Stand Development Monitoring

Transcription

1 Stand Development Monitoring SDM - Data entry and management program November 6, P a g e

2 SDM Database The SDM database program has been developed by the Smithers Ministry of Forests and Natural Resource Operations and is based on the data structure developed by Erin Havard and Steve Baumber. The purpose of this program is to provide a system that combines data management with data entry, exploration, and summary tools. Originally designed in Excel, it has been rebuilt in Access to remove some of the limits imposed by Excel. Excel is great for calculations and managing data polygon by polygon, but really shouldn t be considered a database program. The program, sample data and this document can be downloaded at: Support is available from: Erin Havard, FIT Forest Health Technician Ministry of Forests, Lands & Natural Resource Operations erin.i.havard@gov.bc.ca Ken White Forest Entomologist, Smithers (250) Ken.J.White@gov.bc.ca Russell Klassen Data Consultant (250) russk@telus.net Alex Woods Regional Pathologist, Smithers RSC, Skeena Region (250) , Fax (250) Alex.Woods@gov.bc.ca 2 P a g e

3 Contents Frontend-Backend a description of the architect model used to develop this program SDM is a Relational Database describes in simple terms what a relational database is and how it works Managing Projects your data is stored in projects that are managed by a few easy to learn tools Creating Projects instructions on how to create a new project Attaching Projects like opening a file in Excel but with a twist Un-attaching Projects detaching a project from your frontend Entering Data we all hate to do it, but it has to get into digital form somehow Importing Data importing Excel polygon data is simple with a few caveats Some Data Form Features lots of buttons to click, here s a description of what some of them do Data Validation checking your data for errors Google Earth viewing your plot s location Merging Projects lump all that data into one big pile of steaming information Reporting Data almost like a reward for entering the data, you get to see it reduced to summaries Canned Queries exploring data System Requirements what you need to run the full and runtime versions of SDM 3 P a g e

4 Frontend Backend SDM is what is sometimes called a frontend backend database program. The frontend is the portion of the program that the user interacts with to create and manage data. The frontend contains the forms, queries, and code components used to interact with the backend. The backend contains your data, collections of polygons organized into projects. A project consists of a set of four related tables that are managed as a hierarchy of data and events. Projects in the backend are attached to the frontend. As the user you can control almost all of the data management through a simple floating menu form. This form is functionally similar to a number of programs such as VPro, FS882, VTrees and VUnits. Learning to use it once has the benefit of reduced learning curve if you ever need to use one of these other programs. We ll cover this component of the program in greater detail in this document. 4 P a g e

5 SDM is a Relational Database A relational database is a group of tables designed to reduce data redundancy by using fields common to related but dissimilar data tables. In a simple database like SDM we are using just one relationship type: one-to-many. The table naming convention used is the project name followed by an under-bar character and then the name of the data stored in the table. In the example below the project name is Sample. A project consists of data stored in four related tables. Each table is indexed, often called a key, and these keys are used to define the relationship. For example, information specific to a polygon is stored in the polygon table and each record is uniquely identified by four fields: Mapsheet, SubMapsheet, Opening and Polygon. The polygon has related plots stored in the Plot table which are linked using those four fields. This relationship is said to be one-to-many because for each polygon there can be many plots. The relationships between the project tables contain cascading events. An example of a cascading update event would be if the user changed the Mapsheet field in the polygon data, that change would cascade throughout all of the related records. A cascading delete event would take place if the user removed a polygon which would trigger all related records in the project to be deleted. These relationships are automatically maintained by the program. Enter the key information that is used to identify the polygon and that data is automatically entered into the related tables, eliminating data entry and typos. 5 P a g e

