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GeneralQuestions about "My catalogue" and MinID

11th Jan 2017 12:35 UTCNiels van Velzen

Hi all!

My plan is (over the months to years) to slowly enter my entire 3000+ specimen collection (including proper photos) into mindat. MinID is a nice registration system and having a minID on the label of each specimen is a big advantage, especially for other people who can look up all details easily.

I slowly started and would like to do it as efficient (least time-consuming) as possible so I'd like to avoid having to redo things because they were done improperly :-)

So far I have several questions which I'd like to post here (in random order):

-Is it possible to search for or select on the storage location in my catalogue?

-If the max crystal size is half a milimeter, should I enter 0.5 mm or 0,5 mm? There's no support for micrometers?

-What happens if you add a mineral species in "my catalogue" with a location and this particular species is not registered for this particular location on mindat?

-If I edit an entry in my catalogue, there's a "save changes" button. It would be very convenient (in my opinion) to have next to that button a "save & return to list" button. It save an additional mouse click, which is much welcome if you edit hundreds (or thousands) of records. This can happen if you decide to completely change the storage locations of each specimen in your collection or if you decide to add the weight of each specimen because you haven't done so previously.

-I think photos have a rating (scale from 0 to 10) for the quality of the photograph. Is there such a thing in my catalogue to rate the quality of a specimen itself? I cannot find it and I think it would be nice.

-Is there a limit in the amount of entries or storage per user? Can you store full-resolution 16-bit TIF or PNG files for each specimen or is jpeg the only option with a maximum resolution? Do files get downsized when you upload large (e.g. 20+ MP) jpeg's? How does it work and are my photos secure and stored on mindat forever?

-(Where) can I choose if I want to make a photo public or not or just keep it for myself? Can I change this later?

Thanks for answering! :-D

Niels

14th Jan 2017 09:56 UTCNiels van Velzen

Anyone? :-)

14th Jan 2017 13:27 UTCRalph S Bottrill 🌟 Manager

MinID is pretty good, i doubt if there is a real limit to how much you can add, if you have the time. Adding photos is probably the slowest step, and best done first, as it will then fill some of your catalogue automatically.

If you add a mineral/location combination not listed in Mindat the system will flag it as such when you add the photo, and we will request an ID source.

We can search on storage location.

We use English style decimals, eg 0.5mm rather than microns.

Photos should all be jpgs, but dont think there is a size limit within reason.

We hope photos are secure and permanent, though we can make them user-only or private, or you can edit that yourself at any time

Most of your other questions can only be answered by Jolyon.

14th Jan 2017 13:46 UTCNorman King 🌟 Expert

I agree with Niels that rating the photo is off-target. Maybe that helps explain why some people provide lots of information on their photos, but up to, and including, nothing at all for the mineral specimen. It's, like, what is our priority, anyway? I often rate my photos by how much information, and its quality or scarcity, I was able to get together. After all, I'm a scientist.

14th Jan 2017 14:05 UTCDebbie Woolf Manager

I thought the quality rating 0-10 was related to the quality of the specimen and not the photo.

14th Jan 2017 15:02 UTCNiels van Velzen

Debbie Woolf Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I thought the quality rating 0-10 was related to

> the quality of the specimen and not the photo.

That's a big difference and I am not sure which one is rated: photo or specimen.

14th Jan 2017 15:04 UTCNiels van Velzen

BTW, what happens if you add a specimen to "my catalogue" and fill in the fields using the "add with minID" function and this particular specimen with this minID is already in the catalogue?

14th Jan 2017 15:12 UTCJolyon Ralph Founder

Sorry, I've been away.. Answers below!

> -Is it possible to search for or select on the

> storage location in my catalogue?

Yes, it is now!

> -If the max crystal size is half a milimeter,

> should I enter 0.5 mm or 0,5 mm? There's no

> support for micrometers?

0.5 mm The system is set up for using English style numeric notation, ie . as a decimal point.

> -What happens if you add a mineral species in "my

> catalogue" with a location and this particular

> species is not registered for this particular

> location on mindat?

Nothing bad happens, it can still be in your catalogue. It doesn't affect the mindat locality pages. Perhaps in the future we can be alerted to cases where there are such examples. This may be of use to us in filling in common minerals that are missing from locality pages, and can also be useful to provide potential warnings to items in your collection that may need more careful examination.

