Portal FAQs

You can search by Survey or by Study Location.

A Search by Survey is designed to give the user a quick overview of the projects within ÆKOS that meet their search criteria. The search returns a list of datasets and allows users to view important details regarding the type of information available as well as any conditions for re-use. This level mimics traditional metadata result sets, but also includes a number of additional descriptive elements such as full details of coverage and rich methodological descriptions.

A Search by Study Locations (default) allows users to query and return results for individual study sites that match their search criteria. This is useful for users that want to be able to explore the data in detail. Searches at this level provide access to a group of visualisation tools that the user can interact with to better understand the structure of the information as well as see individual observation records. Information available through the survey level search can also be viewed through this level.

Study Locations describe places where data are collected, e.g., a study area, study sites within a study area or replicate plots within a study site. The Study Location is scale dependent and is influenced by the purpose of data collection. A Search by Study Location returns more results than a Search by Survey, as a typical Survey consists of many Study Locations which may contain multiple sampling units (e.g., plots, quadrats, transects and others).

In computer programming, a search trait comprises a name plus a value (typically true/false, a numeric value or range or one of a defined set of alternatives). Traits are then used to enable search across multiple datasets. In ÆKOS, search traits are used as terms for searching on key characteristics of ecological data. They are a sophisticated form of search as the meaning of the search trait (semantics) is considered in the search. For example, a search of the animal using the search trait “kangaroo” will return results for different types of kangaroo such as Macropus sp., Red Kangaroo, Grey Kangaroo (Eastern or Western). Places or names including the term “kangaroo” such Kangaroo Island will be ignored because they are not an ecologically meaningful.

You can select as many search traits as you wish. Add the traits to your search string one at a time by pressing the “Apply” button after selecting the options for the trait listed in the dropdown list or after inserting the required free text.

A ‘Search String’ consists of a search trait and one or more selected options of that trait. One or more ‘Search Strings’ are added together to build a search expression (see the next question “What is a search expression?”).

A ‘Search Expression’ is the query you build with search strings that you submit to ÆKOS’s search engine in order to obtain information. An example of a search expression for the question of “What TERN or ABARES data exists for South East Queensland?” is:

(Custodian Organisation equals TERN or ABARES ) AND (IBRA equals South East Queensland)

You can only ‘Submit’ a search expression after you ‘Apply’ at least one search string. Select your search trait and the options from the drop down box or free text box, choose if you want Any of /All of the selected options from the drop down box , then you must ‘Apply’ the search string as the first step in building your search expression. Now you can ‘Submit’ the search expression.

The grey icons on the ‘Search Results Summary’ page indicate the ecological variables (or data themes) available in the dataset. By hovering over the icon, a brief description appears. For details about all of the icons, read more…

The stars indicate the depth of information measured for the ecological variable and range from 1 to 3 stars (where three has the most detail). For details about the stars for all ecological measures, read more…

Data is extracted via a dart cart for a search by Survey or Study Location. You add data to your dart cart on the 'Search Results Summary' (Page 2) and/or the 'Single Search Result Details' (Page 3).

On the 'Search Results Summary' (Page 2), you can select multiple records by clicking the ‘Page Select All’ button or you can select a single record by clicking on the checkbox. Once you have added the record, the checkbox contains a tick. To remove all ticks, use the ‘Deselect All’ button or to unselect a single record, click on the checkbox again. To extract the data, you need to navigate to My Data Cart page by clicking the Data Cart tab on the top left-hand side of the page.

If you have navigated to the ‘Single Search Result’ page, you can select a single record to add to your download by clicking on the checkbox.

All data are extracted using an offline batch process due to the large volumes of data that may be selected. The batch process produces a zipped file with the data and download instructions and is sent to you by email as soon as the zipped file is created. The time taken to receive the file depends on the volume of data you have selected - it can take minutes, a couple of hours, 24 hours or more.

Steps for extraction:

	1.	Enter your name, a valid email address and title of the data extract to receive the zipped file.
	2.	Finalise your data for extraction by using the various buttons.
i. Click the ‘Select All’ button to extract all records and ‘Unselect All’ button to unselect all records. ii. Click the relevant checkbox to extract individual records. iii. To remove individual records from the list, mark the relevant checkbox(s) and then click the ‘Delete Selected’ button. iv. Click the ‘Delete All’ button to remove all records.
	3.	Click Extract and agree with the terms and conditions to start the batch process.
		NOTE: If you wish to review the 'Conditions of Use' for the selected records before extracting, close the pop-up window, click on the record of interest in the table and browse the metadata under Conditions of Use.

The zipped file contains two sets of files to import data into either Postgres or MySQL databases, a Readme pdf giving instructions for installing and uploading the extracted data into the databases and a data description file.

Please lodge a data query for help about data.

You are likely to be on the ‘Search Results Summary’ page when you realise the results are not what you wanted. In the ‘Search Expression’ panel (top left panel), click Redo Search and edit your existing Search Expression OR add a new search string by clicking on a trait and selecting options OR if you want to start from the beginning, click on ‘Reset Search’ in the top right corner of the Search panel.

Observation and Process diagrams are only available when you search by Study Location.

It depends on what page you are on in the portal. If you are in the Map Browser or Download pages, clicking on the Search tab will take you back to your search results. If you are on the Search page (Page 1) or Single Search Result (Page 3), use the arrow(s) on the side panel or at the top of the page near the page number.

To download the data, add it to the Download List and then download the data by clicking on the Download button. Further help on downloading data is answered in the question “How do I extract the data?”.

The number of datasets that can be downloaded from the ÆKOS Data Portal will be limited by the capacity of the release. If your download set exceeds the current limit you will receive a message. A solution to this limitation is you could decrease the number of records per batch you wish to download. If you are downloading a whole dataset (or multiple datasets) and your download request exceeds the limit, lodge a data query for a full download in the Feedback Centre.

Go to the Search page and select a search trait from the list of geo-political search traits under the Location theme.

To start a new search, use back arrows to return to the Search page (Page 1) and click on ‘Reset Search’.

TERN Eco-informatics is building a data submission tool called SHaRED which will be released in December 2013. If you wish to become a tester of the tool, please visit our Feedback Centre and send us a data query.

Hover over the study location or survey dot and the associated record with highlight in the results list.

Report a bug or an error using our issue reporting form in the Feedback Centre. Guidelines on how to report an issue are available here.

The Observation Diagram is an interactive illustration of the relationships among all of the observed things (entities) at a Study Location. By clicking on a node you can view the number of times the same entity has been observed; this is called the ‘Number of Instances’. Each instance of an observation has a set of measured or observed values, which may differ between instances due to field conditions at the time of recording or other methodological rules.

The Methods Diagram is also an interactive diagram that describes the relationships among the methods undertaken at a Study Location. Clicking on a node in this diagram displays the number of times the same method has been executed at a Study Location. To read more details about the method click on the hyperlink above the method instance details.

If you have a question or comment about the display, viewing or downloading of datasets, we suggest you send your query via the Data Query form in our Feedback Centre. If you have a query about the method undertaken or data values recorded by the data custodian, visit the Data Custodian contact details in Contact section within the Conditions of Use part of metadata description.

Click on the compatibility view icon on the Search banner as shown below. Note, we do not support earlier versions of Internet Explorer.

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