Is there a code meaning “Doesn’t have Field X”, analogous to Not_in_Project etc?
I need to add Fields to a few thousand observations, using each of about 40 Fields, adding each to about 50-100 observations. I need to find which observations do not yet have the Field. I planned to search in Edit Observations for all my obs within a Place - or Collection Project, either would work - excluding those obs that already have the Field.
I planned to bulk-add the Field with the Value “Indeterminate” and adjust the Values in another operation, or one by one over time.
I can’t add the Field to all the Obs in a Place because then I would lose all the Field Values of those that already have the Field.
An alternate solution would be to create new Traditional Projects using the Required Field, to pick up those that already have it. This would be ideal because then each Project would be smaller and more geographically specific, all the obs in it would be visible in the Project grid view, and I could exclude those Projects from my search in order to add the Field to the remaining obs.
But I believe creating lots of Projects places a heavy load on the server?
Thanks @karoopixie. I didn’t know about that one. Having said that, I’ve just been trying it and it’s not working for me. Can you include the full URL of a working example?
I didn’t get it to work either. Karoopixie said (in Tony Rebelo’s journal post whose link is somewhere in the wiki thread in this Forum, about filtering) to use it in the Identify page, with the Annotation dropdown, I think was the word. I don’t get how, yet.
and then add the field parameter to the end of the URL: &without_field=Zone+Bd+Native+Plant+entry
Then click on the first ob to open the modal, and then click on the ANNOTATIONS tab. Start typing a few letters of the Field name into the Observation Fields box and wait for the dropdown like so:
Its good to know how to use the Identify modal for this. Unfortunately that search, (modified by adding a Place) is bringing up observations that DO have that field, as well as those that don’t.
No, you are right, this isn’t working anymore. I wonder if the devs have changed something? @tiwane ?
As to bulk edits, yes you can do them under your Edit Observations, but you will have to pick and choose those that you haven’t already done. I’m pretty sure there’s a tutorial somewhere already - @bouteloua ? If not, I’ll set one up.
Thanks @karoopixie. I do know how to add fields in Bulk Edit, by the way. I just don’t know how to “bulk-find” the ones that don’t have the Field, but the Identify modal seems a really quick way to do lots of things in bulk, ie not simultaneously but quickly going through them, so thanks for those instructions, I am going to be using that page a lot.
