Releasing WildLog v6.2.0

The new version of WildLog v6.2.0 can be downloaded over here.

Changes:

• Many major improvements, changes and fixes
• Highlights
• Upgraded most of the underlying third-party libraries, including moving to Java 14
• Reduced database size and can now optimise existing databases
• Added a Workspace Picker on startup
• Can open more than one workspace at a time
• Partially completed Bulk Imports can now be "stashed" to be completed later
• Extra Data can now be added to data entities
• Videos can be previewed in WildLog when doing a Bulk Import

Releasing WildLog v6.0.6

The new version of WildLog v6.0.6 can be downloaded over here.

Changes:

• Fixed a database bug which could result in Observations not always showing up correctly under linked Places, Periods or Creatures.
• A few other small fixes and improvements.

Releasing WildLog v6.0.5

The new version of WildLog v6.0.5 can be downloaded over here.

Minor changes:

• Improvements to database backups:
• The database will be automatically backed up daily (keeping the most recent 7 daily backups).
• When opening corrupted databases WildLog will now show a popup with an option to restore from a previous backup.
• Database backups now show in the progress bar.
• Bulk image resizing now uses the progress bar.
• On the Browse tab it is now possible to toggle between images using the CTRL + Left / Right Arrow.
• A few other small fixes and improvements.

Releasing WildLog v6.0.4

The new version of WildLog v6.0.4 can be downloaded over here.

For WildLog v6 I made a huge amount of changes in the background to enable WildLog to better keep track of Creatures, Places and Periods across workspaces. The result of which is much better experience when using some of the advanced features, such as import/export.

Many of the changes and new features are thanks to WEI. They approached me a few months ago asking me to do some custom development for them. They now use two custom versions of WildLog with extra features (for administrators and data capturers respectively) to help them work with their camera trap data.

Major changes:

• Restructuring of the database.
• WARNING:
• Due to these changes the upgrade process might be slow for existing large workspaces.
• A number of fields were removed from Creatures and Places, due to them not really being used much.
• Improvements to the import and export processes.
• Improved the iNaturalist integration.
• It is now possible to crop images from the Browse tab.
• A new backup feature has been added called Echo Backup, which can be used to make backing up the entire workspace much easier.
• Added a new grid view to the Observations tab which will show all filtered Observations as images.
• Initial "experimental" support has been added to sync workspaces to cloud storage from within WildLog.
• Some quality of life improvements to the way offline maps work.
• Many more small changes, fixes and improvements!

Releasing WildLog v5.1.3

The new version of WildLog v5.1.3 can be downloaded over here.

Minor changes:

• Fixed a problem with importing iNaturalist observations that are identified to subspecies level.
• Fixed a problem that prevented creating new WildLog Workspaces.
• Now using Dropbox for hosting the downloads because the Box.net hosting has been unreliable lately (very slow and the downloaded file is often corrupted).

Releasing WildLog v5.1.2

The new version of WildLog v5.1.2 can be downloaded over here.

Minor changes:

• Fixed a problem with importing iNaturalist observations without a time (for example records created by the iSpot data transfer).
• Added a field to record the specific GPS accuracy.

Releasing WildLog v5.1.1

The new version of WildLog v5.1.1 can be downloaded over here.

Major changes:

• Lots of small improvements to the iNaturalist integration.
• Photos can now be cropped inside the WildLog application from the Browse tab and iNaturalist upload popup.
• Added a bulk edit option on the Observations tab to allow easy editing of multiple observations at the same time.
• Tables will now remember their sort order when navigating back to the a window or closing a popup.

Releasing WildLog v5.1.0

The new version of WildLog v5.1.0 can be downloaded over here.

Major changes:

• Added the ability to upload and download observations from iNaturalist.
• The tooltip on Reports that use a line chart can now show the data for all overlapping points.
• A few small user interface enhancements, bug fixes and code improvements.

WildNote v1.4 is also now available. It contains a fix to prevent the error message showing when importing the data into WildLog.

Releasing WildLog v5.0.0

The new version of WildLog v5.0.0 can be downloaded over here.

