ispecies Panels

The "Panels" feature provides a configurable environment that allows you to aggregate information from the web, with information you have uploaded into your site. In this section we introduce the concept of panels, which provide a window in to the world of biodiversity data available on the web. Specifically we cover panels for Google Scholar, The Biodiversity Heritage Library, Wikipedia, Yahoo! Images, flickr, GBIF distribution maps and NCBI Genbank.

 iSpecies Panels

The "Panels" feature provides a configurable environment that allows you to aggregate information from the web, with information you have uploaded into your site.

  1. Browse the Primate classification you previously uploaded into your site, from the block you previously created in the left hand sidebar.  Navigate by clicking on the taxon name.
  2. Browse to the "Primates" and click the blue cross adjacent to the species name.
  3. Information is displayed in a series of Panels.  The primate description you added from the previous exercise should be visible.  The other Panels toward the top of the page will not contain any information because you have not added any of these content types (Images, Specimens, Files, Biblio) to your site.
  4. Click the "Edit This Node" view control in the primates' description.
  5. Change the descriptive text then click "Submit".
  6. Reload the Primates Panels page and your changed text will be present.
  7. Scroll down to the Panels at the bottom of the Panels page and explore content in the other Panels.

We have developed selected Panels that pull information from other third party sites (currently GBIF, Yahoo! Images, NCBI, Google Scholar and the Biodiversity Heritage Library).

Click the "Content" tab on your Panel page to reveal the Panels template.  You can change this template to edit and re-arrange, or add / delete Panels in order to reach your preferred arrangement.  Remove the Panels you do not wish to see on the page by clicking the Red Cross associated with each Panel.  For example, you might remove those Panels with no content i.e.  Description, Files, Specimen, Images, Biblio.  Save the arrangement when you are happy with it.

  1. Go back to the Primates classification and browse to the Primates page (you may have to go back to the home page to access the classification again).  Browse to other taxon pages in your site.  Note how the content in the Panels changes.
  2. Click the "Content" tab again, and rearrange the Panels by dragging and dropping them in to any arrangement you like. Remember to save the final arrangement.
  3. Go back to the Panels page and view the effect.
  4. Finally go back to the content tab and add back the Description, Files, Specimen, Images, and Biblio Panels to the Panels template.  Do this by clicking the "plus" icon in an empty Panel pane, then under "Views" select the appropriate content type and click "Add Pane".  Click "Save" at the bottom of the Panels template before checking the Panels pages again.

In the remaining part of this course we will look at how to fill in the other content types and how they are displayed in the taxon page Panels.