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Improving Mindat.orgMinID bulk creation?

27th Apr 2024 14:47 UTCJames Catmur

I have thousands of specimens each with my own ID and would like an easy way to connect them all with a MinID without uploading photos of all of them.  Is there an easy way to do that?

27th Apr 2024 15:28 UTCWayne Corwin

Why would you not want all of us, to see all of your specimens?

27th Apr 2024 17:34 UTCJames Catmur

Because it would take years to photograph them all!

27th Apr 2024 18:21 UTCKevin Conroy Manager

James Catmur  ✉️

it would take years to photograph them all
Start today, we can wait!

A MinID is meant to belong to one specimen, not a group of specimens.  To learn more:

27th Apr 2024 21:49 UTCJames Catmur

You can wait but I cannot do it as I am disabled. Could you send someone to do it?

27th Apr 2024 21:45 UTCJeff Weissman Expert

James, you can enter your collection details one by one in the "my catalog" feature on your home page, each entry generates a unique minID, while retaining any cataloging information you enter.

27th Apr 2024 21:48 UTCJames Catmur

Can I do it as a bulk upload, not one by one?  I do not have the time or inclination to do it one by one - as a database programmer, I know it must be possible to do this.

27th Apr 2024 21:59 UTCJeff Weissman Expert

I am not aware of a bulk load feature, unfortunately.

27th Apr 2024 22:24 UTCRalph S Bottrill 🌟 Manager

I am sure it could be done by Jolyon or David, but would require some time and effort, and unless the collection has a lot of rare and unusual species and locations with analytical confirmation, making up for the lack of photos, we would probably question the benefit of this to the Mindat community?

27th Apr 2024 23:18 UTCJcrockett

https://www.mindat.org/minid_about.php?p=4

Supposedly there is a web API you can use, hopefully someone who knows more about that will come in and let you know how to use it.

27th Apr 2024 22:24 UTCJosé Zendrera 🌟 Manager

Mindat does not benefit at all giving minIDs to specimens outside of its database, why should do it?

27th Apr 2024 22:37 UTCJcrockett

https://www.mindat.org/minid_about.php

It's literally a stated goal of the MinID system. I hope Jolyon can chime in but I don't think it was supposed to be completely married to Mindat entries.

27th Apr 2024 22:59 UTCRalph S Bottrill 🌟 Manager

For a specimen to have a minID it would need recording in Mindat so that iD doesn’t get used by a different specimen. Probably the biggest issue would be ensuring the location for each specimen fits exactly into our location database, and this will take somebody a lot of time. The next issue is to ensure the minerals listed are recorded for that locality, and if not they need to be added with a reference or analysis, if lacking a photo. Of course, without a photo, we have no way of knowing if the specimens have the correct names or locations. And if we don’t have a verifiable name, location or photo in Mindat, what is the point of doing this?

27th Apr 2024 23:16 UTCJcrockett

The point is that it's allowed and having an internet-backed catalog is convenient. I don't think there is supposed to be all these hangups about whether or not there's a Mindat entry. If it's determined there's a duplicate MinID it can be merged later. It's not like it's going to run out of IDs.

28th Apr 2024 09:05 UTCJames Catmur

My database of localities is sometimes more accurate than MinDat. 

What is being suggested is that I  photograph every specimen, correct MinDat where there are errors, and get a MinID for each specimen (or live with the locality errors in MinDat).  I am happy to do that for a few specimens but not for the whole collection (disability means the keyboard work can be done but photographing is hard).  I will keep my ID system as every specimen has an ID/label/etc and I curate localities as we discover more about them.

28th Apr 2024 10:00 UTCKeith Compton 🌟 Manager

James you actually don't have to photograph a specimen to get a minID.

You can create your own catalogue on mindat.
You then enter in the details of any specimen - including your catalogue no., locality, species, size and any other info. A minID is then generated. You can then add a photo at a later date. 
The details will just sit in your catalogue.

Mineral dealers who pay to advertise on mindat can automate the minIDs. 

Of course if you are selling a specimen it generally requires a photo so dealers will generally add them.

I guess also you may already have a number of specimens that already have a minID where you have purchased or traded specimens from dealers / collectors in the last 10 years.

No doubt Jolyon will add a comment at some point

28th Apr 2024 10:14 UTCJames Catmur

What I want to do is a bulk upload, not one by one, as all the information needed is in the database.  When I do such uploads with other systems I do have to map my field names to the system's field names.  

A few of my specimens may already have a dealer MinID, but I only find them by luck when I spot the specimen!

28th Apr 2024 12:07 UTCJames Catmur

I can create a catalogue entry in MinDat and then export it and thus see the MinDat format, what I need is an import function - I can map my database onto MinDat's.  I guess the hard bit will be the locality mapping as it will throw up all the diferences

28th Apr 2024 21:38 UTCRalph S Bottrill 🌟 Manager

James Catmur  ✉️

the hard bit will be the locality mapping as it will throw up all the diferences
 Exactly, as I said before. Not many collectors have their specimen locations exactly matching Mindat, so if you did a bulk upload you would get a huge stack of “new” locations that would need fixing manually. An effective bulk loader would have to check each entry and put up a list of likely matches.
 
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