Standard Format Export not retaining group size

CourtneyMarne · November 14, 2024, 10:00am

If this is a bulk import report, send the spreadsheet to services@wildme.org with the email subject line matching your bug report

In which Wildbook did the issue occur? GiraffeSpotter

What operating system were you using? (eg. MacOS 10.15.3) Windows

What web browser were you using? (eg. Chrome 79) Chrome

What is your role on the site? (admin, researcher, etc) Admin

What happened? When requesting the 'Standard Format Export form from Encounter Search Results/Export, the columns pertaining to group size are empty (I have repeated for several sites). I think this must be a bug because group size was included in uploads, group size shows on the occurrence page, and there are appropriate columns available in the export for group size.

What did you expect to happen? Group size to be indicated in the Standard Export Form. Thank you

What are some steps we could take to reproduce the issue? E.g., occurrence https://giraffespotter.org/occurrence.jsp?number=ZMB_20240907085227

Anastasia · November 14, 2024, 7:49pm

Hi @CourtneyMarne

If the fields for group size estimates weren’t bulk imported (such as minGroupSizeEstimate or maxGroupSizeEstimate) they can’t be exported. What you’re seeing is GiraffeSpotter legacy customizations (like numAdultMales, numAdultFemales, etc.) being counted, so this isn’t a bug.

The code snippet below shows the standard Wildbook fields on top and the legacy GiraffeSpotter customizations below that:

 private Integer minGroupSizeEstimate;
    private Integer maxGroupSizeEstimate;
    private Double bestGroupSizeEstimate;
    private Integer numAdults;
    private Integer numJuveniles;
    private Integer numCalves;
    private String observer;
    
    //**GiraffeSpotter legacy**/
    private String vegetation;
    private String terrain;
    private String monitoringZone;
    private Integer groupSize;
    private Integer numAdultMales;
    private Integer numAdultFemales;
    private Integer numSubMales;
    private Integer numSubFemales;
    private Integer numSubAdults;
    private Integer wp;  
    //**GiraffeSpotter legacy**/

Our question for you is this: Are the group size estimates something that Wildbook should set automatically or something that we continue to let the user define?

CourtneyMarne · November 15, 2024, 6:43am

Thanks @Anastasia, that makes sense but is a little confusing as the bulk import form template doesn’t have fields ‘minGroupSizeEstimate’, ‘maxGroupSizeEstimate’, or ‘bestGroupSizeEstimate’, only ‘Occurrence.groupSize’ ?
Yes, please can I request that those legacy fields be retained? Having the export without is interrupting some workflows we have in place. Do you need me to submit a feature request?

Thank you

Anastasia · November 15, 2024, 6:27pm

The standard templates are just meant as a starting point with the most frequently-used fields included. We leave it up to researchers to edit the fields to tailor it to fit their data needs.

The full list of available bulk import fields are listed in the Fields Available section of the bulk import help docs. You’ll see Occurrence.maxGroupSizeEstimate, Occurrence.minGroupSizeEstimate, and Occurrence.bestGroupSizeEstimate described there.

Just to clarify, I wasn’t asking about removing the legacy custom fields. I wanted to know if you want us to change the way those custom fields behave.

Right now, if you uploaded an occurrence of 12 giraffes and their associated encounters you would have to manually include in your spreadsheet the group size and number of adults and sub-adults by sex in order for those numbers to display in GiraffeSpotter.

Do you instead want GiraffeSpotter to automatically display a count for these values (without having to enter it separately as group fields by sex) based on the encounter data?

CourtneyMarne · November 18, 2024, 6:53am

We do not always get a photo/encounter record of each giraffe (sometimes herds are in excess of 100 individuals). I do ask users to add a row for each individual, but often this doesn’t happen. So, I want to retain the Occurrence.groupSize field entered in the bulk import and have this displayed in the export, I don’t want any custom fields to behave differently.
Is this then something I can customise to retain in export? By retained, I meant retained in the export.

Anastasia · November 18, 2024, 6:19pm

As long as this field had data entered in the spreadsheet during import, it will still remain exportable. That’s how it currently works. The main issue you raised about those fields being blank when exported is because those fields were either not used or left blank when imported.

CourtneyMarne · November 19, 2024, 5:58am

I expected that too, but it is missing even for those I uploaded myself and I know the group size field was present. E.g., here is the bulk import form I used for import task f29eb60f-8388-494a-82d3-4037f9d13030 (NAM_EHGR_202408), with Occurrence.groupSize present down the entire column

Whereas here is the export for the same, the Occurrence.groupSize field isn’t present, and other group fields are blank.

In my case, I know the number of rows == group size for my uploads, but I know this isn’t always true for other users so would like to retain it throughout. To make sure I’m 100% clear, and to discuss the correct fields for moving forward (as per your other comment about marine fields), please can we set up a quick chat to fix it all up there and then? Please email me some time slots that suit you, I’m in GMT+2 but flexible for your tz and happy to do late evening my time. Thank you!

Anastasia · November 19, 2024, 6:25pm

Thanks for clarifying! Jason’s traveling this week and this is a discussion he’ll need to participate in. I’ll get back to you by email with a scheduling update.