Conclusiones

High-level Concept Instantiation

Description Object Hierarchy

Tree

Description Object Instantiation

Description Object Informative Data Display

Special Presence Attribute Instantiation IO

Attribute Instantiation Complex IOs

Task Model Navigation IO High-level Concept Navigation IO

Figure 7.2: Data Entry Interface components

7.4.3 Description object hierarchy

The ontology presentation model uses the same tree view as is used in the specialisation interface to represent the description object hierarchy. Figure 7.1A shows an example of this file tree visualisation, figure 7.2 shows its relation to the other interface components. During the data entry process, the hierarchy is normally filtered to only show the specialised domain model rather than the whole ontology. The data entry task model’s default task order is represented in the ordering of the hierarchy

view. This view remains the same for all high-level concepts using the same specialised domain model, except that its icons reflect the instantiation state of the current high-level concept.

7.4.4 Description object

Description objects are represented by nodes on the description object hierarchy tree and by the linked description object instantiation panels. The description object nodes are as described in chapter 6, although the node icon colour also reflects the instantiation state of the description object (blue when all attributes have been instantiated for current high-level concept). Whilst engaged in data entry, the node’s editing interaction with the specialised domain model is disabled. Informational interaction (definition access) remains available on the node.

Each description object with attributes for instantiation is represented by a description object instantiation panel. Figure 7.2 shows these panels contain an informational element about the description object, a special presence attribute interaction element and a series of attribute instantiation IOs: one for each of its attributes. A coloured border with a description object identifier heading identifies the description object instantiation. Figure 7.1B shows an example of a description object instantiation panel for a ‘hypathia’ description object of specimen #1.

The informational element drawn from the specialised domain model (see figure 7.3) includes the description object nametag (the full path of description object nametags to the root is given in the panel border heading) and a summary icon (replicas of the node icons in the description object hierarchy tree).

If the description object has any clones, these are displayed by nametag as seen in figure 7.3. The clone information is provided to ensure users are aware of the existence of the clones, to ensure they do not begin data entry for the wrong description object. This was found to be especially necessary where only one of the clones was likely to be present on a specimen. The nametag for clones was most useful if it had been either specialised by the user or the system. By default the system simply includes a bracketed number after the original name for clone nametags. If the clone has a fixed value as many do, then the system will attach the name of the fixed value object to the original

name to give a more meaningful name. An example of this is seen in figure 7.3, where the clone of flower has been named ‘terminal flower’, reflecting the fact that the clone has a fixed value ‘terminal’ for its ‘arrangement: position’ attribute.

Figure 7.3: Example of a description object informative data display for a description object with clones. This example is taken from a data entry interface for the ‘Alyxia’ plant group. The description object ‘Entire Plant : Inflorescence :

Flower’ has a clone called ‘Terminal Flower’ which represents another distinct kind of flower description object to be found on ‘Alyxia’ plants.

Where a description object is being instantiated as concrete description object instances, the description object instantiation panel representation refers to one concrete instance.

7.4.5 Navigation task

Users normally work within one specimen at a time, instantiating the attributes of one description object at a time using the default task order. To move from one description object to the next, the user clicks on the ‘Next Description Object’ button in the task model navigation IO (or on the main menu). The system then selects the next description object in the task order that has attributes to instantiate (the selected node on the linked description object hierarchy tree reflects this). There are however occasions when the user may wish to alter this default order.

Users can use the description object hierarchy tree to select description objects for instantiation. Selecting a node on this tree causes the linked description object instantiation panel for that description object, to be displayed.

Where attributes of concrete instances of description objects are being instantiated, users normally instantiate all attributes of one concrete instance before moving onto the next one. Once one concrete instance is completed, the user can select to instantiate a new concrete instance (using the ‘new concrete instance’ button in the task model navigation IO) if they desire or move to the next description object (see above). Users can however choose to work the attributes in any order if they desire. To navigate

between concrete instances, users use a pull down list of all available concrete instances in the task model navigation IO. The choices include all concrete instances that have been generated for this high-level concept’s description object. An extra choice is entering abstract data in addition to any concrete data. This allows users to enter both abstract and concrete data about a description object if desired. In some cases while users may want to record concrete data for some attributes, they might only want to record abstract data about other attributes.

7.4.6 Attribute

Each specialised attribute of a description object is presented for instantiation in a complex interaction object. This interaction object contains the data and interaction capability required to enter data for one attribute. The implementation of this interaction object varies. The abstract implementation is determined by the data entry task model, which selects abstract interaction objects (AIOs) from a system library. Based on the selected AIO, a concrete interaction object is generated by the system using the relevant attribute and related data from the specialised domain model.

7.4.6.1 Abstract Interaction Objects

The AIOs are designed to group together the attribute specific data and all the interaction capability needed to instantiate the attribute. The grouping of these elements is identified by a 3D-effect border with bold coloured text heading. Relevant description object data is presented by the parent description object instantiation panel and the linked description object hierarchy view. Figure 7.4 shows the general template for the attribute instantiation IO, used as a basis for all the AIOs in the data entry presentation model’s library.