Remove copyright section, as it is much more complicated than it says. (See email thread "Pseudonyms")

<% @title = "About" %>

Contact us

If your question isn't answered here, or you just wanted to let us know
something about the site, contact us.

Introduction to WhatDoTheyKnow

What is WhatDoTheyKnow for?

To help you find out inside information about what the UK government
is doing.

How does the site work?

You choose the public authority that you would like information from, then
write a brief note describing what you want to know. We then send your request
to the public authority. Any response they make is automatically published on the
website for you and anyone else to find and read.

Why would I bother to do this?

You pay taxes, and then government does things with the money. All sorts of
things that affect your life, from healthcare through to national defence. Some
it does badly, some it does well. The more we find out about how government
works, the better able we are to make suggestions to improve the things that
are done badly, and to celebrate the things that are done well.

Why would the public authority bother to reply?

Under Freedom of Information (FOI) law, they have to respond.

Who makes it?

WhatDoTheyKnow is created and run by mySociety,
and was initially funded by the JRSST Charitable Trust. mySociety is a project of the
registered charity UK Citizens Online Democracy.
If you like what we're doing, then you can
make a donation.

Making requests

You're missing the public authority that I want to request from!

Please contact us with the name of the public authority and,
if you can find it, their contact email address for Freedom of Information requests.
If you'd like to help add a whole category of public authority to the site, for example all
primary care trusts or all schools, then please
edit this shared spreadsheet (Google account required).

How quickly will I get a response?

By law public authorities must respond "promptly", and in any event not later
than 20 working days after receiving your request. The date of that hard limit
is shown on the page for your request. You will be emailed if this date goes by
without a response, so you can send the public authority another note to remind
them that they are breaking the law. Note: If you had to
clarify your request, the clock starts from that date, instead of the date they
received your initial request.

What if I'm not satisfied with the response?

If you didn't get the information you asked for, or you didn't get it in time,
then read our page 'Unhappy about the response you got?'.

Can you tell me more of the nitty gritty about the process of making requests?

Have a look at the
access to official information
pages on the Information Commisioner's website.

Can I request information about myself?

Not using this site. Requests made using WhatDoTheyKnow are public, made under the
Freedom of Information Act, and cannot help you find information about a
private individual. If you would like to know what information a public
authority holds about yourself, you should make a "Subject Access Request" in
private using Data Protection law.  The leaflet Subject
Access - A guide for data subjects (on the Information Commisioner's
website) explains how to do this.

I'd like to keep my request secret! (At least until I publish my story)

WhatDoTheyKnow is currently only designed for public requests. All
responses that we receive are automatically published on the website for anyone
to read.  You should contact the public authority directly if you would like to
make a request in private.  If you're interested in buying a system which helps
you manage FOI requests in secret, then contact us.

Why can I only request information about the environment from some authorities?

Some public authorities, such as South East Water,
don't come under the Freedom of Information Act, but do come under another law called
the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR). It's a very similar law, so you make a request
to them using WhatDoTheyKnow in just the same way as an FOI request. The only difference
is that on the page where you write you request, it reminds you that you can only
request "environmental information" and tells you what that means. It is quite broad.

So can I request information using EIR from other authorities?

Yes, just make a Freedom of Information (FOI) request as normal. The
authority has a duty to work out if the Environmental Information Regulations
(EIR) is the more appropriate legislation to reply under.

Privacy questions

Who gets to see my email address?

We will not disclose your email address to anyone, including the public
authority you are sending a request to, unless we are obliged to by law,
or you ask us to. If you send a message to another user on the site, then
it will reveal your email address to them. You will be told that this
is going to happen.

Will you send nasty, brutish spam to my email address?

Nope. After you sign up to WhatDoTheyKnow we will only send you emails
relating to a request you made, an email alert that you have signed up for,
or for other reasons that you specifically authorise. We will never give or
sell your email addresses to anyone else, unless we are obliged to by law, or
you ask us to.

Why will my name appear publically on the site?