> -If I edit an entry in my catalogue, there's a

> "save changes" button. It would be very convenient

> (in my opinion) to have next to that button a

> "save & return to list" button. It save an

> additional mouse click, which is much welcome if

> you edit hundreds (or thousands) of records.

Yes, this would be a good idea. I'll see how practical it is to implement.

> -I think photos have a rating (scale from 0 to 10)

> for the quality of the photograph. Is there such a

> thing in my catalogue to rate the quality of a

> specimen itself? I cannot find it and I think it

> would be nice.

Not yet, but again I agree this would be nice for the future.

> -Is there a limit in the amount of entries or

> storage per user? Can you store full-resolution

> 16-bit TIF or PNG files for each specimen or is

> jpeg the only option with a maximum resolution? Do

> files get downsized when you upload large (e.g.

> 20+ MP) jpeg's? How does it work and are my photos

> secure and stored on mindat forever?

No limits. We don't officially support TIFF files (or 16-bit per channel files of any kind) currently, they would be converted to JPEG on uploading, however you can upload 24-bit PNG files of any size. I regularly upload 50 megapixel files.

I aim to be able to support higher quality formats including TiFF and DNG in the future.

> -(Where) can I choose if I want to make a photo

> public or not or just keep it for myself? Can I

> change this later?

Currently there are no private photo facilities. All photos have to be public. This is how we can provide the service for free because you are sharing your photos with others. We may add private photo storage in the future, but this would need to be a paid-for service. If there is enough demand for this we will do it.

14th Jan 2017 15:36 UTCNiels van Velzen

Thanks for all the answers :-D

Something that can also be of great value: I have a lot of information in MS access and in some cases it can save me a ton of time if I can update more records in my catalogue from a txt file with tab delimited fields. The feature that I'm thinking for is an option to upload a tab delimited txt file where the first field on each line should always be minID (so only for existing records) and the possibility to update fields in which anything can be filled in (such as previous owner, storage location, price paid etc.). The feature in mindat should be able to recognize the different fields (because they are tab-delimited). What would be needed is some feature after txt file upload to select what the other fields are.

For example, in one case I would only update storage location and I would update a txt file that has on each row:

[minID]tab[new storage location]

So after uploading that txt file, I would need to tell the system that the second field is storage location

In another example I might want to update the rating as well and I would upload:

[minID]tab[rating]tab[new storage location]

or:

[minID]tab][new storage location]tab[rating]

In which case I need to tell that the second field is storage location and the third field is rating (or vice versa)

I think updating the location or mineral fields is tricky because they are linked to the mindat database and not just plain text.

Sorry for the long text, but I was struggling to get it written down shorter (my native language is Dutch, not English).

15th Jan 2017 07:50 UTCTom Goodland

Niels, I'm English. Your English is better than the great majority of English people!

16th Jan 2017 08:42 UTCNiels van Velzen

Yesterday I added Tange Gorge as a sublocality in http://www.mindat.org/loc-2647.html. The URL that I added was http://www.mindat.org/loc-290915.html and it disappeared. I also added the specimen that comes from there to my collection, including a photo (http://www.mindat.org/1GW-G5C). I assigned Tange Gorge to that photo, but now the locality disappeared and there's no locality assigned to that photo anymore. Who did it and why? How do I know if I correctly added the sublocality to mindat and who decides if it will be approved or not? Is there a possibility to be notified after a decision has been made about a locality that one added to mindat?

I know, a lot of questions, but I need to know how it works and since I have the mindat locality URL for each locality that I have a specimen linked to in my own MS Access database, it is important that they are correct and that I am aware of any changes there.

17th Jan 2017 07:58 UTCKnut Eldjarn 🌟 Manager

Thank you for adding new search functions, Jolyon - a great help !

Would it be possible to extend the "order by" options to include the possibility to order by the mineralnames (the ones selected from the Mindat-list when registerings specimens). It would also be of great help - i.e. when comparing a list of specimens in the collection from a locality, region or country with the similar lists in Mindat to see what new information may be updated in the database!

