[Rockhounds] Numbering Specimens (WAS: Paint)

[Jim Daly]

Kreigh,
Yes, it was forced by the software- as far as I know, any table in any relational database has to have a unique field. Just pure serendipity that I could use it that way.
Jim

--- On Wed, 12/3/08, Kreigh Tomaszewski <Kreigh at tomaszewski.net> wrote:

From: Kreigh Tomaszewski <Kreigh at tomaszewski.net>
Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] Numbering Specimens (WAS: Paint)
To: sauktown1 at yahoo.com, "Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors" <rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
Date: Wednesday, December 3, 2008, 6:33 PM

Jim,

Interesting solution. Were the two numbers forced on you by your tool (i.e.,
Access), or by the design of your catalog?

In my system the unique sequence number on the specimen and label is also the
catalog entry number. The catalog entry has fields for Principal Mineral,
Matrix, and Secondary Minerals. I have an index by Mineral/Rock name that points
to the catalog. Using your example, my index would include entries for pyrite,
galena, and sphalerite. I have a second index organized by classification
(Elements, Oxides, Phosphates, Sorosilicates, etc) with mineral names under each
class. In each index each mineral name has a pointer to each catalog entry
containing the mineral (at least it is supposed to).

I implemented my catalog as web pages. The pointers are html links. In my
indexes the mineral names are also html links to the corresponding mineral page
on MinDat. It has been very convenient being able to access my catalog from
anywhere I can get on the internet, but it is time consuming to do right.

I have a catalog entry for photos of the specimen that I usually leave blank
(taking a picture, loading on to the computer, photoshopping it to a lower
resolution, and uploading it to the website takes time). BTW, my pictures get
file names made of the unique sequence number (prefixed by my initials, and an
appended letter if more than one). I find myself skipping the index entries for
common minerals like calcite (I can find them easily with Google if necessary,
and then go back and fill them in).





      

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