It means that someone researching the same area can get in touch with you,
and maybe give you more information or ideas relating to your request.  Also,
we're going to publish the response with the name of the civil servant who
wrote it, so it seems only fair that your name should be public too!
Therefore, we encourage you to use your real name, but you may use a pseudonym
if you would like to be anonymous.

So I can make an FOI request using a pseudonym?

It is good practice for the public authority to reply to an anonymous request,
except in special circumstances such as if they suspect you of making vexatious
requests. See Freedom of Information Good Practice Guidance No 6
for details.  You should refer to this if a public authority attempts to refuse
a request because you used a pseudonym.

However, there are good reasons to use your real name: see the question
above.  If nothing else, it avoids the risk of an authority being picky,
ignoring the guidance and refusing your request.

They've asked for my postal address!

If a public authority asks you for your full, physical address, reply to them saying
that section 8.1.b of the FOI Act asks for an "address for correspondence",
and that the email address you are using is sufficient.

The Ministry of Justice has guidance
on this –
"As well as hard copy written correspondence, requests that are
transmitted electronically (for example, in emails) are acceptable
... If a request is received by email and no postal address is given, the email
address should be treated as the return address."

As if that isn't enough, the Information Commissioner's
Hints for Practitioners say
"Any correspondence could include a request for information. If it is written (this includes e-mail), legible, gives the name of the applicant, an address for reply (which could be electronic), and includes a description of the information required, then it will fall within the scope of the legislation."

No no, they need a postal address to send a paper response!

If an authority only has a paper copy of the information that you want,
they may ask you for a postal address. To start with, try persuading them
to scan in the documents for you. You can even offer to gift them a scanner, which in that particular case
embarrassed the authority into finding one they had already.

If that doesn't work, and you want to provide your postal address privately
in order to receive the documents, then please contact
us.

How do you moderate request annotations?

Annotations on WhatDoTheyKnow are to help
people get the information they want, or to give them pointers to places they
can go to help them act on it. We reserve the right to remove anything else.

Endless, political discussions are not allowed.
Post a link to a suitable forum or campaign site elsewhere.

FOI officer questions

I just got here from bottom of an FOI request, what is going on?

WhatDoTheyKnow is a service run by a charity. It helps ordinary members
of the public make FOI requests, and easily track and share the responses.

The FOI request you received was made by someone using WhatDoTheyKnow. You can
simply reply to the request as you would any other request from an individual.
The only difference is that your response will be automatically published on
the Internet.

If you have privacy or other concerns, please read the answers below.
You might also like to read this page from the top to find out more about what
the site does from the point of view of a user. You can also search the
site to find the authority that you work for, and view the status of
any requests made using the site.

Finally, we welcome comments and
thoughts from FOI officers, please get in touch.

Why are you publishing responses to FOI requests?

We think there are lots of benefits. Most importantly it will encourage the
public to be more interested and involved in the work of government. We
also hope that it will reduce the number of duplicate requests on any
subject that a public body will receive. Given that Freedom of Information
responses contain public information, which anybody could easily request
again from the public authority, we think there should be no reason not to
publish it widely.

Are the people making requests real people?

Yes. For the purposes of keeping track of responses we use
computer-generated email addresses for each request. However, before
they can send a request, each user must register on the site with a
unique email address that we then verify. You can search this site and
find a page listing all requests that each person has made.

An email isn't a sufficient address for an FOI request!

Yes it is. This
letter from the ICO to Rother District Council gives guidance on the matter, specifically
in the context of requests made via WhatDoTheyKnow.

Aren't you making lots of vexatious requests?

WhatDoTheyKnow is not making any requests. We are sending requests on
behalf of our users, who are real people making the requests.

Look at it like this - if lots of different people made requests from
different Hotmail email addresses, then you would not think that Microsoft were
making vexatious requests. It is exactly the same if lots of requests are made
via WhatDoTheyKnow. Moreover, since all requests are public it is much easier
for you to see if one of our users is making vexatious requests, and for us to
block them when that happens.

If that isn't enough for you, the
letter from the ICO to Rother District Council gives some guidance on the matter.

