note that you should have set the '*ref' field correctly to the number of the plastic wallet you are using.

You will use this when creating a new survex file from your hand-written notes (but only after you have photographed them and put them in the plastic wallet in the potato hut of course).

This is the method you will use when setting '*equate' and '*export' survey points between different cave surveys to link everything together later, and for adding missing *ref references, correcting the spelling of surveyors' surnames etc.

You can also 'move' survex files by the method, with careful use of cut and paste, but you cannot delete them. Also you cannot save an empty file: it has to be a valid survex format and include the required fields *begin and *end.

Always click the button: 'Run cavern on this svx file' after you have edited any survex file. This will check that there is no typo and so will not crash the bulk import of 1,200 survex files when troggle starts up.

You can create new directories to any depth of nesting by this method - all at once.

Editing or creating new survex files means that the :loser: using the form now (since April 2022) both saves the file and updates the version control repository. [Since March 2023, the form now also re-parses the survex data and updates the live database with people, survex blocks, *ref to wallet and surveyed-lengths.]

Clever use of the Cave editor

[ New cleverness to be added in here]

Editing or creating cave description data files means that the :expoweb: repository will need to be updated [automation of this is a pending task].

Clever use of Entrance editor

[ New cleverness to be added in here]

Editing or creating entrance description data files means that the :expoweb: repository will need to be updated [automation of this is a pending task].

Clever use of the Scan Upload form

[ New cleverness to be added in here]

Editing or uploading scan files is in /expofiles/ and so not in a version-controlled repository [be extra careful].

Clever use of 'Edit this page'

You can create new pages as well as edit existing pages. This is all documented in the handbook editing manual [ New cleverness to be added in here]

Editing or creating handbook or logbook HTML files automatically updates the :expoweb: repository .

The expo password

The username is 'expo', with a cavey:beery password. It is written on the notice-board inside the potato hut. This password is important - keep it safe.

The whole site will get hacked by spammers or worse if you are not careful with it. Use a secure method for passing it on to others that need to know (i.e not ordinary email), don't publish it anywhere, don't check it in to the data management system by accident. A lot of people use it and changing it is a pain for everyone so do take a bit of care.

This password is all you need to log in to troggle. There is also an a systems account 'expoadmin' with a different password which enables the import/export control panel for re-importing all the input data files.


Return to: expo online systems overview
Troggle index: Index of all troggle documents