Plant database update

Posted on November 15, 2011 by geoff

It has been quite a long time since there was an update to the plant database itself, so here it is – Data Release 22. There is no program version update to go with it, the production program for Windows remains at version 1.6.1 and the mobile edition at 1.7. The downloadable install files now use Data Release 22, as will all newly supplied CD’s. The free web database, Plant Base Online, has also been updated to the same release level. This update adds approximately 300 new plant records and about the same number of new pictures. This isn’t a great many considering it is over year since the last update, however more importantly it also has amendments to over … Continue reading →

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New Android PBO Viewer versions

Posted on November 1, 2011 by geoff

At long last I’ve found some time to get back to some program coding! New versions of both the PBO Viewer apps for Android were uploaded to the market yesterday. PBO Viewer  – 1.0.6 PBO Viewer Plus  – 1.0.5 These updates are to give much better scaling for a wide range of screen sizes. The original versions did not handle Android tablets at all well, but they should now display correctly on most 7″ and 10″ tablets. Some minor formatting issues were also fixed and there is allowance for additional variations of phone screen resolutions, for example the  HTC Sensation with qHD 540×960 screen. The apps also work fine on Android x86 netbooks – we tested on an Acer Aspire … Continue reading →

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Plant Base Autumn Sale

Posted on October 18, 2011 by geoff

We are really into autumn now, with cooler weather and the garden showing all the seasonal signs. So we are doing our traditional autumn sale on the price of Plant Base license registrations. The price has been reduced to 25 GBP, the same as we did in spring. We are still not supplying any physical CD packages yet, due to holding off on getting more produced until the next release is ready. This will probably be a data update for the current version and should be out reasonably soon.

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Website changes

Posted on October 14, 2011 by geoff

You may have noticed already that some of the web pages have changed in appearance. I’m in the process of updating the site, so at the moment there is a mixture of old and revised pages. The most noticable difference is moving to a slightly wider page view, which will hopefully make them easier to read. Nearly everyone is now using larger, higher resolution screens than when the website was first written. It makes sense to take advantage of that. There are a number of other changes that are not really visible, but improve load speed and efficency. I’m not altering the organisation of the site or page names – so all external links will still work. As usual the … Continue reading →

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Summer development slow-down

Posted on August 26, 2011 by geoff

As you may have noticed – there has not been much happening here during the last few months!  In fact there has been lots of other garden related activity going on, but this has left very little time for Plant Base program development. The current tricky financial conditions mean that priority must be given to short term needs. Though the coding work might slow down, at least the business is secure as it doesn’t owe anything to anyone! As usual, the database content has been continuously updated throughtout the year, so a revision release is on its way. As the season winds down I’m hoping there will more chance to progress with forthcoming versions. In the meantime there is still … Continue reading →

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PBO Viewer Plus for Android

Posted on April 15, 2011 by geoff

We have recently released our second Android smartphone app – the “Plus” edition of the original PBO Viewer. This adds the advanced search options, with all the selection choices of the “Advanced Search” online database web page. Apart from the initial search form, the rest of the app is exactly the same as the basic, free, PBO Viewer. There is a small charge for the Plus edition to cover the extra time involved writing the search feature, which is quite involved. We think it represents good value though. PBO Viewer Plus is available directly from the Android market at: https://market.android.com/details?id=deeproot.PBOviewerPlus The selection form is quite large with 32 criteria choices (none are mandatory!). I considered several ways to preset this, … Continue reading →

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Plant Base 2 Alpha Testing

Posted on March 31, 2011 by admin

After many, many hours of coding from last autumn throughout the winter, the new Plant Base progam is finally at a stage where it can be used for some serious testing. Obviously individual sections have been tested during development, but that doesn’t give an overall view. So I have now started to use the new program to manage updates on the real full scale database. This is a converted copy of the live “master” database and the intention is to take it forward as new master (subject to extensive checking, naturally!). So in effect, all new and updated plant data and pictures are now being enter with Plant Base 2. This test phase has already revealed a number of minor … Continue reading →

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PBO Viewer Android App

Posted on March 14, 2011 by geoff

We have just released our first application for Android smartphones. This is a fairly straightforward little program that provides a simple front-end to the Plant Base Online web database. More developments in the pipeline! PBO Viewer enables a query of the web database by plant name, or part of a name – both botanical and common names are searched. A list of results are shown, clicking an item then gives a page with the details. It uses its own web interface that keeps the data transfer down to the absolute minimum, which is important for those on metered mobile bandwidth. An “advance search” edition will be along soon and of course ultimately a fully functional Plant Base app with its … Continue reading →

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Plant Base Spring Sale

Posted on March 4, 2011 by geoff

The daffodils are flowering, the birds are twittering – we decided to have a spring sale on the registration price of Plant Base. Just for a while, the price of an emailed registration code has been dropped to just 25 GBP, which is the I think is lowest standard price ever. We hope this will generate some cash flow that can go towards current development costs. We are not going to apply this to the physical CD package because increased overheads mean that it would not be viable.  In any case, electronic download delivery has become the preferred option for most new users.  However, we will apply some extra discount for certain customers such as students – resulting in incredibly … Continue reading →

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Hillier’s Winter Garden

Posted on February 10, 2011 by admin

I took a rare day off from coding yesterday, to have a walk around the Hillier Gardens. The weather was a bit dreary but as soon as I entered the gardens my spirits were lifted!  Just behind the entrance buildings the winter garden area was looking great – all the classic elements were there, coloured stem dogwoods and willows, white birches, plenty of evergreen foliage and lots more. Probably the highlight for me were the flowering witch hazels, some with that fabulous fragrance. There is also a even larger collection of these over at the other side of the gardens.  And then of course there are the snowdrops and aconites.  Well worth a February visit. There was much maintenance activity … Continue reading →

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