Isn't it a problem that you publish the names of civil servants
and the text of emails?

Officers or servants responding to requests are doing so on behalf of the
public as part of their job, and we publish their response on that
basis. Usually the names and phone numbers of FOI officers are already
available on authority websites. We also encourage our users to give their real
name too, so it is fair both ways.

Do you publish email addresses or mobile phone numbers?

We automatically remove email addresses and labelled mobile phone numbers
that are in the email part of responses from public authorities. Please
contact us if we've missed one. We don't currently
remove these from attachments,
such as Word documents.

Can you take down private information about me?

If you see any information on the site which you'd like us to remove or
hide, then please let us know. We'll then
remove it, provided it is genuinely private information.

Credit where credit is due

Which people made WhatDoTheyKnow?

Oh, nearly everyone (and maybe you too)!

    Heather Brooke
    (vampy!) has
    been pushing the idea of a UK FOI archive for years now.

    Both Phil Rodgers and Francis Irving
    entered it in a mySociety competition for ideas for public interest websites to build.

    It won,
    and then Chris Lightfoot (RIP :()
    thought up the wheeze of intercepting email responses to requests and
    automatically publishing them.

    Tom Steinberg got the cash to pay for the site from
    a dead chocolate mogul (thank you!) ...

    ... so that Francis Irving, Angie Ahl, Tommy Martin, Louise Crow, Matthew Somerville
    and Tom Steinberg could do the complex mixture of design and coding to build
    what you see today.

    Thanks particularly to Julian Todd (great blog!),
    Francis Davey, and Etienne Pollard for using the site early on and giving
    feedback (and/or legal advice!), and also to all our other users and
    testers.

    Lots of people have been looking up FOI email addresses, and a few
    volunteering to run the site - most especially Adam McGreggor, Alex
    Skene, John Cross and Tony Bowden.

Finally we couldn't do any of this without those
crazy people who volunteer,
amongst many other things, to do the accounts and fill in our VAT return.

You're all stars.

<% @title = "About" %>

Contact us

If your question isn't answered here, or you just wanted to let us know
something about the site, contact us.

Introduction to WhatDoTheyKnow

What is WhatDoTheyKnow for?

To help you find out inside information about what the UK government
is doing.

How does the site work?

You choose the public authority that you would like information from, then
write a brief note describing what you want to know. We then send your request
to the public authority. Any response they make is automatically published on the
website for you and anyone else to find and read.

Why would I bother to do this?

You pay taxes, and then government does things with the money. All sorts of
things that affect your life, from healthcare through to national defence. Some
it does badly, some it does well. The more we find out about how government
works, the better able we are to make suggestions to improve the things that
are done badly, and to celebrate the things that are done well.

Why would the public authority bother to reply?

Under Freedom of Information (FOI) law, they have to respond.

Who makes it?

WhatDoTheyKnow is created and run by mySociety,
and was initially funded by the JRSST Charitable Trust. mySociety is a project of the
registered charity UK Citizens Online Democracy.
If you like what we're doing, then you can
make a donation.

Making requests

You're missing the public authority that I want to request from!

Please contact us with the name of the public authority and,
if you can find it, their contact email address for Freedom of Information requests.
If you'd like to help add a whole category of public authority to the site, for example all
primary care trusts or all schools, then please
edit this shared spreadsheet (Google account required).

How quickly will I get a response?

By law public authorities must respond "promptly", and in any event not later
than 20 working days after receiving your request. The date of that hard limit
is shown on the page for your request. You will be emailed if this date goes by
without a response, so you can send the public authority another note to remind
them that they are breaking the law. Note: If you had to
clarify your request, the clock starts from that date, instead of the date they
received your initial request.

What if I'm not satisfied with the response?

If you didn't get the information you asked for, or you didn't get it in time,
then read our page 'Unhappy about the response you got?'.

Can you tell me more of the nitty gritty about the process of making requests?

Have a look at the
access to official information
pages on the Information Commisioner's website.

Can I request information about myself?