6 Managing Projects The main menu is pop-up form that can remain on top of other windows and dragged around to position for best access. From this form you can manage projects, open data forms, import polygons from Excel and open other menu forms containing links to reporting and query functions. It is also from here that you can exit the SDM program. Closing the program from this form allows the program to monitor its size and compact when appropriate. If for some reason you cannot locate this floating menu, clicking the far right button on the SDM ribbon menu will reload it. Clicking the pull down button on the project selector displays the currently attached projects and the methods used to attach, un-attach and create new projects. Clicking on one of the attached projects makes it the current project that you re working with. When you start SDM, your current project will be displayed in this box. If your list of attached projects becomes too long a scrollbar will appear on the right side to enable you to have full access. I promise, once you start using this menu system it will make sense. The next sections of this mini manual will discuss and give examples on how to create, attach and un-attach projects. 6 P a g e

7 Creating a New Project Creating a project is a relatively simple process of giving the project a name and then storing that project in a database. Begin by clicking New on the project menu drop-down list. You will first be prompted to enter a project name. Follow the instructions on the form that prompts you for the name. Next you ll need to store the project somewhere so you ll be prompted for a database file. Either select an existing database or enter a name to create a new database, click Open, SDM will do the rest. 7 P a g e

8 Attaching a Project Attaching a project is as easy as clicking a mouse. First click Attach from the project pull down list. The familiar Windows file dialog box opens for you to select a database file from. Selecting a file and clicking the OK button will cause SDM to look in the selected file and make a list of the available projects. Selecting a project and clicking the Attach button will attach that project to SDM. (If you re in a hurry and clicking the Attach button seems like a big hassle, just double-click the project you want attached and SDM will make it so.) Note: if you already have a project attached with the same name as one of the projects in the database, it will not appear in the list. Also note: Projects remain attached even when the program is closed. Open the program and all of your project data is there and ready for you to get to work on. Because of this it is important not to move the database files that contain your data. This would cause the attachment link to fail. 8 P a g e

9 Un-attaching a Project The number one rule to remember here is that you can t un-attach the current project. The easiest way to make sure your project is available for un-attachment is to first select the Sample project (supplied with all copies of SDM and is hardwired to the program). Start by clicking the Un-attach entry in the project menu drop-down list. SDM will grind away for half a second or so and build a list of the attached projects. Select the projects you wish to un-attach or click the Select All button at the bottom of the list. Click the un-attach button and the selected project(s) will be un-attached. 9 P a g e

10 Entering Data Remember the part in this manual about SDM is a relational database? Because of this it is important to enter the data in the proper order. Fortunately there s some help to get you started. See that button in the lower-left corner of the form, the one that s labeled Data Entry Helper. Click that button and SDM will guide you through entering data in the correct order. The little helper form will stay on the screen and as you complete the tasks you can click the next button to move to the next step. You won t need that help for long. In a short while you ll be able to enter the data without any prompts. Anyone who knows me knows I harp a lot about backing up data. Microsoft includes a tool to repair databases and they wouldn t do so if it wasn t needed at some point. It s best not to rely on Microsoft s tool to fix a problem, backup regularly. Can t remember which database and where that data was saved? Right click the project in question and click link info. 10 P a g e

11 Importing Data Note that at present the polygon opening information should be in the following format: You will be prompted for the file location. Locate the polygon you wish to import and click Open. Note that this can be a slow process depending on your computers speed. If the polygon already exists, you will be asked if you wish to replace it or you can cancel the operation. 11 P a g e

12 Some Data Form Features You probably noticed a few buttons scattered about on the data form. We talked about the Data Entry Helper earlier, but let s talk about some of the other buttons. Below the Data Volume Trees section there are two buttons, Delete Estimated Heights and Estimate Unknown Heights. Using the known heights for a given species, SDM can create and apply an LOGEST equation to the unknown heights. Once the calculation is complete a popup message will give you some details on the equations that were developed and the species and number of known heights they were created from. Obviously, the greater the number of trees the better the curve generated. The upper right corner of the form contains an Export to Excel button that will export the current polygon into a template in Excel. The lower-right corner of the form has three buttons; the first two are self-explanatory, Delete Current Polygon and Delete Current Plot. They do as their label implies. The last button that looks like a small door with an arrow closes the form. 12 P a g e

13 Estimated Heights Example The current method includes all volume trees with known heights. It should, in the future, have an option to select only trees without certain health and damage agents. 13 P a g e

