[it] Stapeliads.net - Stapeliads: Floral Wonders of Creation

Fabio d'Alessi
To Do and Bugs

Wishlist and known issues in stapeliads.net

Document Revision 1.0
First Edited October, 5th, 2005
Reads : 2899

Have an idea for a new feature? Want to highlight a bug which is not included in the bug list here? Get in touch with the webmaster. Thanks.

Known bugs and issues

First of all, and most important, all stapeliad.info is in beta testing so expect bugs more or less in every part of the site. If you do experience a bug (or what you think is a bug) please check the below list and, if it's not there, get in touch with the webmaster, filing a bug report with as much detail as possible. Thanks.

Spelling errors [mostly everywhere]. Well, more than a bug with the system this is a bug with our brains. Loukie and I are not native english speakers - and, by the way, most work has been done during endless nights - there surely are many spelling errors and mistakes. Please report them to the webmaster, thanks!
Misaligned display [occasional]. It sometimes happens that the tables and borders are misaligned and all "squeezed" to the right end of the screen. I have been unable to determine if this is an issue with the layout or with the browser, given its highly casual happening. If you find a way to replicate this is a stable way please contact the webmaster.
MSIE Issues [several]. For those out there who are not techies, Microsoft Internet Explorer is well known for being a very bad browser. It has huge security holes (allowing spyware and viruses to silently install in your computer) and it still lacks full conformance with the international standards set by the W3C Consortium. This is the consequence of the politics of Microsoft, which refuses to acknowledge the experience, achievements and standards when these do not come from Microsoft, and which goes on moving with extreme boldness. stapeliads.net has been written in full accordance with present standards. Some pages if viewed from MSIE will appear strange or with some inconsistecies - PNG icons will not show properly and some div and tags will present errors. Solution: upgrade to firefox.
Password problem [real?]. Two users experienced a strange problem with their login and password (apparently on firefox). They wanted to login, they supplied their correct credentials, the system recorded their access as valid, still they do not appear to be logged in. I have been unable to reproduce this bug - if anyone experiences similar problems and can reproduce the bug constantly please get in touch with the webmaster. Hypothesis: a problem with the browser cookies or password manager - could be resolved by clearing all browser caches (including password and cookies), quitting the browser and starting it again.

Wish List and incomplete features

Database - Specimen Data Cleanup.
Status: in progress.
Completion: Always on progress...

Description: We have put a great deal of effort working on the site to open it to the public as soon as possible. Loukie in particular has really spent his last year uploading pictures and data while I was working on the database structure. We have decided to work at the same time to speed things up - but with the disadvantage that most of the uploaded data (especially the ones uploaded with the first releases of the database structure) do not fully "fit" in the last database tree - so part of the data is repeated, while part is still hidden. In particular many SI entities are duplicated and refer to the same entity. We will merge and cleanup data in the next weeks. The quality of the SI data should increase noticeably before the end of the year. Even if this work is in progress you are already able to upload proposals and notes to the database and to fully access it.
Synonymy database and routines.
Status: incomplete.
Completion: No forecast. Depends on contributed synonym tables.

Description: PAN/IPNI provide stapeliads.net with a very strong base on which to determine and classify all stapeliads. PAN is also able to determine if a name is a revision of a previously published name, a basionym for a new name or a new species - all this information is included or can be determined from the IPNI tables. What still lacks from IPNI and PAN is a list of "true" names (names referring to actual botanical entities) and synonyms. This is a rather difficult task to achieve since which names are valid and which are synonyms is decided by single authors on the base of their knowledges. This means that it is impossible to build a universally valid synonymy table - what for author X is a valid species for author Y is a synonym, so who wins? The key is building different synonymy tables according to different authors - then every site user will decide which author to follow. We're working on this complex tool, but this is still under construction since we still lack the synonymy lists. If you want to provide a synonymy list according to a given author or publication please do so and get in touch with us.
Articles and "Stapeliads According to..." section.
Status: Waiting for articles.

Description: One of our dreams is stapeliads.net to become a repository with many good articles regarding stapeliads.
We are always waiting for new articles, specifically written for our site or previously published on magazines and journals. One of the things we would like to build is a set of articles each one written by a different stapeliad grower or enthusiast, in which he or she speaks about his or her experience with such plants. We do think that instead of supplying just one article on stapeliads, having the perspective of many different people will give the reader a complete picture of this world, in which the reader will be encouraged to find his or her own way.

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