Knut

17th Jan 2017 08:44 UTCNiels van Velzen

Knut Eldjarn Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Thank you for adding new search functions, Jolyon

> - a great help !

>

> Would it be possible to extend the "order by"

> options to include the possibility to order by the

> mineralnames (the ones selected from the

> Mindat-list when registerings specimens). It would

> also be of great help - i.e. when comparing a list

> of specimens in the collection from a locality,

> region or country with the similar lists in Mindat

> to see what new information may be updated in the

> database!

>

> Knut

Great idea!

Maybe also an 'order by storage location' option?

17th Jan 2017 22:20 UTCKnut Eldjarn 🌟 Manager

Niels,

You can probably use the storage location function to make the list you need. But for a systematic collection some kind of ordering alphabetically based on the mineral names in Mindat would be very handy. It may have to belimited to ordering based on the first mineral entry only.

Knut

18th Jan 2017 01:46 UTCD. Peck

Knute, or sorted on the mineral name with an automatic secondary sort on the ID number. In practice it would sort the ID number before alphabetizing the names.

21st Jan 2017 10:45 UTCNiels van Velzen

What is the difference in approval status between:

"Approval status: Public galleries",

"Approval status: User gallery only" and

"pproval status: User gallery"

31st Jan 2017 23:09 UTCNiels van Velzen

Anyone?

1st Feb 2017 00:18 UTCMatthew Stanley

> "Approval status: Public galleries", Viewable by everyone on mindat

> "Approval status: User gallery only" Only viewable by you

> "pproval status: User gallery" I'm not sure how this differs from the previous one.

1st Feb 2017 01:13 UTCDoug Schonewald

I believe photos that are not locality photos or mineral photos go into the database as User Gallery. They are viewable by everyone, but are not a mineral or locality. Actually everyone can see all of your photos if you set the permissives. The User Only gallery won't be distributed site-wide, but anyone can view it if you allow it.

Cheers

Doug

1st Feb 2017 10:42 UTCDavid Von Bargen Manager

Currently there are two major classifications of photos (a third is planned, but has not been implemented yet) of "User only" and "site wide" (some photos are still in the approval process, either have not been looked at or are awaiting the uploaders reply to concerns of the person approving the photos).

The site wide photos are included by default on the mineral species page galleries or on the location galleries. You can view all the photos, including the user only photos by changing the filter on the gallery pages from "Gallery images" to "All images".

7th Feb 2017 16:21 UTCDanilo Rolando

Hello,

I've got mineral data (species, locality, size, history, etc) on excel and I've got tiff & jpeg photos separate folders.

Photos and descriptions do get linked via a 4 digits code.

Is there available an automated tool ie, an API or an importer to upload these info in bulk in mindat and do get a minID?

Thank you.

9th Feb 2017 21:54 UTCNiels van Velzen

Just a random remark of something that might be needed to be updated: the death year of Johann Rudolf Glauber on https://www.mindat.org/min-1706.html does not match wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Rudolf_Glauber)

10th Feb 2017 08:59 UTCErik Vercammen Expert

This source https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johann-Rudolf-Glauber gives 1688, as mentioned in Mindat.

10th Feb 2017 12:59 UTCJohn Collins

> -I think photos have a rating (scale from 0 to 10)

> for the quality of the photograph. Is there such a

> thing in my catalogue to rate the quality of a

> specimen itself?

If feel that rating the image of my specimen at 10 based on quality of the picture would be pretentious. I'm not a pro nor do I have the best photo equipment.

Basing my rating on the quality of the specimen is presumptuous as I have never seen all of the specimens from a given locality.

The rating of my specimen should be a personal one based on its importance to me. For instance, my sample of marshallsussmanite is rated 10 because it is the most valuable piece in my collection.

My sample of conichalcite, etc from Tsumeb is rated a 10 as it is spectacular when viewed in sunlight with or without a loupe.

10th Feb 2017 14:27 UTCDouglas Merson 🌟 Expert

One suggustion earlier in this thread mentioned adding photos prior to filling in the catalog. It is much better to make the catalog entries first and then add the photos through the catalog. I had photos added before the catalog system came into existence and that created a headache. The earlier photos were assigned a minID when that started. When I entered all my collection in the catalog, another minID was created. It was a pain going back and trying to tie the two together. So, unless you have a good record for which photo goes to which specimen, enter the photos through the catalog.

