Bugfixes and more
8.Mar.10 :: Page views work, PDF quality ::
Some page views (notably from the Squat Lobster page and the now-defunct “Classics” page) didn't work. Now they do.
We've begun assessing the quality of the PDF files. If that's been done for a reference, that information now shows up on the reference information page.
Compressed output
23.May.09 :: Faster text ::
We finally got around to turning on deflated output from the web server. That means that text pages (like web pages with references) will be much smaller when they are transmitted over the network.
This won't affect PDF and image files, since they're already compressed before they're sent.
More page view fixes
15.May.09 :: Page number links now work ::
A coding error that broke links from page numbers on page view pages has been fixed. Click away!
The detailed information page for references has been restructured to bring certification and change-log information a bit more prominently to the top.
IE 6 fixes
8.Dec.08 :: Page views now work ::
The page-view feature had a bug that prevented it from working properly with Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6. Since we still have a substantial number of visitors who use IE 6, we took some time to fix that problem.
If you’re still using Internet Explorer 6, though, please upgrade. There are numerous security and performance problems with Internet Explorer 6. You can get a free update directly from Microsoft. You’ll be glad you did.
Page views
30.Nov.08 :: Peek into documents ::
Now, when you do full-text search on a document, you can peek into the text where your search terms are found.
Search is much quicker
28.Nov.08 :: Thank Swish-e ::
A couple of days ago, we introduced full-text search of our PDFs. The search used the full-text indexing features of the MySQL database. Though this worked, performance was unacceptable: searches could take 30 seconds or a minute.
We’ve reimplemented the full-text search operation using Swish-e (which stands for “Simple Web Indexing System for Humans – Enhanced). Swish-e does a far quicker job of searching the PDFs (under a second for anything we’ve thrown at it thus far).
Indexing the whole PDF collection is also very quick: 20 minutes to index 2500 PDFs on our crappy little Athlon XP 2500+ server.
Next up... page-view access to the PDFs (in addition to the traditional download options).
Full text search
26.Nov.08 :: Search PDFs ::
We now have a first pass at fulltext search of the PDF documents. This is integrated into the standard search page: just put search terms into the Document text includes field.
What you’ll get back is (obviously) the matching references, but with an appended list of the page numbers where your search term(s) appear in the text.
We’re working to improve performance of the search. We also plan to add the ability to quickly peek at a low-resolution version of the selected pages.
Galatheid references
4.Nov.08 :: 900+ references from Galatheid Workshop ::
Thanks to Gary Poore’s Galatheid Workshop last year, we have just installed over 900 references relevant to the squat lobsters. A large number of these (over 800) have accompanying PDF files of the primary literature. We will be posting the PDFs as soon as we have completed processing them (which is well over half complete).
Thanks to Gary Poore and the participants of the Galatheid Workshop for this superb addition to our collective knowledge!
Improvements for big PDFs
29.Aug.08 :: Large PDFs work better ::
Previously, large PDF files were offered in “bite sized” pieces, broken up by page counts. That meant that some text-only pieces were relatively tiny and some plate-rich pieces were huge. We’ve now shifted over to breaking up PDFs based on file length, so the pieces are much more uniform.
Additionally, we’ve fixed a bug that affected IE6 users. Large PDFs with many pieces resulted in an un-selectable PDF icon (for IE6 only, which is why it took some time to surface). We’ve rewritten the code to deal with that case, so that the problem is now solved.
Consolidated search
31.Jul.08 :: Simpler, better searching ::
In the good old days, we had two search pages: one for "simple" searches, and one for "advanced" searches. These are now consolidated into one page that does either.
1000+ PDFs
17.Jul.08 :: Breaking 1000 ::
Red letter day: today we exceeded 1000 decapod PDF files available on our website. Do enjoy.
Endnote libraries versioned
29.Jan.08 :: Libraries now have dates ::
The “container” files for the Endnote libraries generated from the Decapod reference database (Decapoda-AToL...zip for Windows and Decapoda-AToL...dmg for Mac) now have dates as part of their name. This should make it easier to know if there has been an update since you last downloaded the Library.
We recommend using the library files without incorporating the date as part of the file path when you use Endnote to visit the libraries. That way, when you replace your copy of the library with a new version, Endnote will still find it in the “old” location.
Search improved
21.Nov.07 :: Live search added ::
The simple search from the main references page takes care of a lot of simple possibilities. However, there’s now a new (potentially very powerful) option available.
Try the Live Search. Not only can you search on specific fields, but the search is live. That is, it searches as you type. That permits very quick lookups where you may not be sure how many “hits” you expect.
More PDFs added
16.Nov.07 :: From Sammy De Grave ::
An additional 98 PDF files (and associated reference information) have been added. These PDFs come from Sammy De Grave, and have been waiting for months to be loaded onto the site. Our apologies for the delay, and thanks to Sammy for his contributions!
