Improved List Creation and Batch Editing

09 November 2009

We have just changed the way that Create New List and Batch Edit work. Instead of checking the various species and then hitting Save at the bottom, now all you have to do is check a species as seen and the update will be saved automatically. This means that it is faster overall and more reliable. Although it may take about a second to check a species (the screen will "freeze" until the update has been made) whereas this was immediate before, the old method of hitting Save could take several minutes to add the records. It was difficult to know whether the update was still working, and some people reported problems with it timing out and therefore losing changes that were in progress. For rarities, where date and location are mandatory, a new dialog box appears when you check the species as seen in order to capture all required information in one go. When you hit Add Record, the rarity record is saved. The new method works out faster overall so it is even easier to add those World lists!

Note that a similar method is used for editing sighting details, i.e. each time you make a change to the date, location, comments or sensitive flag the change is immediately updated in the BUBO Listing database.

A few small performance changes have also been implemented in other areas. If you notice any problems then please let us know, and do let us know what you think of the new batch editing. Also the next change due will be to the home page, so we'd appreciate any suggestions.