14 Data Validation Clicking the Data Validation button on the floating Main Menu opens a sub menu with a list of data validation tools on it. Clicking a button performs that individual test on the entire project. Clicking the Run All Validation Tests button runs all of the tests. SDM uses Excel as a reporting tool, so if any errors are found they will be reported in and Excel Workbook. Compare Layers 1 & 2 to Vol. Trees This test compares the number of trees in layers 1 & 2 and compares that total with the number of volume trees of that species recorded. Discrepancies are then reported in Excel. 14 P a g e

15 Google Earth Google Earth provides another way to explore and visualize location information. Bird s-eye view Or a ground-level view, this tool can help to visualize the plot location. Another possibility is to upload your own plot pictures to Google Earth. They will appear as icons on Google Earth and by clicking them the picture will pop up on the form. 15 P a g e

16 Merging Projects It s the end of a long field season and the SDM project files have been coming in from various users. What s next? It s time to merge those projects into one master file and start creating summaries. SDM has a simple tool that allows you to easily compile all of those projects into a master project(s) that contain all of the polygons you need to include in your summaries. The suggested method of doing this is: Create a new project that you want to be your master project and select it as you To Project Attach all of the projects you wish to include in your master project From the SDM ribbon menu select Merge Projects In turn select projects in the From Project list and click the merge button 16 P a g e

17 Reporting Data We are just starting to build the reports with many more to come. Here is an example of one report and the method to build it. Start by opening the report menu from the floating menu. Click Plot Summary. Some of the reports will be based on criteria such as polygon. In this case you will be required to enter criteria into a criteria form and then click the Build Report button. Excel is used as a report grid because of the methods available in Microsoft Office to use automation between the programs. It is also very handy to apply functions to the values returned by SDM. 17 P a g e

18 Canned Queries Canned queries give you a starting point to exploring your data the way you want. The summaries are fine for generating standard reports, but all that data is just sitting there begging to be explored. Start by clicking the Canned Queries button on the floating menu, bringing up the Canned Queries menu. Not much on here yet but there will be once people start to explore the data. Clicking the Average HT by BEC Zone button brings up a query in design view that will allow you to modify and add criteria and add and remove fields. These results can be copied into Excel or just examined in SDM. 18 P a g e

19 System Requirements SDM comes in two flavours, a full version that requires Microsoft Office Professional 2007 or 2010, or a runtime version that can be used without Office but works with Access 2007 runtime environment, a free download from Microsoft at: The full version of SDM is the program discussed in this mini-manual and includes all of the reporting tools and the ability to import and export polygons to and from Excel. The runtime version of SDM is for data entry only. The runtime version is made available for field contactors who do not wish to purchase Office for data entry. Multiple monitors are fully supported in most applications of this type. The screenshot below shows a summary being displayed on the left-hand monitor, SDM data being explored on the center monitor and Google Earth being used to fly from plot to plot on the right-hand monitor. Tablets a tablet version would be great for in the field but that s a little outside the scope of this manual. Just in the spirit of pure speculation though, if I was looking at a tablet, a resolution of 1366x768 would seem to be the minimum resolution this data entry form in its present format could be made to fit into. 19 P a g e

20 Notes Form filtering this is a feature of Microsoft Access that allows you to build and apply filters to your data from the data entry form. Extensibility use your imagination here. An example might be to create a module that would map all of the polygons that meet a given stocking criteria. Or how about a method of grouping your data into custom units and then a method to compare and report those units? Service packs there are going to be bugs going forward. We ll be setting up a service pack system in the future. Renaming a project right-click a project on the floating menu and select Rename Project Delete a project right-click a project on the floating menu and select Delete Project Compare to template right-click a project on the floating menu and select Compare to Template and the current project will be checked to see if it is in the same format as the program template Project splinters a method of extracting a series of polygons from a project based on a filter (this isn t included but is popular in VPro) Terminal server the provincial database can be hosted on a terminal server giving users common data access Site Index program should calculate this 20 P a g e