• Search Criteria
• Results
• Custom Column Sets
• Saved Column Sets
• Download
• History Filter

• Saved Searches
• Symbology
• Batch Editor
• Recalculate Gross Area
• More Information
• Release Notes

Start Date and End Date are inclusive. Dates are entered in the format YYYY-MM-DD so that February 20, 2019 is written as 2019-2-20. If you enter 2019-2-20 as the end date, the result will include records that were entered on or before 2019-2-20. If you put the same date in both Start Date and End Date, the results will only include records entered on that date.

Other search criteria in this application are largely similar to Observation Search. These additional criteria are available:

Geometry
point	Return only those records that have a point, but no line or polygon.
point + radius	Return only those records that have a point and a radius, but no line or polygon.
shape	Return only those records that have a line or polygon.
line	Return only those records that have a line.

Treatment
no treatment records	Return only those records that do not concern treatment of a patch.
only treatment records	Return only those records that concern treatment of a patch.
only herbicide records	Return only those records that concern herbicide treatment of a patch.
under management	Return only those records marked as under management. By default, all records that concern treatment are marked as under management.

History Filter	A history stack is a way of organizing multiple records concerning the condition of a single patch over time. In a history stack, all of the records concerning the patch are linked back to the earliest, or root, record.
All records	When this option is selected, all records will be returned for each stack.
Only the most recent	When this option is selected, the most recent record will be returned for each stack. When this option is selected, the column set automatically switches to Stack View, which begins with the columns ID and Root. When a history stack is available, the Root record number will be the oldest record, and the ID record number will be the newest. Click on the purple crayon to view this stack in Plant Observation Entry. When there is only one record describing a patch (no history stack), then the Root column will be empty.
Only root records	When this option is selected, the oldest (root) record will be returned for each stack.
Only reference records	When this option is selected, the search is limited to those records which have a population record with a reference polygon, chosen from one of the polygons in the associated history stack. The record associated with the reference polygon will be returned.

Project	(Only applies to groups with projects.) Return only those records associated with the selected projects.

More Criteria

Observer	Enter the name of a crew member to find observations made by that person.

Region	Enter a region name to find only those observations that have been assigned to that region.

Survey ID	Enter the ID of a survey record to find only those observations that are part of that survey.

Number of Plants
zero	Return only those records that have a zero value in this field.
at least one	Return only those records that have a non-zero value in this field.

>Minimum Priority Ranking
number from 1 to 5	This criterion looks at the priority rating of a population record associated with observation record(s).

Calflora IDs	Enter a record number to find just that record. Or enter a comma separated list of record numbers.

Survey
no surveys	Surveys are not included in the results.
include surveys	Surveys are included in the results.
only surveys	Only surveys are included in the results; observation records are not included.

The results appear simultaneously as points on the map and in a table below the map. This application will display both published and unpublished records.

If you click on a point on the map, an InfoWindow opens at the point, the table scrolls down to the corresponding record, and the record ID is highlighted. If you click on a record ID in the table, an InfoWindow opens at the corresponding map point, and a short menu opens up under the record ID.

• details; Open the detail page for this record, including all photos and any comments that may have been made by other users on this record.
• editor; Open Plant Observation Entry on this record.

The results can viewed through one of several column sets, such as Basic Data and Weed Data Export. You can also make up a custom column set: open customize, and choose the columns you want. (If you want to use the column set again, save it by name.) Most of the available columns are described in this data dictionary.

If you are part of a Weed Manager group, additional column sets are available, one for each of the data collection forms that your group uses.

Population Records
When a history stack has polygons. A population record is automatically created for it. A population record has four fields:

• Reference Polygon
• Priority
• Access to the Site
• Plant Count

These fields are available in the customize panel.

Open customize to choose exactly the columns you want to see.

If you would like your chosen set of columns to appear by default whenever you use this application, check

make this my default column set

Once you have done this, your column set will be available in the Column Set drop down as default.

Once you have used customize to choose exactly the right set of columns, you can save it by name, use it again later, and share it with other member of your group. Open TOOLS | SAVED COLUMN SETS, choose a name for the column set, and press SAVE. Any column set you save will be available to other members of your group.

To bring back a previously saved column set, open TOOLS | SAVED COLUMN SETS, and choose a column set by name from the drop down.

Use the Symbology section to control which colored icons are used to represent observations on the map

If you check one icon per point, then if there more than one record in the results with exactly the same point location, an icon will be drawn on the map for only the first record. You can control the order of records by sorting the results by column. Checking this box ensures that icons for later records will not overprint icons for earlier records, and thereby simplifies the map display.

If you check lines / polygons, then a line or polygon will be drawn on the map for each matching observation that has one.

If you also check use reference polygon, then the reference polygon will be drawn for each matching observation that has one (eg. that is part of history stack with an assigned reference polygon). This display option works well in combination with the History search criterion Only the most recent -- you will see the most recent record for each stack with the reference polygon for that stack. If you include this option in a saved search, and use the saved search to get historical records into Observer Pro (the phone application), then you will see the reference polygon when viewing historical records in Observer Pro.

