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NaviKey – a Java applet and application for accessing descriptive data coded in DELTA format

Introduction
Version History
Todo List
Download
Installation
Licence Conditions
Credits
NaviKey in Service

Introduction

NaviKey is a tool for querying descriptive data and has been implemented as

a Java applet providing the contents of DELTA files (see example with the DELTA sample data files)
a stand-alone Java application for accessing DELTA files or PostgreSQL versions of DiversityDescriptions databases, respectively
a module ("plug-in") of the Java-based Diversity Navigator database client (available soon!) for accessing DELTA files or PostgreSQL versions of DiversityDescriptions databases respectively

This software is based on an earlier version (NaviKey v. 2.3 by Michael Bartley and Noel Cross, Harvard University Herbarium, Boston, USA) and has been further developed in the frame of the BIOTA Africa project by Dieter Neubacher and Gerhard Rambold (University of Bayreuth, Germany).

Release	Features
Version 2.3	Original version by Michael Bartley and Noel Cross.
Versions 3.00–3.xx (internal versioning, viz. no releases)	NaviKey to be alternatively used as local application (installation of JRE required). Update of GUI to Swing. Configuration options for selecting background and font colours (preliminarily) removed.
Versions 4.00–4.03 (internal versioning, viz. no releases)	Implementation of various checkbox matching options (view restriction; exclude items; multiple selection of character states; interval validations). Alphabethical sorting of resulting items/taxa.
Version 4.04 (released)	Support of DELTA flat files in Unicode format Option to run NaviKey in parallel (with different DELTA data sets and the corresponding configuration files). Counter for total and resulting taxon/item numbers.
Version 4.05	Improvements in option to run NaviKey in parallel. Improvement of query options.
Version 4.06	Internal changes.
Version 4.07	Display of units for numerical states.
Version 4.08	Implementation of "Character dependency" option. Parameter selection and About text in separate tab sheets. Labelling of the panes.
Version 4.09	Init options bugfix.
Version 4.10	Internal changes.
Version 5.00	Implementation of option for taxon images and information. NaviKey configuration file in XML (NaviKeyConfig.xml). Implementation of "Implicit values" directive.

TODO List

In no particular order:

Optional alphabethical sorting of character states.
Optional sorting of taxa.
Option for character and character state images and information.
Option for "Best character" sorting.
Option for font type and size adjustment.
Your Suggestion Here!

Download

Release	.zip	.tar.gz	Sources	Date
NaviKey v. 2.30	download
NaviKey v. 4.04	download			February 1, 2006
NaviKey v. 4.05	download	download	+	March 30, 2006
NaviKey v. 4.06	download	download	+	May 30, 2006
NaviKey v. 4.07	download	download	+	July 26, 2006
NaviKey v. 4.08	download	download	+	October 16, 2006
NaviKey v. 4.09	download	download	+	March 1, 2007
NaviKey v. 4.10	download	download	+	June 12, 2007
NaviKey v. 5.00 beta	download	download	+	March 28, 2008

Installation

NaviKey can be used both remotely (as an applet on a web server) and locally (as an application).

As an applet, NaviKey jar-file needs to be placed on a web server in a folder within the wwwroot directory together with all other files in the root directory when the zipfile is unzipped (e. g., a property or configuration file (NaviKey.props or NaviKeyConfig.xml) and DELTA flat files (CHARS, ITEMS, SPECS)). For placing the DELTA data files in a subordinal folder (e. g., "delta/", the path is to be specified in the property or configuration file (e. g.: charsfile=delta/chars). One of the NaviKey icons NaviKey icons in the zip archive may be used with a back link to this NaviKey home site.

For local usage of NaviKey as a stand-alone application under Windows 2000/XP, the NaviKey jar-file needs to be placed in a folder together with a property or configuration file (NaviKey.props or NaviKeyConfig.xml) and DELTA flat files (CHARS, ITEMS, SPECS), an example of which is included in Data.zip. To run NaviKey, JavaT 2 Runtime Environment needs to be downloaded and installed first.

Licence Conditions

NaviKey is considered Open Source and the source code is from now on available and included in the archive files. For announcing or requesting cooperation in the project please contact navikey@uni-bayreuth.de.

Credits

Starting with version 2.3, NaviKey has been programmed in the frame of the BIOTA Southern Africa Subproject S04, financed by the BMBF (Federal Ministery of Education and Research, Germany). Further support is provided by the Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns, IT Centre. Valuable comments and suggestions by Mike Dallwitz (Canberra) are gratefully acknowledged.

NaviKey in Service

For trying out NaviKey in service, visit the list of Web Projects

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