Not using this site. Requests made using WhatDoTheyKnow are public, made under the
Freedom of Information Act, and cannot help you find information about a
private individual. If you would like to know what information a public
authority holds about yourself, you should make a "Subject Access Request" in
private using Data Protection law.  The leaflet Subject
Access - A guide for data subjects (on the Information Commisioner's
website) explains how to do this.

I'd like to keep my request secret! (At least until I publish my story)

WhatDoTheyKnow is currently only designed for public requests. All
responses that we receive are automatically published on the website for anyone
to read.  You should contact the public authority directly if you would like to
make a request in private.  If you're interested in buying a system which helps
you manage FOI requests in secret, then contact us.

Why can I only request information about the environment from some authorities?

Some public authorities, such as South East Water,
don't come under the Freedom of Information Act, but do come under another law called
the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR). It's a very similar law, so you make a request
to them using WhatDoTheyKnow in just the same way as an FOI request. The only difference
is that on the page where you write you request, it reminds you that you can only
request "environmental information" and tells you what that means. It is quite broad.

So can I request information using EIR from other authorities?

Yes, just make a Freedom of Information (FOI) request as normal. The
authority has a duty to work out if the Environmental Information Regulations
(EIR) is the more appropriate legislation to reply under.

Privacy questions

Who gets to see my email address?

We will not disclose your email address to anyone, including the public
authority you are sending a request to, unless we are obliged to by law,
or you ask us to. If you send a message to another user on the site, then
it will reveal your email address to them. You will be told that this
is going to happen.

Will you send nasty, brutish spam to my email address?

Nope. After you sign up to WhatDoTheyKnow we will only send you emails
relating to a request you made, an email alert that you have signed up for,
or for other reasons that you specifically authorise. We will never give or
sell your email addresses to anyone else, unless we are obliged to by law, or
you ask us to.

Why will my name appear publically on the site?

It means that someone researching the same area can get in touch with you,
and maybe give you more information or ideas relating to your request.  Also,
we're going to publish the response with the name of the civil servant who
wrote it, so it seems only fair that your name should be public too!
Therefore, we encourage you to use your real name, but you may use a pseudonym
if you would like to be anonymous.

So I can make an FOI request using a pseudonym?

It is good practice for the public authority to reply to an anonymous request,
except in special circumstances such as if they suspect you of making vexatious
requests. See Freedom of Information Good Practice Guidance No 6
for details.  You should refer to this if a public authority attempts to refuse
a request because you used a pseudonym.

However, there are good reasons to use your real name: see the question
above.  If nothing else, it avoids the risk of an authority being picky,
ignoring the guidance and refusing your request.

They've asked for my postal address!

If a public authority asks you for your full, physical address, reply to them saying
that section 8.1.b of the FOI Act asks for an "address for correspondence",
and that the email address you are using is sufficient.

The Ministry of Justice has guidance
on this –
"As well as hard copy written correspondence, requests that are
transmitted electronically (for example, in emails) are acceptable
... If a request is received by email and no postal address is given, the email
address should be treated as the return address."

As if that isn't enough, the Information Commissioner's
Hints for Practitioners say
"Any correspondence could include a request for information. If it is written (this includes e-mail), legible, gives the name of the applicant, an address for reply (which could be electronic), and includes a description of the information required, then it will fall within the scope of the legislation."

No no, they need a postal address to send a paper response!

If an authority only has a paper copy of the information that you want,
they may ask you for a postal address. To start with, try persuading them
to scan in the documents for you. You can even offer to gift them a scanner, which in that particular case
embarrassed the authority into finding one they had already.

If that doesn't work, and you want to provide your postal address privately
in order to receive the documents, then please contact
us.

How do you moderate request annotations?

Annotations on WhatDoTheyKnow are to help
people get the information they want, or to give them pointers to places they
can go to help them act on it. We reserve the right to remove anything else.

Endless, political discussions are not allowed.
Post a link to a suitable forum or campaign site elsewhere.

FOI officer questions

I just got here from bottom of an FOI request, what is going on?

