Import Mushroom Observer Notes Fields

Feature Requests
#1

Platform: Website, import from MO tool, API

URLs: see below

Screenshots of what you are seeing: n.a.

Description of problem:

Sometimes iNat does correctly import MO Notes (putting them in the iNat Notes field) when importing an MO Observation.

Ex: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/65247859

But sometimes the iNat import completely whiffs on the MO Notes. (And perhaps there are instances where it imports some of the notes.)

Ex: Compare: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/65247684 to https://mushroomobserver.org/observer/show_observation/437261
This was Added to iNat via an import Nov 19, 2020 4:43 PM PST.
MO says its Observation was “Last modified: 2020-11-01 17:03:44 PST (-0800)”
So iNat import clearly failed to pick up the MO notes.

#2

Thanks, I’ve added this to my weekly report.

#3

Hey Joe. We map the <notes> element in the XML response from the MO API to the observation description on iNat, but we don’t do anything with the <notes_fields>, which is the only note-like thing I’m seeing in the MO API response for that record.

What do you think we should do with the <notes_fields>? They’re kind of more like iNat observation fields, so we could iterate over those fields and create new Mushroom Observer Notes (X) observation fields on iNat or something, so for that one it would use (or create) an iNat obs field called Mushroom Observer Notes (Habitat) and its value would be <p>log, probably <a href="http://eol.org/pages/1061712"><cite>Pseudotsuga menziesii</cite></a> (Douglas-fir)</p>. I’m pretty sure we don’t render HTML in obs fields, FWIW. Alternatively I could just tack them on to the description where the HTML would get rendered.

#4

Checking in on open bug reports. Since it looks like this would be new functionality, I moved this to #feature-requests.

If HTML is common in MO notes fields, I think this makes more sense then adding HTML to obs fields.

#5

Thanks so much for the response and the explanation. (Sorry for the late reply; I just saw your response.)
I suggest doing the easiest thing that works.

  • That’s probably tacking them onto the description; bonus: they’re also rendered.
  • Another possibility is creating a single MO Notes Field, and putting all the MO notes into that field.
  • I suggest not iterating over the MO notes fields. In MO, those fields are per user – there’s no unformity across MO.
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#6

Cool, I’ll append to the description.

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