Major changes:

• Bulk Import: It is now possible to set the sex and umber of individuals directly from the Bulk Import user interface.
• Bulk Import: Improved the performance when moving Files between Observations with huge amount of linked Files.
• Core: The time of an Observation can now be specified to second precision.
• Core: Improvements to the Check and Clean Workspace feature to make it faster and perform more checks.
• Core: Added a menu item to easily restore a previously backed-up database.
• Browse: Files can now be uploaded from the Browse view.
• GPS: Made improvements to the way the GPS popup works.
• Slideshows: Added PowerPoint and PDF slideshow options.
• Exports: Added new export options, including the ability to export to Excel format.
• Reports: Added new reports and enhanced existing reports.
• Reports: Visual improvements to the reports, such as larger labels, etc.
• Reports: The reports can now be configured to use one of the three available Creature names.
• Maps: Added more option to the online heat distribution maps to help with more accurate interpretation of the maps.
• Maps: Added zoom buttons for the offline maps.
• Maps: Added an identify button for the offline maps to show information about the selected map elements.
• Maps: Added new biome offline maps.
• Maps: Offline maps can now be styled. Also improved the default style of bundled offline maps.
• Other: Various small user interface enhancements, bug fixes and code improvements.

Releasing WildLog v4.4.0

The new version of WildLog v4.4.0 can be downloaded over here.

Major changes:

• This new version includes a number of improvements under the hood, to the code base.
• One of the biggest differences to previous versions is that files uploaded into the WildLog Workspace will now be stored in a cleaner folder structure. Files linked to Observations will also now be renamed to reflect the date of the Observation. It is recommended to run the "Check and Clean the Workspace" task from the Application menu, to apply the new structure to existing data.
• WildLog can now be (optionally) bundled with third party media viewers, when using the Full installer, that should in most cases provide a major improvement over the default applications used before. The JPEGView application will be used for images, and for movies the Media Player Classic - Home Cinema application will be used. If you don't want to use these media viewers then simply disable the feature from the Settings menu inside WildLog to continue using your default media viewers, or download the Basic installer.
• A feature (under the Advanced menu) has been added to reduce the size of the images stored in the Worksapce. This can be done for specific Creatures, Places and View Ratings. This can be useful to try and keep a Workspace small without having to delete any images.
• There has also been a number of smaller fixes and improvements.

Releasing WildLog v4.3.2

You can download WildLog v4.3.2 over here.

The new versions includes a few small bug fixes:

• The report and map export files will now use better names.
• The GPS Dialog has been fixed to no longer sometimes change the GPS value when toggling between DMS and DD.
• Small changes to keep up with the latest WildNote version.
• Workspaces will now contain a default license file that can be used to copy-write the data to the user.
• Other small fixes and library updates.

Releasing WildLog v4.3.1

I'm finally done with the next major upgrade to WildLog. You can download WildLog v4.3.1 over here.

The biggest improvement in this new version is the overhauled mapping functionality. The new maps now use a similar approach as the reports. You can now choose which Observations you wish to display on the map using the provided Observation filters.

WildLog is now using the Google Maps API for most of the online maps, instead of the old OpenStreetMap, which provides much better base layers for the maps.

The new code also allowed me to build some interesting new maps to help you explore your dataset. For example, the new Heat Maps immediately add a tremendous amount of value.

It is still important for me to provide offline maps as well. Although basic internet connectivity is getting more and more common I still feel that one of WildLog's greatest strengths is the fact that it can stand on its own and continue to provide meaningful value even without an internet connection or third party services. Third party service providers, such as Google Maps, could cancel or change their services at any time and for me it is important that WildLog should still be able to continue to provide the core functionality should that help.

For a long time I've wanted to add some GIS functionality to WildLog, and I think with this release I've finally taken the first step in that direction. I've added a new "Custom Map" that allows you to upload basic Shapefile and GeoTiff layers. These layers can then be displayed on the map next to your Observation records.

This is still a very basic feature, but if it proves to be valuable, there is a lot of room for future improvement.

There has been a slew of other small upgrades, improvements, additions and fixes. For example, you can now filter Observations by GPS coordinates (using a map selection box), upgrades to the GPS popup, some amazing new reports specifically aimed at analyzing camera trap data, reports are now clickable to see the data values, uploaded portrait photographs should now be automatically rotated, improvements to various export formats, new Observation filter categories, Observation filter categories can now be saved, etc. etc. etc.

