Has anyone else managed to alter an entry to where it no longer was a clickable link in the database?

I recently did so - and would like to avoid a repeat of such. I think I changed the Latin name listed (e.g.: a plant entered as Viburnum 'Chippewa') to the complex hybrid origin (Viburnum japonicum x Viburnum dilatatum). Somehow, that change was not accepted while the rest of the alteration was. The entry showed up with only the common name in bold black text instead of the blue clickable text.

I'm not sure how I got back into the entry to recover it; I may have had multiple screens open, and used one of the ones that had not been refreshed yet. :hurray:

Am I a danger to myself and others? Is there a treatment regime you all might suggest?

Otherwise, I am finding my way through the Viburnum database and mopping up some redundancies, spelling, etc. All great and rewarding fun.

This has happened at least once before and I wasn't able to figure out how it happened, and therefore I couldn't fix the bug that caused it. Now I will look and see if I can figure out what happened here and replicate it. I'm looking into this.

Well, I'm glad it wasn't a "critical fail" behavior on my part.

Maybe a "slight correction" to the data entry operator would prevent further repeats.

There's definitely a bug in there. The system really shouldn't allow things like this to happen, regardless of the operator.

I don't know anything about programming this type of system, so I could be way off base here, but I recall two incidents of this type. In both cases, it appeared that someone had tried to make a change in the cultivar name or common name and had simultaneously either deleted or omitted the botanical name. Shouldn't the system refuse to process any info editing proposal for a plant without a botanical name?

Yes, the system should refuse that. This is something else I will test for. Tomorrow's looking like it'll be a bug catching day for me!

Don't forget the RAID and fly swatter Dave. Go get em.

VV, I'm having trouble finding which proposal led to this problem, and which one you did that fixed it.

Have you made any further edits since this last one? I have a record of you submitting two edit proposals in a row to this plant:

Possumhaw Viburnum (Viburnum nudum)

Is that the one that was broken and fixed?

zuzu said:it appeared that someone had ... deleted or omitted the botanical name. Shouldn't the system refuse to process any info editing proposal for a plant without a botanical name?

I think this is probably the root of the problem. I checked and the system is allowing you to submit a edit_name proposal with an empty Latin name. Allowing that would break the system since every plant is required to have a latin name, obviously.

So I just now updated the system to throw an error message if the latin name is left blank. I bet that'll fix this problem once and for all.

So VV, don't worry about looking up which plant you edited. I believe this bug has been fixed.

I tried looking it up yesterday when you said it was likely a bug. I think I recall it being one of the Viburnum dentatum clan, but in looking back through the system messages I wasn't finding any one with certainty - so I gave up.

It would have been one of the plants that has an AKA listed with it, because that was the only thing showing up in black text (unclickable) in the database after I did it.

I have had more than a few repeats submitted; I keep leaving out apostrophes, trademarks, and little details like that. I'm really not trying to hog the acorns...

ViburnumValley said:I'm really not trying to hog the acorns...

there's plenty of those to pass around! Glad to see you here helping with the Viburnum database!

You are all quite welcome.

Just try to keep me on track...

When I think back to the cases I've seen, Dave, I suspect this doesn't happen during the submission phase. I think it happens after something is submitted. In a recent example, someone had submitted four photos and the system accepted them because they did have a botanical name attached. Before they were approved, however, the entry for that botanical name was deleted because it was a synonym. The photos consequently ended up without a Latin name, and if those photos had been approved, they would have ended up in a no-man's land.

So, I think the important thing is for the moderators to decline anything without a name attached, especially when we're working with more than one window and not refreshing often enough. If a page isn't reloaded, the proposed change might still appear to have a botanical name even after the entry has been deleted.

Or better yet, the system should be set up so that a plant entry cannot be deleted if it has proposals still in the queue. Then the proposals can be dealt with first, then the plant entry itself dealt with.

That's the perfect solution.

dave said:Or better yet, the system should be set up so that a plant entry cannot be deleted if it has proposals still in the queue. Then the proposals can be dealt with first, then the plant entry itself dealt with.

This change has been made! Thanks for pointing this out Zuzu.