We migrated our data from a legacy database ourselves, so are always a bit hesitant to post bug reports, as we always first think the problem is caused by something we did in the back end. However, this issue seems to be something that we can not have caused ourselves.
We upgraded from Specify 6.2.7 to Specify 6.4 four weeks ago. Yesterday we made some changes to our data entry forms in order to make use of some of the new features that have been implemented. While this worked all right for our own user type (Administrator/Manager), the changes we made have not all come through for our other (Full Access and Limited Access) users. No amount of manipulation seems to give us access to the user-type and user views for other user types or change anything to the form views that were uploaded before we upgraded.
As out of the box Specify comes with form views for Discipline and UserType, we have been developing our forms mainly in UserType. Because all our users work with the same forms and you can't make Preparation and Determination forms under UserType, one of the changes we made yesterday was moving everything from UserType to Collection and overwriting the UserType form views with an empty file. The last bit didn't work for other user types than our own, so for users of these types our new views get overridden by the old UserType views.
How can we fix this? My solution would involve creating a new Specify 6.2.7 database, getting rid of the UserType views in that one, upgrading to Specify 6.4, upload the schema config., pick lists and the new forms and move all the data across. Surely there must be a better way?
Response?
Did you find an answer to this problem? The lack of participation (or much traffic at all) in the Forum is one aspect of Specify that always gives me pause when asked for recommendations. Specify development appears to be active and ongoing, but the dearth of activity here is disconcerting.
Yes, I restored the last
Yes, I restored the last backup we had of our database in Specify 6.2.7; imported an empty file for the Usertype forms; upgraded to Specify 6.4; imported the new forms for Discipline and Collection, schema config and pick lists; then loaded the new data.
I'd recommend Specify to anyone.
forum activity
I've accepted this as a fact that is neither here nor there. I mean, surely it could just as easily indicate that users are satisfied with the product or with the posts on the forum. I don't think it's fair to judge a product by its forum. Specify speaks for itself. I've even stopped accepting personal responsibility, or the burden of proof, to prove that Specify is good. I don't need to. Also, there is a lot of one one-on-one support between users by direct e-mail. I'd like to try to assist you if I can. My email address is w.coetzer@saiab.ac.za.
If Specify should be judged by anything other than itself, it should be by 1) the people 'who work there' and 2) system documentation and user help. The system documentation is not always generally available but if you ask for it you will receive it. And I've never had a message from the Specify team to say that they can't help me. I have found that the more effort I put into learning something by myself, the more assistance I get from the Specify team.
Hope to hear from you
Willem
re: forum activity
Thanks Willem,
That has been our experience as well. Moreover, this is a community forum and our original post was mainly to find out whether other people had the same issue, or that it was just us. We've found a solution to our immediate problem — we had that before we posted to the forum — but will be in contact anyway, as it is always good to hear experiences of other Specify users.
Niels