Additional references added
2.Nov.07 :: More of Gary Poore’s contribution ::
Over the past week we’ve been able to review the remaining parts of Gary Poore’s reference contributions and add them to the collection. That means that we’ve been able to expand the collection by about another thousand references.
These are available online, or by downloading the Endnote-format librarys (to the right of the search boxes).
Enjoy!
More information available
4.Oct.07 :: Peer deeper into the database ::
There is more information now available when you display references from the database. The little blue “Info” icon now may be replaced with a green check. In that case, it means that we’ve done some degree of certification on the text of the reference. You can click the icon to see who did the certification.
The information page for each reference now shows the detailed information for the record (as before), but now adds information about certification of the record, as well as a log of recent changes.
Expansion of database and PDFs
3.Oct.07 :: Sammy De Grave’s references added ::
Thanks to a major contribution of references from Sammy De Grave, the number of references in our database has expanded significantly. We’ve also been adding numerous PDFs of papers (check the New PDFs page for listings), many courtesy of Sammy De Grave and Lisa Conyers.
Download problems remedied
31.Aug.07 :: PDF downloads should work better now ::
There has been a longstanding problem with downloading large files from our server. Long pauses would occur before a download began, or the client would get an error page from an “SCM3200 Device”. These problems were caused by a security filter system on outgoing data on our Museum network. We have successfully resolved that problem, so that now data from our servers are unimpeded.
If you had trouble with downloading PDF files before, you should try again. We hope things are smoother now. We apologize for difficulties you may have experienced in the past.
Reference list enhancements
5.Aug.07 :: Additional information and feedback form added ::
The reference display page now has an additional icon
next to each reference: 
.
Clicking on that gives access to additional information from
our database pertaining to that reference.
More importantly, it provides access to a web form where you can send us comments on problems with the reference so that we can make corrections. This is the preferred way to give us feedback on our reference text, since using this system allows us to keep track of our updating efforts.
Endnote library can now be updated
27.Jul.07 :: Receive updates and corrections to this list ::
We are now making an Endnote 9 library available containing the entire Decapoda reference list (see the two links at the top right of the Decapod References page). Windows users of Endnote should use the .zip version; Mac OS X users should use the .dmg version. In both cases, these are archives that include all the files for a complete Endnote 9 library called Decapoda-AToL.
The key feature of this library is that the internal Endnote reference numbers of the records will remain fixed between releases. That means that, if you use citations from a word-processor to link to the library (e.g. “Cite-While-You-Write” in Microsoft Word), you can simply replace an existing version of the library with an updated copy.
In the past, you could fetch the library as an XML file that could be imported into Endnote. The problem was that each time you did that, the internal reference numbers changed, breaking the links between citations in documents and the Endnote library. Now that we have achieved control over the Endnote reference numbers, the links stay intact when you replace an old version of this library with a new copy.
To see updates and corrections reflected in your document’s bibliography, be sure to have Endnote regenerate the list (run Format Bibliography…). To be sure that you have completely replaced older versions of references with new ones, first run Unformat Citation(s), then run Format Bibliography…. Doing both will identify any references which have been deleted from the library (only likely when we discover duplicate entries).
Greatly expanded list
7.Jul.07 :: New references and PDFs added ::
Today we expanded the Decapoda reference list from about 1000 references to about 3600 references. This expansion is largely due to the contributon of references from Gary Poore.
We have made a first pass at removing duplicates within this list (removing about 3000 [this total includes duplicate references regarding Isopoda]). We are excruciatingly aware that there are still duplicates and many problematic references. We will be embarking on a major cleanup of these references beginning in August (when we return from the field).
In the meantime, try out these references. We believe that there is now a sufficient number of references that this list is beginning to be useful. Probably the best way to grab a copy is to click the Fetch as Endnote XML option and then create an Endnote library using the resulting XML file. We recommend creating a separate library (rather than importing into your existing library), since you will then be able to replace the list with updated versions as we continue to improve this list.
Future work will center on “certifying” the references against paper or PDF originals as well as adding substantial new bodies of references from specialist collections and providing an easy way to give us feedback on individual reference problems.
Upcoming references
6.Jul.07 :: Expanded reference list launching in the next few days ::
In the next couple of days we expect to post a much-expanded reference list, as well as an increased number of PDF files. We’ll let you know here when that happens.
News items for references
5.Jul.07 :: Here’s a place where we can post updates for you ::
We (in Los Angeles) have been working intermittently on several aspects of the Decapoda references: integrating submitted reference lists, cleaning and OCRing PDF files, etc.
To keep you up to date, we’re initiating this News box, so you can check here for significant updates.