I really hope you enjoy these new features, in particular the maps.

I would like to thank everybody that have shown an interest in WildLog over the years. Even if it was only me using it I would still love working on it, but knowing that there are people out there that also find the application useful really helps to keep me interested and motivated to make the application better and better for a broad audience.

If you experience any problems or have any other feedback, please feel free to contact me.

Releasing WildLog v4.2.2

I've just released WildLog v4.2.2 that fixes some minor bugs and added a few small improvements.

Some of the changes include:

• The popup that shows when the file upload is taking too long now works correctly again (and should be better than before).
• The PDF user guide (or a link to download the document) can now be found from within the WildLog application (via the About menu).
• Behind the scenes improvements to error logging and database upgrading. The application will also now provide more popup warnings before upgrading the workspace to a new version.
• You can now copy files to the system clipboard from the Browse tab.
• Added an export option to only export the files for selected Observations.
• More small changes.

You can download the latest version over here.

Releasing WildLog v4.2.1

I've just released WildLog v4.2.1 that fixes two minor bugs that affected the Bulk Upload feature. The new release also has some improvements to the way the new Observations Tab works.
You can download the latest version over here.

Releasing WildLog v4.2

I've been working hard the past few months to wrap up a bunch of new features for the WildLog. WildLog is the wildlife sighting database I've developed for my own nature based collections and camera trapping.

The new version (WildLog v4.2) comes with lots of small improvements, and a couple of major new features. Have a look at the updated user guide to get an overview of the latest functionality.

One of the big new features is the new Observations tab. This tab will allow you to work with Observations directly and will show the most recent Observations by default. You can add, delete, map, etc. the Observations from this screen.

You can use filters to determine what Observations to list.

One of the biggest additions to this version of WildLog is the inclusion of an entirely new reporting section. There are now many more reports available and they look a lot better than before.

It is now much easier to export the reports.

There are many more features and improvements too look out for. When a system gets this big, with such a rich feature set it becomes very difficult for one person (I work on this alone, in my spare time) to develop and test all new and existing features extensively. I try to release as stable version as possible, but I might have missed something. I use this same stable version for my own real world data, so if you run into any problems please let me know and I'll release a fixed version as soon as possible.

Thanks for using WildLog, and as always please help me make WildLog better. You can contact me anytime with suggestions, bugs, or just to say what you enjoy about the program.

Releasing WildLog v4.1 and WildNote v1.1

I've been doing lots of work on WildLog over the past couple of months and I think (hope) version 4.1 is now ready to be released.

You can download the latest version of WildLog over here.

There are plenty of new features and improvements in this version.

Most notably is that the tables can now show small thumbnails. This makes is a lot more enjoyable to use and provide visual clues to navigate a large data set faster and more accurately.

There are a couple of new features, such as adjusting the GPS or date/time for all Observations in a Period. I also tried to improve the performance of the application across the board.

A lot of time has been spent on improving the exporting and importing functionality. It is now possible to export new Workspaces, based on a particular Period or Creature. You can also now import directly from another Workspace.

Another aspect I've been wanting to include also finally saw the light of day: You can now download sample Workspaces that have all the mammals or birds for the USA or South Africa already added. This should make it a lot easier to get started.

Lastly, I've also decided to release WildNote.

WildNote has been a very long time coming. In fact I've started working on it twice before, deciding to stop development because the underlying frameworks I tried didn't do a good job matching my requirements. But now I think I finally found something that work, so hopefully I'll be able to improve on it over time.

WildNote runs on (my) Android devices, and enables my to capture the date, time, GPS and species at the touch of a finger. I used WildNote this past December to capture over 500 observations while on holiday. Something that would have been much more difficult if I had to use good old pen and paper.

The idea is the export the observation from WildNote and then import them into WildLog.

Mobile technology might be all the rage these days, but it is a very fast changing scene with lots of role players and platforms, making it "unwise" to invest too much time into something that will not be around in 5 years' time. Thus the idea was to get an application that did what I needed and didn't take too long to develop or maintain.