Dashboard

The dashboard is the tool to view the details of your projects. If you have administrative rights in a project you can also use it to administer them (e.g.: see trackers, create track sessions, add users...)

Monitoring your trackers: Dashboard tab

The direct link: https://dashboard.e-ecology.nl

The Dashboard tab is the facility that helps you to get an overview of which trackers recently made contact and how much data they uploaded to the database.

On the Dashboard there are two tabs, “Overview” and “Files Dashboard”:

• Overview: gives an overview of the tracker activity for all your projects for the last three days.
• Files Dashboard: allows you to examine tracker activity for specific projects for adjustable time periods.

A tracker is highlighted in colour if it uploaded data. The small horizontal bar indicates how much data the tracker uploaded to the database. See the legend on the “Files Dashboard” for an explanation.

Which trackers are shown on the dashboard?

Overview

only active trackers are shown, that is trackers with an active track session

Files Dashboard

By default only active trackers are shown. Click on “show all trackers” to show all trackers of the project, that is also those without an active track session (e.g. to show trackers that you have turned on, but that have not been put on a bird yet, and therefore do not have an active track session).

Administering your projects: Projects tab

If you have administrative rights in a project, then you can see an "Project admin" tab on the dashboard. The direct link: https://services.e-ecology.sara.nl/dashboard/projects/

Users in your project

1. Users should register themselves with Uva-Bits on https://services.e-ecology.sara.nl/dashboard/open/signup. Only after users have successfully registered themselves can you make them a member of your project, by following the next steps:
2. Click Project Admin on the top of your screen
3. On the Overview tab, select the project you want to add a member to
4. Click on the Memberships tab
5. Click on Add new to add a user membership to the selected project
6. You will now see a screen “Create Membership” where you need to fill out:
   • User: the login name of the user (which has already registered himself on UvaBits) that you want to add (when you start typing the user’s name, a list will pop up with users’ names that match what you have just typed in so far)
   • Role: the membership role, i.e. the administrative rights you want to give to the user. Pick one of four options:
     • Enrolled: the user can only see the project exists, but cannot access data or perform administrative rights.
     • Base: assign this role to standard users. They can view and use the project data, but have no administrative rights
     • Admin: assign this role to project administrators. They can add/change user memberships, birds and track sessions
     • Leader: the role with highest administrative rights, typically for the principal investigator. Admin cannot change the administrative rights of a leader, but leaders can change the rights of Admins.
   • Status: select Approved to add the user to your project. If you want to put the membership temporarily on hold, select Pending_User (this will trigger the user to submit it back to you for re-approval).
   • Comments: any comments you like to add to the new membership

Trackers in your project

1. Click Project Admin on the top of your screen
2. On the Overview tab, select the project for which you want to see the trackers
3. Click on the Trackers tab
4. This will give you an overview of all the trackers part of your project. Most important are the numbers listed in the column “Tracker”, these correspond to the number on the physical tracker device (this number is called device_info_serial in the database).
5. In case you have several projects or collaborate with other projects, you may want to share trackers of your current project with other projects. To do so click “Add new share” and enter the following:
   • Share with project: enter the project name of the project you want to share a tracker with
   • Tracker: the tracker number of the tracker you want to share
   • Tracker ownership: usually, leave it blank (it is meaningful only if you have had a tracker in your project within two or more time periods)
   • Start date / End date: the start and end dates during which you want to share the tracker with another project. This gives you the flexibility to share data for a restricted time period only (e.g.: to prevent disclosing a nest location during mating season).

