ABOUT THIS SOFTWARE =================== The Symbiota Software Project is building a library of webtools to aid biologists in establishing specimen-based virtual floras and faunas. This project developed from the realization that complex, information-rich biodiversity portals are best built through collaborative efforts between software developers, biologists, wildlife managers, and citizen scientists. The central premise of this open source software project is that, through a partnership between software engineers and the scientific community, higher quality and more publicly useful biodiversity portals can be built. An open source software framework allows technicians to create the tools thus freeing the biologist to concentrate their efforts on the curation of quality datasets. In this manner, we can create something far greater than a single entity can achieve alone. More information about this project can be accessed through http://symbiota.org/ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ================ Symbiota has been generously funded by the National Science Foundation (DBI-0743827) from 15 July 2008 to 30 June 2011 (Estimated). The Global Institute of Sustainability (GIOS) at Arizona State University has also been a major supporter of the Symbiota initiative since the very beginning. Arizona State University Vascular Plant and Lichen Herbarium have been intricately involved in the development from the start. Sky Island Alliance and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum have both been long-term participants in the development of this product. NOTES ===== FEATURES ======== * Specimen Search Engine * Taxonomic Thesaurus for querying taxonomic synonyms * Google Map and Google Earth mapping capabilities * Dynamic species list generated from specimens records * Flora/Fauna Management System * Static species list (local floras/faunas) * Interactive Identification Keys * Key generation for are species list within system * Key generator based on a point locality * Image Library LIMITATIONS =========== * Only tested on Linux and Window (XP, Vista) operating systems * Should work with an PHP enabled web server though only tested with Apache HTTP Server INSTALLATION ============ Please read the INSTALL.txt file for installation instructions. TROUBLESHOOTING =============== DEVELOPER GUIDELINES ==================== Anyone willing to collaborate is welcome. Please review issues and open a pull request at https://github.com/Symbiota/Symbiota or contact the authors about your plans: egbot at asu dot edu The following guidelines are adopted: * Each class has its own file with the same name. * Class properties are always manipulated through accessors and mutators. * Give preference to longer and clearer variable, function and class names.