28th Mar 2017 06:42 UTCNiels van Velzen

Douglas Merson Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> One suggustion earlier in this thread mentioned

> adding photos prior to filling in the catalog. It

> is much better to make the catalog entries first

> and then add the photos through the catalog. I had

> photos added before the catalog system came into

> existence and that created a headache. The earlier

> photos were assigned a minID when that started.

> When I entered all my collection in the catalog,

> another minID was created. It was a pain going

> back and trying to tie the two together. So,

> unless you have a good record for which photo goes

> to which specimen, enter the photos through the

> catalog.

I absolutely agree with you :) Luckily I had only very few photos in my gallery and could easily track them down to specific specimens in my collection.

28th Mar 2017 06:44 UTCNiels van Velzen

Recently, I purchased a large collection of minerals from the famous Clara Mine. They have been collected and owned by another member and he has added photos of many of them to his gallery, which has created a minID for these minerals.

Since his own ID's are not on mindat and the minID's are not on his boxes, I will do my best ot match as many as possible. In case I find photos of specimens that I now own, how do I move them to my collection, espcially if there's a large number of photos to be moved?

28th Mar 2017 11:07 UTCPeter Nancarrow 🌟 Expert

I have noticed that there is a slight bug in the transfer of data from "My Catalogue" to MinId.

I use the "Title" field in "My Catalogue" for a brief description of the specimen, and, as I guess many here on Mindat will also do, the "Notes" field for notes.

However, when a MinId number is automatically generated from an entry in "My Catlogue", it takes the "Notes" field text and puts it into the MinId "Description" field (and this is also updated automatically whenever any amendments to the "My Catalogue" page are made). This is OK in those cases where the "Notes" in "My Catalogue" are actually descriptions, but can create a very strange "description" in MinId if they are not!

For example, I have just updated my note for my wavellite specimen (No. PN 0569) https://www.mindat.org/photo-8099.html, to add a reference, and having clicked on its MinId link (MinId JKF-7KP), I see that now has a "Description" which reads:

"This is a "Figured specimen". Mindat photo 8099 published in Ron Cleevley's paper on "The Barnstaple Zeolite". (Ref: Cleevely, R.J. "Discovery of the Barnstaple zeolite:a minor geological controversy in the early 1800s." Devonshire Association, Report & Transactions, 2007)"

As the MinId fields cannot be edited by the owner of the specimens, perhaps the simplest way to resolve this discrepancy without everyone having to re-write all their notes in "My Catalogue", would be to rename the "Description" Field in MinId to "Notes"?

Pete N.

28th Mar 2017 12:21 UTCNiels van Velzen

Jolyon, just a brief message to let you know that PYX-RQE and 0LW-4FR should probably be merged as I think they are the same specimen

23rd Nov 2017 14:18 UTCDaniel Toro Expert

Good afternoon, sorry if my question seems naive.... but I think it can match with last Niels's post.

I've been uploading mineral pictures during the last years while I keep also an excel spreadsheet of my own to organize them.

I used Mindat as a shared data base but I have to waste time to duplicate information in my excel afterwards to keep it updated.

I saw there's a "My Catalogue" function but I don't know how it works. Do I have to re-write again all the fields that I already filled by uploading pictures? Or maybe is there a possibility to import data one shot from all my uploaded items?

Is exporting data to my excel possible? Do I need first to complete My Catalogue and go to first question?

On the other hand, there's a link to a MinID explanation which goes nowhere ( a blank page showing the message "Forbidden Page" is reached)

Thank you for your help.

Daniel

27th Nov 2017 17:28 UTCEdward Bayley

I am a big fan of the catalogue. I add all my specimens to my catalogue as I go. Having a minID is awesome so that a specimen's info cannot be lost. I've acquired specimens that already had minIDs and it's a great way to track provenance as well. I like that you can download the catalogue in spreadsheet form, but I'd love to be able to download a specimen's catalogue page as a PDF. I have tried doing this by going to print and selecting "save as pdf" instead, but for some reason, the photo never makes it into the PDF. I think that the information page for a specimen in the catalogue should have the option of saving either the whole page as a pdf, or create a photo information card that can be printed.

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