Exploring the site

This site has many use levels depending if you are a registered user or not, and, if you are, depending on your role. We will set some concepts about what you can expect and how to do it. All the explanations shall define the kind of user allowed to do the task.

Screen areas

Intro

You'll access a maximum of seven main areas in the screen. Not all of them are shown at once, but they can appear and dissappear depending on the content shown. When accesing the "home page", you'll discover five of them:

Zone 1: Logo area

Areas 1, 2 and 3 appear in every page, no matter the content. Zone 1 is the logo. Clicking on it will take you to the home page

Zone 2: Taxon Search

Zone 2 carries the "Taxon Search" widget. If you want to know if a taxon is available to use, write here any part of the name. Let's say I'd like to introduce an story about Cataglyphis albicans, but I'm not sure if it's available. Typing "albic" and clicking on "Search" will offer:

Clicking in any name shall show the results page for that taxon. If the one you're searching for is not listed, you'll need to add it to the taxa list before submitting any content related to it.

Zone 3: Main Menu

A quite complex tool which varies depending on the user role. Its functionalities are explained in detail here

Zone 4: Left bar

Helpful zone to show different blocks containing submenus or information related to the content shown. Its content varies depending on the section, and does not appear in some cases as in distribution maps.

Zone 5: Main content

The desired content is shown here. Sometimes it expands to cover the whole width and sometimes it shrinks when the Right and Left bars are populated, as in the next example:

Zone 6: Breadcrumbs

This line appears in some cases to make easier to jump to other parts of the site. For example, when viewing a camponotus species, this is the breadcrumb shown:

Clicking in any term will take you to the summary page of that particular issue

Zone 7: Right bar

With the same characteristics than the Left bar, it shows some useful tips on the content shown, but not navigational aid. In the image above, a Gmap of the specimen is shown, but other tips can appear.

One menu to rule them all (the main menu)

In this section we'll try to explain the functions and tools you can manage via the main menu. This is thought so you won't need any other tool to access the main funcionalities of the site. This is the actual look (by now!)

Please, have into account that this menu changes depending on the role of the user. Some of them are availble for registered users only, or for taxonomists or for admins. The images shown in this section are for the Admin user, an if you're missing something in your menu, is because you have not the permits to do the task. For example, if you're a visitor, you won't have the "My content" submenu.

Please report us if you are missing something or some explanation is not clear enough.

Specimens image comparison tool

This tool filters the images by taxa, body part and caste, and shows the selection. You can filter to the depth you like, like showhing all the images available for Myrmicinae or just viewing the lateral view of the Camponotus abjectus and Camponotus cruentatus males.

To view enlarged images, click on the thumbnail, as usual.

Distribution

This menu is the same for all the users, registered or not.

Have into account that in this version no records can be added to the database. We are working to implement this feature in the near future.

If you want your data to appear now in the database, contact us

Distribution Maps

This is the tool to picture Distribution Maps at the moment. It's quite powerful, and we've tested it with up to 1.000 dots in it, and works quite fast. This is a 1.0 version. Next versions will have:

Improved layers
Direct link to database queries instead of showing all of the records in the database
An option to copy the map to paste it anywhere. This option is now available only by the "Print Screen" option.

Although everything is quite obvious, we have prepared this video (4:56 minutes) to make things easier.

Useful tips

In this section we'll explain some tricks to make life easier

Keeping track of the new content

Registered users can be kept updated of the new or updated content in the site. To do so, we've created a "New Content" block, that can be activated at the user profile [My Content-> My account]

Editing my profile, and behind the "Picture", a "Block configuration" section appears. The optional blocks can be switched on and off here. In this example, two blocks appear, the "New Content" and the "Who's Online".

If the "New Content" block is on, every time that a new content is added or modified, the title shall appear in a block at the upper left. Once the content is viewed, or remains more than four weeks unseen, it is deleted from the list. If you want to be more selective on the contents to view, clicking on the "more" link will take to a page where the New Content can be filtered via the Content Type.

If you do not want to be advised of the new content any time it's created, but to check it now and then, you can access the "New Content" page directly from [My content->New or updated content].

The first time that the New Content page is checked, the results comprises the last four weeks.

Quick access to a taxon summary

To access the summary view of a certain taxon, just type the name with spaces replaced by "-". For example, www.formicidae.org/messor will take you to the Messor summary page, and to access Messor barbarus type www.formicidae.org/messor-barbarus

If typing the name results in a "Page not found", several things can be happening

The most probable thing is that we do not have that species in the list as it is a non Palaeartic species or not listed under any region covered by us.
The status for that taxon is different from the one typed. For example, www.formicidae.org/diplorhoptrum-robusta will have no results, but www.formicidae.org/solenopsis-robusta will take us the that page, as this is the criteria followed by us.
We have missed that taxon
If you're sure that the taxon is correctly spelled, it should be listed and you obtain no results, please type any part of the name at the upper right "Taxon search" widget. If the name is not listed, or listed but clicking results in a "Page not found", please report us

Other ways to access the taxon summary page are:

at the main menu: Taxa->List available taxa
via the "Taxon search" widget