If a polygon is available for a particular observation, it will be displayed in a color that matches the icon. When you click on the colored icon, the polygon boundary is draw with a thicker line, indicating it is selected.

If no theme is selected, points and polygons appear in the default violet color. There are five themes available: Plant Name, Management Status, Plant Count, Population Plant Count, and Population Priority.

Once this theme is selected, open Plants with Icons and press NEW PLANT. Enter the name of a plant, choose an icon, and press accept. For instance, you might pick the red square icon to represent Rubus armeniacus.

Here is an example showing eight weeds recently mapped by Marin County Parks in the Roy's Redwoods Open Space Preserve:

  If you choose the large white square as an icon for a plant, then no icon will be displayed on the map.

Once you have assigned colored icons to particular plants, you can save your choices as color scheme, and use it again later. Color schemes are associated with a group -- any color scheme you save will be available to other members of the group.

You can view observations acording to their management status using the following icons:

Note that "reported" (the yellow point) indicates records for which the value of Management Status is empty.

You can view observations acording to the value of Number of Plants using the following icons:

This value is typically calculated based on a summary of the previous year's plant count values for all observations of this population. You can view it and change it in POE.

To use this theme, you need to add a population priority value to each population record using POE.

To use this theme, you need to be using the Stack View column set. represents a singleton (an observation that is not connected to any other observations in a stack). See also Stack Editor Example.

To download the result data onto your local computer, open TOOLS | DOWNLOAD RESULTS, and choose a format. Supported formats include various kinds of flat files, and three kinds of shapefiles.

Shapefile Formats
With respect to shapefiles, if you choose Shapefile: polygon, the shapefile will include only those records that have a polygon. If you choose Shapefile: point, the shapefile will include all records.

Columns
When you download, the downloaded results will include the same fields that are displayed in the current column set.

Data into Excel
To get data into Excel, choose the CSV-Excel format. There is some extra formatting that happens with this format to ensure that the data appears properly in Excel.

The Number of Plants field might have a range value such as 51 - 100. Excel will try to interpret this value as a date. If you choose the CSV-Excel format, it will prevent this from happening.

You can save a Group Observations search and run it again later. To save the current search, open TOOLS | SAVED SEARCHES. Choose a name for the search, and press SAVE. The search will be associated with the currently selected group.

You can also restore a previously saved search from here. The available searches in the drop down are from the currently selected group.

To see all of your saved searches go to MyCalflora | Searches. For Weed Manager groups, to see all searches associated with your group, go to Group Options | Searches.

To set up an email alert from a saved search, go to MyCalflora | Alerts.

The Batch Editor is a feature of this application which can make changes to many of your group's records at the same time. It is a powerful and potentially dangerous tool, in that changes are not easily recoverable.

To open the editor, enter some search criteria, and press SEARCH.
Then open TOOLS and press BATCH EDITOR.

In the editor panel, you can specify changes to the records that match your search. Once you have entered the changes you want to make, press APPLY CHANGES. This action will ask you to confirm, and then apply the changes to all of the records that match your search, even if you cannot see them in the result table.

Convert Lines to Polygons
For every record that has a line and a value of Buffer (Radius), the line will be converted to a polygon.

Calculate Infested Area
Infested area will be (re)calculated for every record that has both a value for Gross Area and a value for Percent Cover. As an example, if a record has a Gross Area of 1000 square meters and a percent cover of 50%, the Infested Area will be calculated as 500 square meters.

Calculate Percent Cover
Percent cover will be (re)calculated for every record that has both a value for Gross Area and a value for Infested Area. As an example, if a record has a Gross Area of 1000 square meters and an Infested Area of 200 square meters, Percent Cover will be calculated as 20%.

Calculate Gross Area from Radius
Gross area will be (re)calculated for every record that has a point and a radius, but no polygon. As an example, if a record has a radius of 50 meters, the Gross Area will be calculated as πR² = 7854 square meters.

Priority Ranking
The priority ranking of the population record associated with each matching observation will be set to the chosen value. If no population record is defined for a matching observation, one will be created.

Gross Area is typically calculated when a record with a polygon is first uploaded into the database. It may also be calculated explicitly (for instance, after editing the polygon) in Plant Observation Entry. This command will recalculate the size of the polygon for all matching records.

To run this command, enter some search criteria, and press SEARCH.
Then open TOOLS and press RECALCULATE GROSS AREA.

Because it relies on the area function in the Google Maps API, this command is interactive. For each matching record, you will see the polygon on the map, and see the calculated gross area in square meters. Press NEXT to proceed to the next matching record. If the command is unable to calculate the gross area of a polygon for some reason, you will see an error message.

After the command has finished, search again for the same records to see the newly calculated value of Gross Area.

For more information about background layers, see Layer Help.

For more about data collection forms and other fields, see Plant Observation Entry Help

For a step-by-step explanation of the process of drawing your own search polygon, see Drawing a Polygon.