Hello,
This newsletter features some updates made to The Triticeae Toolbox (T3) over the last few months, including:
- Simpler, easier upload templates with instructions
- Bulk upload for trial metadata: get your planting and harvest dates in easily!
- Filter, intersect, and combine lists easily in the improved list manager
- Order plots as you like in Field Book and barcode labels
- Trait abbreviations to free up screen space in Field Book
Blank Upload Templates
Blank upload templates for each data type are available at the bottom of the home page of each T3 database. These templates include all of the possible column headers for each data type. Each template now also includes an INSTRUCTIONS tab that has every column listed with its description, allowed values for columns with specific allowed values (such as the trial design type), and whether or not the column is required.
Trial Metadata Upload
There is a new upload option available on the Manage > Field Trials page that can be used to bulk update trial-level metadata (such as planting and harvest dates) for existing trials.
The format for this upload template requires a trial_name column with the existing trial name and then any of the following columns for properties that you want to update. Any columns not included (or rows left blank) will keep the existing values for those properties.
- new_trial_name -- can be used to bulk rename trials
- breeding_program
- location
- year
- transplanting_date
- planting_date
- harvest_date
- design_type
- description
- trial_type
- plot_width
- plot_length
- field_size
List Manager Improvements
If you use Lists at all on T3, you can quickly accumulate a lot of lists and it can become difficult to find the one you're looking (particularly if you don't remember the exact name of the list). The List Manager (accessible from the blue Lists button in the right side of the toolbar) can now be filtered by list type (accessions, trials, etc) to narrow down the number of lists displayed in the table.
In addition, there are new options for combining two or more lists into a new list. After selecting multiple lists in the List Manager table, you are given the option to combine the items from the selected lists using either a union (combining all items in the selected lists) or an intersection (combining only the items common across all of the selected lists) operation.
Plot Ordering Integration
The plot order function can be used to sort the plots of a trial in the order in which you move in the field. There are options to sort by row or column, move in a serpentine (moving in alternating directions) or a ziz-zag (moving in the same direction) fashion, and to choose which of the 4 corners of the field to start in.
This functionality has existed in the field layout display on the trial detail page, where you can download a table of the sorted plots (with plot numbers, plot names, row and column positions, rep and block numbers, accession names, and seedlot names). The same plot sorting options are now available when generating a trial file for the field book app and when sorting plot-level barcodes to be printed by the label designer.
If you use the Android Field Book app and you load the trials via files (generated from the Manage > Field Book Tools page), there is now an option to include a plot_order column in the generated trial file. This column can then be used to sort the plots in the Field Book app.
If you're generating barcodes using the Label Designer for plots within one or more trials, you can now sort the order of the individual barcodes in the generated PDF using the same plot order options. In the last step of the label designer, before you download the PDF, select "Trial Layout: Plot Order" from the "Sort Labels By" drop down menu. There are also options to sort by other plot-level metadata, such as the plot number, accession name, or even trait values if there are observations associated with the plots.
Trait Abbreviations
The full trait names used on T3 are long and descriptive and can be cumbersome to use in the Field Book app where screen space is limited. To support shorter trait names in Field Book when pulling traits via BrAPI, we've added abbreviations to the most commonly used traits for each crop. This means that the abbreviations will be displayed as the trait name in Field Book instead of the full name. For example, wheat thousand kernel weight will be displayed as "TKW g" instead of "Grain weight - 1000 kernels - g/1000 grain". The full names will still be used on the website, but you can view the abbreviations on the trait detail page (when you click on the trait name from the Search > Traits page) as a synonym.
If you generate a trait file from the Field Book Tools page to load traits into Field Book, the full names are still used in the generated file. However, if you want to use a shorter name, you can edit the name in the file before loading the traits in Field Book. Just make sure to leave the CO trait identifier at the end of the name. For example, you can change "Grain yield - kg/ha |CO_321:0001218" in the file to "YLD |CO_321:0001218" - the database will use the CO number to identify the correct trait.
We've put together a Lookup Table of Trait Abbreviations if you want to see which abbreviations we've added to each trait.
As always, feel free to test out any of these new features and give us any feedback! The quickest way to get in touch with us is the Contact Us button at the top of any page on the T3 websites.
- The Triticeae Toolbox
