WPMC Mushroom Data Viewer Instructions

If the Viewer Isn't Working

Have you waited long enough? If you are working on a slow (dial-up) connection, it will take a while to download everything. Give it up to a minute or so. If you still have nothing, or just a big grey block perhaps containing a Java icon, then it is likely that your Java is out of date. You can download the most recent version for Windows and Linux from Sun. If you are using a Mac, try here. You might also want to check your browser settings to make sure Java isn't disabled.

Introduction

On each of our walks for which we have data, we recorded a name (Genus+species), the walk location, and the date for each specimen we could identify. I'll call each one of these data sets a record. The Mushroom Data Viewer enables us to view the records in various useful and interesting ways, as the examples below illustrate.

Check and Combobox Controls: The settings of these controls determine which records and which parts of each are visible in the table. Moving a combo box from the "-any/all-" setting to a specific value causes the viewer to disregard all records except those matching that setting (plus any other combos that you might have set). Since records are disregarded, the "Grand Total" will drop when combo boxes are set. Unchecking a checkbox, on the other hand, does not remove any records from consideration. The data controlled by that checkbox will be hidden, but it will still show up in the "Total" and "Grand Total" numbers reported. In other words, the comboboxes remove rows from the table; the checkboxes remove columns and consolidate row data.

Example: Generating Our Life List
When I wrote these instructions, we had slightly more than 4,000 records. You can set the viewer to show all of them by checking all six checkboxes and ensuring that all combo boxes say "- any/all -" before clicking the "Update Table" button.

This shows a listing that is similar to our life list, but with more detail. The Data Viewer enables you to sort, show, or hide details selectively. To see a listing that is almost identical to our life list, you could uncheck the "Location", "Year", "Month", and "Date" checkboxes and update the table. (You might notice that the "Row Count" does not exactly agree with the number of entries on the life list; the discrepancy arises because the life list generator attempts to group certain synonymous species into one entry whereas the Data Viewer uses the data as recorded.)

Sorting: The buttons at the top of the columns enable you to sort the data in ascending, descending, and "default" (by Genus, species, location, year, month, date) order. Thus, you can get both views that appear on our life list page, plus an ordering by "species".

Totals: The numbers in the "Total" column are absolute counts, not percentages as on the life list. They tell how many records match the attributes shown on their respective rows. In this case, since only Genus and species are showing (i.e., checked), the totals will generally be greater than one because they reflect all of the locations and times when we recorded the particular mushrooms that match the Genus/species shown. Alternatively, if all checkboxes had been checked, the "Total" numbers would all be exactly "1" because there is only a single record that matches each of the combinations when all data is considered. Finally, if no checkboxes had been checked, there would be a single line showing no details, but the sum across all records (the grand total of the number of records we've made).

Example: Cumulative Lists by Location
In the past, we've produced cumulative lists for Moraine and McConnell's Mill. Now it is easy to generate one for any location where we've recorded data. Check the "Genus", "Species" and "Location" checkboxes, leave all others unchecked, then update the table. Sort by "Location" and you'll see cumulative lists for each of the different places where we've held an event. If you are only interested in a particular location, set it in the "Location" combo.

Row Count: In this example, the "Rows" label will give you the total number of different species we've collected at that location when you use the "Location" combo to restrict the view to a single location. But even if you don't restrict the view, you can still get a count for any location in the full list by selecting all rows for that location; the "Selection Count" (abbreviated "Sel.") is shown along with the Row Count. Caution: you might be tempted to try to get the same counts by checking the "Location" box and unchecking everything else. This will return a set of Totals for each location, but the counts will be the number of records for that location, not the number of unique species, because we've generally found many species more than once at most locations.

Example: Bolete Hunting by Hiding Irrelevant Records
Suppose you are going bolete hunting and are interested in which locations have produced your favorite edibles in the past. You'd like to limit the data shown to include only boletes so you can view and sort the information easily. Simply set the "Genus" combo box to "Boletus" and the Data Viewer will consider only those records whose genus is Boletus. If you also check all of the checkboxes, you'll see all of the data we have on Boletus and you can then click the "Location" column to group by location so you can see at a glance where the best bolete hunting is likely to be. (Caution: bear in mind that our numbers don't say anything about how many you are likely to find because we always record, at most, "1" per walk.)
Example: Getting the Data From Any Past Event
You can instantly view the data from any of our past walks or events by setting the combo boxes appropriately and checking all of the checkboxes. For example, to see the records from 2005 Mushroom Mania, set the "Year" combo to "2005" and the "Location" combo to "Mushroom Mania" and click the update button. (Note: for other walks, you might also have to set the "Month" combo if we had multiple walks at that location during the requested year, and possibly even the date if we had multiple walks there that month.)
Example: Where and When Have We Found the Greatest Variety?
To see a summary of all of our past events, check the "Location", "Year", "Month", and "Date" checkboxes (uncheck the others). The combos should read "-any/all-". Update the table and you'll get a list of all of our past events with the number of species recorded shown in the "Total" column. You can sort on this column to see which events have been most productive. If you'd like to zero in on a particular genus (or genus/species pair), set the combos appropriately and re-update.
Example: Genera by Month
Check the "Month" and "Genus" checkboxes, update the table, and you can see how the number of records varies by month for each genus we've collected. As we know, some species have preferred seasons, and this is reflected in the data. E.g., we've recorded very few Russulas before July, and no morels outside of April and May. Caution: take the totals with a grain of salt. They are not corrected for—among other things—the varying effort we've expended hunting mushrooms in different months. For example, we've had more than twice the number of walks in August as we've had in May. This is at least partly responsible for the fact that a persistent genus like Stereum (which we might expect to collect on practically every walk) does not show a flat distribution.
Getting More Information
If you'd like to perform a Google image search, or a Google web search for a particular species, make sure the "Genus" and "Species" columns are enabled in the table, them click the particular row you are interested in. The "Info" and "Pix" buttons should be enabled and you can click the appropriate one. Note: if more than one row is selected or genus-species data is not visible, the buttons will be disabled. Also, note that the buttons are redundant in the sense that if you do a Google image search, you can then perform a Google web search from the results page, and vice versa.
Getting a Copy of Your Results
If you want a copy of the results shown in the table to edit further or paste into a document, select the rows you want (or press Ctrl+A to select everything) then press Ctrl+C. The results will be copied to the Clipboard in tab separated columns ready to be pasted elsewhere.