Uploading Windows Pedon Data Into NASIS

A process is now available for uploading Windows Pedon data to NASIS, but the current process has a couple of significant limitations:

1. ALL sites, pedons, transects and site associations in the Windows Pedon database are uploaded.
    
2. ALL sites, pedons, transects and site associations are assigned to the same NASIS site and group.

If the data in a Windows Pedon database needs to be assigned to more than one NASIS site/group, that data can be assigned to a temporary group, and NASIS itself can then be used to change ownership of that data as necessary.

This process is intended to upload batches of Windows Pedon data. Please do not submit a single Pedon for uploading. If you have Windows Pedon data that you would like to upload to NASIS, and if you can live with the limitations described above, here are the steps you should follow.

Step 1. Determine the location of the Windows Pedon database.

Open the Windows Pedon application and select “About” from Help menu. The location of the Windows Pedon database is under the label “Database File”. The Windows Pedon database is a single file named “pedon.mdb”. If you accepted the defaults during the installation of Windows Pedon, this location is:

C:\Program Files\USDA\Pedon\Database

Step 2. Make a copy of the database that you want to submit for uploading, and rename that copy. You should keep a copy of any Windows Pedon database that you submit for uploading to NASIS just in case the copy that you submit for uploading is somehow lost.

If Windows Pedon is running, close the application. Start Windows Explorer and position yourself in the appropriate directory (see step 1). Right click on “pedon.mdb” and select “Copy”. In a blank area of that same folder pane, right click and select “Paste”. This will result in a copy named “Copy of pedon.mdb”. Now right click on “Copy of pedon.mdb” and select “Rename”. Rename the copy of the Windows Pedon database similar to the following:

pedon_05302002_1240.mdb

Where “05302002” represents the current month, day and year, and “1240” represents the current time in hours and minutes.

Step 3. Create a zipped copy of the renamed database. This zipped copy is what you will actually submit, and you should retain the original copy that you made in step 2.

In Windows Explorer, right click on the renamed file, and under the WinZip options, select “Add to Zip file”, and then click the “Add” button. If your renamed database was named “pedon_05302002_1240.mdb”, the zipped copy will be named “pedon_05302002_1240.zip”.

Step 4. FTP the zipped database and send an e-mail to the Soils Hotline staff.

Even a zipped Windows Pedon database is too large to transfer via e-mail. Please use an FTP application to send the zipped Windows Pedon database to:

ftp.itc.nrcs.usda.gov

This is an anonymous FTP site, which means you connect as user “anonymous”, and your password is immaterial (although convention is that you use your e-mail address as your password). Please make sure that you navigate to the directory “incoming/windowspedon” before initiating the transfer. This file should be transferred in Binary mode rather than ASCII mode. Most FTP programs are smart enough to recognize that a file with a .zip extension should be transferred in Binary mode.

After FTPing the zipped Windows Pedon database, please submit an e-mail to the Soils Hotline, that includes the following:

Your Name

Your Phone Number

The e-mail Address to which the upload processing log should be returned, if different from the one from which you submitted this e-mail

The name of the NASIS site to which ownership of the uploaded data should be initially assigned (MLRA01, MLRA02, etc.)

The name of the zipped Windows Pedon database file. This is critical so that we can associate the right database with the right e-mail message.

Step 5. Replace the working copy of the Windows Pedon database that you submitted for uploading with a new, empty Windows Pedon database. The new Windows Pedon database must be placed in the location where the previous database resided (see step 1).

A new Windows Pedon database can be downloaded from the following URL:

NASIS Downloads

This new database that can be downloaded is exactly the same database that is originally installed. The new Windows Pedon database contains the basic geographic area and geomorphic feature lookup data, but you will have to reload whatever plant lookup data you were using into this new Windows Pedon database.

You want to replace your existing Windows Pedon database with a new Windows Pedon database because if you continue to add new data to your existing database that you submitted for uploading, there won’t be anyway to upload only the new data without re-uploading everything that was previously uploaded. The current upload process treats all data as new data. In other words, the upload process can’t tell if the data being uploaded has been previously uploaded.

After receiving your database, the Soils Hotline will contact the lead Soil Data Quality specialist at the NASIS site you specified in your e-mail, in order to ascertain the NASIS group to which ownership of the uploaded data should be assigned. It is probably always a good idea to assign uploaded Windows Pedon data to a new NASIS group that is currently not associated with any other existing data. That way, all data that was uploaded at the same time can be easily identified. Ownership of that data can then be assigned as desired.

During the upload process, logs are created for both the person who originally submitted the data, and for the lead Soil Data Quality Specialist at the NASIS site to which ownership of the uploaded data was assigned. These logs will be forwarded after the upload process is complete. These logs detail any issues encountered during the upload process, and also provide a listing of all sites, pedons, transects and site associations that were uploaded. It is important to review these logs in order to know if any corrective actions had to be taken during the upload process. You may also wish to keep these logs on hand as documentation of what data was uploaded to NASIS, and when.

After reviewing the upload processing log, the lead Soil Data Quality Specialist at the NASIS site to which ownership of the uploaded data was assigned, can then change ownership of that uploaded data as desired, if necessary.