Collect Records
Data collected during one of the sample unit method surveys (i.e. Fish Belt, Benthic PIT, etc) is stored in a Collect Record. Collect records are different then other types of records in MERMAID and go through a staged process to help ensure the finalized record is valid, clean data. The stages in this process are Save
, Validate
, and Submit
.
Save
A collect record can be saved at any point even if it is partially populated or in an invalid state. The record can be thought of as being in a “draft” state.
Validate
Saved records can be validated by calling the collect record’s validation endpoint, which responds with the overall validation status (ok
, warning
or error
) and an updated copy of the collect record that was validated that includes the detailed individual validation results.
Example validate response:
{
"f5c8f06a-8ba0-4385-8e9e-ad154c059d94": {
"status": "error",
"record": {
"id": "ffffffff-8ba0-4385-8e9e-ad154c059d94",
... trimmed ...
"validations": {
"status": "error",
"results": {
"site": {
"wrapped": {
"status": "error",
"message": "Site record not available for similarity validation"
},
"validate_exists": {
"status": "error",
"message": "Site: Record doesn't exist"
}
},
"depth": {
"validate_range": {
"status": "warning",
"message": "Depth value outside range of 1 and 30"
}
},
"observers": {
... trimmed ...
}
In the record’s detailed validations section, validations that have a status of warning can be suppressed by changing the validation’s status to ignore and re-saving the record. Based on the example above, the depth warning can be suppressed to result in:
... trimmed ...
"depth": {
"validate_range": {
"status": "ignore",
"message": "Depth value outside range of 1 and 30"
}
},
... trimmed ...
The save/validate process continues until the overall record validation status is ok. The validated record is now ready to submit.
Submit
Submitting a collect record moves the complete and valid record from its “editing” stage to a finalized stage. The record can be submitted by calling the collect record’s submit endpoint. The moved record is now:
included in MERMAID reporting
only available for edits by admin project users
For details on how to call Save, Validate, and Submit please refer to the Collect Record Endpoints.