Birds in your project

1. Click Project Admin on the top of your screen
2. On the Overview tab, select the project you want to add a bird to
3. Click on the Birds tab
4. Click on Add new to add a bird to the selected project
5. Fill out the following information (if available)
   • ring number: the metal ring number issued by your national ringing centre
   • Colour ring: colour ring code of your bird (if applicable)
   • Species: the latin name of the species (must be selected out the list we recognise; if you miss yours, please contact the system administrators)
   • Sex
   • Mass in grams
   • Start Date: the date at which the bird was either born or seen in the study area for the first time (start of the bird’s lifespan)
   • End Date: the date at which the bird died. Put into the far future if unknown or still alive (end of the bird’s lifespan)
   • Any remarks (e.g. the circumstances under which the bird was found dead)
6. Click on Submit to save the bird to the selected project

Track sessions: assigning a tracker to a bird

Trackers have to be assigned to birds through a so-called Track Session, which establishes the link between a tracker and a bird during a period of time. You can create a Track Session like this:

1. Click Project Admin on the top of your screen
2. On the Overview tab, select the project you want to add a bird to
3. Click on the Track sessions tab
4. Click on Add new to add a bird to the selected project
5. Fill out the following fields:
   • Tracker: the number of the tracker (this number is called device_info_serial in the database)
   • Individual: the ring number of the bird
   • Tagging date: this is the start date of the Track Session
   • End date: this is the date at which you want to end the Track Session (e.g.:this can be either the date at which the bird died, the date at which you removed the tracker during a recapture, or the date at which the tracker was lost for other reasons).
   • Place of capture: select on the map as accurately as possible, or enter a coordinate and click “Bring map to given lat/lon”
   • Remarks: put any remarks here, in particular the reason why the track session was ended.

Note that on the Dashboard overview only trackers with active track sessions in the period you queried for are shown by default, which are trackers for which at least a day within the period you queried for lies between the track session start and end date.

IMPORTANT: Adding track sessions may be the most involving step of the project administration, and several conditions need to be taken into account before a track session can be successfully defined:

1. The tracker you want to put on a bird must be owned by your project (i.e. it must be listed under the tab “Trackers”)
2. You must have added the bird in the system
3. A tracker can be assigned only to one bird at the time. This means you must close any existing track session of the tracker, before you can assign it to a new bird. So if you have removed the tracker from a bird and want to put it on a different bird, you must first close the existing track session of the tracker before you can assign it to a new bird. Closing the track session is simply done by entering the end date of the track session, which should lie before the date at which you want to start the new track session.
4. A bird can have assigned only one active track session at the same time, because a bird cannot carry more than one tracker simultaneously. So if you have removed a tracker from a bird, and want to put a new tracker on that same bird, you first have to close the track session of the first tracker, before you can start the track session of the new tracker. Closing a track session is simply done by entering the end date of the previous track session, which should lie before the date at which you want to start the new track session.

To avoid problems we urge users to properly administer their track sessions and bird metadata at all times. So if you replace trackers, or find birds dead with a tracker, always update your track sessions immediately by providing the updated start and end dates of the existing track sessions.

Including a bird in a nest

You can keep track of nests for a bird. You just need to create the nest and tell which bird is living there (and eventually, partners or offspring). The bird must exist in the system before you can create a nest for it.

To create a nest:

1. Click Project Admin on the top of your screen
2. On the Overview tab, select the project you want to add a nest to
3. Click on the Nests tab
4. Click on Add new to add a nest for a bird from the selected project
5. Fill in the following fields:
   • Ref. name: A string with a useful reference for you. We recommend its being unique for each nest in a project, but the system does NOT enforce it.
   • Birds (max. 2): a maximum of 2 existing birds that you have identified living on that nest
   • Nest location: the important fields are Latitude and Longitude; these will be stored in the database. The map is there as a visual cue and you can double click on the map to fill the Latitude and Longitude. You can search for a location on the textbox above the map to bring the area of the map close to a known point.
   • Start date: when the nest was spotted
   • End date: When the nest ceases to be relevant to you.
   • Found by: place to credit people involved in finding the nest
   • Remarks: free text. Maybe you want to include an address or use it as a log of subsequent observations.
6. Finally, click on Submit to store the nest.