Editing and Inserting Data

The main way that we add or change information in Ghini is by using the editors. Each basic type of data has its own editor. For example there is a Family editor, a Genus editor, an Accession editor, etc.

To create a new record click on the Insert menu on the menubar and then select the type of record your would like to create. This opens a new blank editor for the type.

To edit an existing record in the database right click on an item in the search results and select Edit from the popup menu. This opens an editor that allows you to change the values on the record that you selected.

Most types also have children which you can add by right clicking on the parent and selecting “Add ???…” on the context menu. For example, a Family has Genus children: you can add a Genus to a Family by right clicking on a Family and selecting “Add genus”.

Notes

Almost all of the editors in Ghini have a Notes tab which should work the same regardless of which editor you are using.

If you enter a web address in a note then the link shows up in the Links box when the item your are editing is selected in the search results.

You can browse the notes for an item in the database using the Notes box at the bottom of the screen. The Notes box is desensitized if the selected item does not have any notes.

Family

The Family editor allows you to add or change a botanical family.

The Family field on the editor lets you change the epithet of the family. The Family field is required.

The Qualifier field lets you change the family qualifier. The value can either be sensu lato, sensu stricto, or nothing.

Synonyms allow you to add other families that are synonyms with the family you are currently editing. To add a new synonyms type in a family name in the entry. You must select a family name from the list of completions. Once you have selected a family name that you want to add as a synonym click on the Add button next to the synonym list and the software adds the selected synonym to the list. To remove a synonym, select the synonym from the list and click on the Remove button.

To cancel your changes without saving then click on the Cancel button.

To save the family you are working on then click OK.

To save the family you are working on and add a genus to it then click on the Add Genera button.

To add another family when you are finished editing the current one click on the Next button on the bottom. This saves the current family and opens a new blank family editor.

Genus

The Genus editor allows you to add or change a botanical genus.

The Family field on the genus editor allows you to choose the family for the genus. When you begin type a family name it will show a list of families to choose from. The family name must already exist in the database before you can set it as the family for the genus.

The Genus field allows you to set the genus for this entry.

The Author field allows you to set the name or abbreviation of the author(s) for the genus.

Synonyms allow you to add other genera that are synonyms with the genus you are currently editing. To add a new synonyms type in a genus name in the entry. You must select a genus name from the list of completions. Once you have selected a genus name that you want to add as a synonym click on the Add button next to the synonym list and it will add the selected synonym to the list. To remove a synonym select the synonym from the list and click on the Remove button.

To cancel your changes without saving then click on the Cancel button.

To save the genus you are working on then click OK.

To save the genus you are working on and add a species to it then click on the Add Species button.

To add another genus when you are finished editing the current one click on the Next button on the bottom. This will save the current genus and open a new blank genus editor.

Species/Taxon

For historical reasons called a species, but by this we mean a taxon at rank species or lower. It represents a unique name in the database. The species editor allows you to construct the name as well as associate metadata with the taxon such as its distribution, synonyms and other information.

The Infraspecific parts in the species editor allows you to specify the taxon further than at species rank.

To cancel your changes without saving then click on the Cancel button.

To save the species you are working on then click OK.

To save the species you are working on and add an accession to it then click on the Add Accession button.

To add another species when you are finished editing the current one click on the Next button on the bottom. This will save the current species and open a new blank species editor.

Accessions

The Accession editor allows us to add an accession to a species. In Ghini an accession represents a group of plants or clones that are of the same taxon, are of the same propagule type (or treatment), were received from the same source, were received at the same time.

Choose the Taxon name, add one if you forgot to do that in advance.

You may note uncertainty in identification by adding an identification qualifier, at the proper rank, so you can for example have a plant initially identified as Iris cf. florentina by choosing Iris florentina in the taxon name, identification qualifier ‘cf.’, qualified rank ‘species’.

Type the Accession ID, preferably also the Quantity received.

Accession Source

The source of the accessions lets you add more information about where this accession came from. Select a Contact from the drop-down list, or choose “Garden Propagation”, which is placed as a default first item in the list of contacts.

A Garden Propagation is the result of successful Propagation.

When accessing material from a Garden Propagation, you would initially leave the first tab alone (General) and start from the second tab (Source). Select as Contact “Garden Propagation”, indicate which plant is the parent plant and choose among the still not completely accessed propagations the one you intend to add as an accession in your database.

Once you select a propagation, the software will set several fields in the General tab, which you can now review. The Taxon (maybe you managed to obtain something slightly different than the parent plant). The Initial quantity (in case not all plants go in the same accession). The Type of Material, inferred from the propagation type.

Plant

A Plant in the Ghini database describes an individual plant in your collection. A plant belongs to an accession, and it has a specific location.

Creating multiple plants

You can create multiple Plants by using ranges in the code entry. This is only allowed when creating new plants and it is not possible when editing existing Plants in the database.

For example the range, 3-5 will create plant with code 3,4,5. The range 1,4-7,25 will create plants with codes 1,4,5,6,7,25.

When you enter the range in the plant code entry the entry will turn blue to indicate that you are now creating multiple plants. Any fields that are set while in this mode will be copied to all the plants that are created.

Pictures

Just as almost all objects in the Ghini database can have Notes associated to them, Plants and Species can also have Pictures: next to the tab for Notes, the Plant and the Species editors contain an extra tab called “Pictures”. You can associate as many pictures as you might need to a plant and to a species object.

When you associate a picture to an object, the file is copied in the pictures folder, and a miniature (500x500) is generated and copied in the thumbnails folder inside of the pictures folder.

As of Ghini-1.0.62, Pictures are not kept in the database. To ensure pictures are available on all terminals where you have installed and configured Ghini, you can use a network drive, or a file sharing service like Tresorit or Dropbox.

Remember that you have configured the pictures root folder when you specified the details of your database connection. Again, you should make sure that the pictures root folder is shared with your file sharing service of choice.

When a Plant or a Species in the current selection is highlighted, its pictures are displayed in the pictures pane, the pane left of the information pane. When an Accession in the selection is highlighted, any picture associated to the plants in the highlighted accession are displayed in the pictures pane.

In Ghini-1.0, pictures are special notes, with category “<picture>”, and text the path to the file, relative to the pictures root folder. In the Notes tab, Picture notes will show as normal notes, and you can edit them without limitations.

A Plant is a physical object, so you associate to it pictures taken of that individual plant, taken at any relevant development stage of the plant, possibly helping its identification.

Species are abstract objects, so you would associate to it pictures showing the characteristic elements of the species, so it makes sense to associate a flora illustration to it. You can also do that by reference: go to the Notes tab, add a note and specify as category “<picture>”, then in the text field you type the URL for the illustration of your choice.

Locations

The Location editor

danger zone

The location editor contains an initially hidden section named danger zone. The widgets contained in this section allow the user to merge the current location into a different location, letting the user correct spelling mistakes or implement policy changes.