Over this past year, WRI Administration has been working with Utah Department of Technology Services to make some needed changes and improvements to the WRI Database Application (wri.utah.gov). We hope that these changes will make the database easier to use and make the data that it houses more accessible to the public.
The advanced search tool received the largest changes, most notably, is the addition of the “area of interest” search. Users are now able to not only search for specific criteria but they can now upload or draw an area of interest on the map as part of their advanced search. This tool allows single or multi-part features to be drawn or uploaded. If the user chooses to upload a shapefile for the area of interest, the shapefile will need to be dissolved into a single feature and then compressed into a .zip file. Along with the addition of the area of interest, we have added a few new search criteria.
In addition, users are also able to save and/or share their search by clicking on the Save Search button at the bottom of the search results and then copying the URL provided. The criteria used for each search is also recorded in a new table that is now included in the data export function. This will make it easier to share or repeat a specific query.
Another big improvement that we have made to the application is the reformatting of the project summary report. The report is now produced as a web page that can be saved as a pdf or shared using the URL. The tables and narratives in the report are now properly formatted so that portions of the information that were previously cut off are now fully visible.
The final big change that we are excited about is the addition of treatment tables that will now be included in the geodatabase that the app produces when you download map data. These related tables will provide additional information beyond feature type. The user will now be able to identify the action and treatment type that is related to each feature.
We made a few other minor changes/updates to get rid of bugs, update treatment method options, and hopefully reduce the confusion on the finance page. You may notice that some boxes on the Finance page are grayed out preventing you from adding or editing information. These are fields that the WRI Administration will fill in for you.
If you come across any bugs as you use the database over the next few weeks we would like to ask you to try a couple things before contacting WRI Admin. We have been able to fix most bugs that we have come across by going to your internet history and clearing your cache and then logging back in. If you still encounter a problem after that, please contact Alison Whittaker at alisonwhittaker@utah.gov with a description and screenshots of the problem that is occurring.
We hope that you are as excited as we are about these improvements to the WRI Database. Thank you to all of our Partners that make this program a success.