WhatDoTheyKnow is a service run by a charity. It helps ordinary members
of the public make FOI requests, and easily track and share the responses.

The FOI request you received was made by someone using WhatDoTheyKnow. You can
simply reply to the request as you would any other request from an individual.
The only difference is that your response will be automatically published on
the Internet.

If you have privacy or copyright concerns, please read the answers below.
You might also like to read this page from the top to find out more about what
the site does from the point of view of a user. You can also search the
site to find the authority that you work for, and view the status of
any requests made using the site.

Finally, we welcome comments and
thoughts from FOI officers, please get in touch.

Why are you publishing responses to FOI requests?

We think there are lots of benefits. Most importantly it will encourage the
public to be more interested and involved in the work of government. We
also hope that it will reduce the number of duplicate requests on any
subject that a public body will receive. Given that Freedom of Information
responses contain public information, which anybody could easily request
again from the public authority, we think there should be no reason not to
publish it widely.

Are the people making requests real people?

Yes. For the purposes of keeping track of responses we use
computer-generated email addresses for each request. However, before
they can send a request, each user must register on the site with a
unique email address that we then verify. You can search this site and
find a page listing all requests that each person has made.

An email isn't a sufficient address for an FOI request!

Yes it is. This
letter from the ICO to Rother District Council gives guidance on the matter, specifically
in the context of requests made via WhatDoTheyKnow.

Aren't you making lots of vexatious requests?

WhatDoTheyKnow is not making any requests. We are sending requests on
behalf of our users, who are real people making the requests.

Look at it like this - if lots of different people made requests from
different Hotmail email addresses, then you would not think that Microsoft were
making vexatious requests. It is exactly the same if lots of requests are made
via WhatDoTheyKnow. Moreover, since all requests are public it is much easier
for you to see if one of our users is making vexatious requests, and for us to
block them when that happens.

If that isn't enough for you, the
letter from the ICO to Rother District Council gives some guidance on the matter.

Won't I be breaking copyright law by sending a response that you then publish?

No, you will simply be replying to an FOI request by email (the "expressed
preference" of the requester, under
section
11(1) of the Freedom of Information Act). That we are later republishing your
response is a separate matter, and not something which FOIA lists as a reason
for rejecting a request.

Isn't it a problem that you publish the names of civil servants
and the text of emails?

Officers or servants responding to requests are doing so on behalf of the
public as part of their job, and we publish their response on that
basis. Usually the names and phone numbers of FOI officers are already
available on authority websites. We also encourage our users to give their real
name too, so it is fair both ways.

Do you publish email addresses or mobile phone numbers?

We automatically remove email addresses and labelled mobile phone numbers
that are in the email part of responses from public authorities. Please
contact us if we've missed one. We don't currently
remove these from attachments,
such as Word documents.

Can you take down private information about me?

If you see any information on the site which you'd like us to remove or
hide, then please let us know. We'll then
remove it, provided it is genuinely private information.

Credit where credit is due

Which people made WhatDoTheyKnow?

Oh, nearly everyone (and maybe you too)!

    Heather Brooke
    (vampy!) has
    been pushing the idea of a UK FOI archive for years now.

    Both Phil Rodgers and Francis Irving
    entered it in a mySociety competition for ideas for public interest websites to build.

    It won,
    and then Chris Lightfoot (RIP :()
    thought up the wheeze of intercepting email responses to requests and
    automatically publishing them.

    Tom Steinberg got the cash to pay for the site from
    a dead chocolate mogul (thank you!) ...

    ... so that Francis Irving, Angie Ahl, Tommy Martin, Louise Crow, Matthew Somerville
    and Tom Steinberg could do the complex mixture of design and coding to build
    what you see today.

    Thanks particularly to Julian Todd (great blog!),
    Francis Davey, and Etienne Pollard for using the site early on and giving
    feedback (and/or legal advice!), and also to all our other users and
    testers.

    Lots of people have been looking up FOI email addresses, and a few
    volunteering to run the site - most especially Adam McGreggor, Alex
    Skene, John Cross and Tony Bowden.

Finally we couldn't do any of this without those
crazy people who volunteer,
amongst many other things, to do the accounts and fill in our VAT return.

You're all stars.


Clearer it is run by mySocety

Clearer it is run by mySocety

<% @title = "About" %>

Contact us

If your question isn't answered here, or you just wanted to let us know
something about the site, contact us.

Introduction to WhatDoTheyKnow

What is WhatDoTheyKnow for?

To help you find out inside information about what the UK government
is doing.

How does the site work?

You choose the public authority that you would like information from, then
write a brief note describing what you want to know. We then send your request
to the public authority. Any response they make is automatically published on the
website for you and anyone else to find and read.

Why would I bother to do this?

You pay taxes, and then government does things with the money. All sorts of
things that affect your life, from healthcare through to national defence. Some
it does badly, some it does well. The more we find out about how government
works, the better able we are to make suggestions to improve the things that
are done badly, and to celebrate the things that are done well.

Why would the public authority bother to reply?

Under Freedom of Information (FOI) law, they have to respond.

Who makes it?

WhatDoTheyKnow is created and run by mySociety,
and was initially funded by the JRSST Charitable Trust. mySociety is a project of the
registered charity UK Citizens Online Democracy.
If you like what we're doing, then you can
make a donation.

Making requests

You're missing the public authority that I want to request from!

Please contact us with the name of the public authority and,
if you can find it, their contact email address for Freedom of Information requests.
If you'd like to help add a whole category of public authority to the site, for example all
primary care trusts or all schools, then please
edit this shared spreadsheet (Google account required).

How quickly will I get a response?

By law public authorities must respond "promptly", and in any event not later
than 20 working days after receiving your request. The date of that hard limit
is shown on the page for your request. You will be emailed if this date goes by
without a response, so you can send the public authority another note to remind
them that they are breaking the law. Note: If you had to
clarify your request, the clock starts from that date, instead of the date they
received your initial request.

What if I'm not satisfied with the response?

If you didn't get the information you asked for, or you didn't get it in time,
then read our page 'Unhappy about the response you got?'.

Can you tell me more of the nitty gritty about the process of making requests?

Have a look at the
access to official information
pages on the Information Commisioner's website.

Can I request information about myself?

Not using this site. Requests made using WhatDoTheyKnow are public, made under the
Freedom of Information Act, and cannot help you find information about a
private individual. If you would like to know what information a public
authority holds about yourself, you should make a "Subject Access Request" in
private using Data Protection law.  The leaflet Subject
Access - A guide for data subjects (on the Information Commisioner's
website) explains how to do this.

I'd like to keep my request secret! (At least until I publish my story)

WhatDoTheyKnow is currently only designed for public requests. All
responses that we receive are automatically published on the website for anyone
to read.  You should contact the public authority directly if you would like to
make a request in private.  If you're interested in buying a system which helps
you manage FOI requests in secret, then contact us.

Why can I only request information about the environment from some authorities?

Some public authorities, such as South East Water,
don't come under the Freedom of Information Act, but do come under another law called
the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR). It's a very similar law, so you make a request
to them using WhatDoTheyKnow in just the same way as an FOI request. The only difference
is that on the page where you write you request, it reminds you that you can only
request "environmental information" and tells you what that means. It is quite broad.

So can I request information using EIR from other authorities?

Yes, just make a Freedom of Information (FOI) request as normal. The
authority has a duty to work out if the Environmental Information Regulations
(EIR) is the more appropriate legislation to reply under.

Privacy questions

Who gets to see my email address?

We will not disclose your email address to anyone, including the public
authority you are sending a request to, unless we are obliged to by law,
or you ask us to. If you send a message to another user on the site, then
it will reveal your email address to them. You will be told that this
is going to happen.

Will you send nasty, brutish spam to my email address?

Nope. After you sign up to WhatDoTheyKnow we will only send you emails
relating to a request you made, an email alert that you have signed up for,
or for other reasons that you specifically authorise. We will never give or
sell your email addresses to anyone else, unless we are obliged to by law, or
you ask us to.

Why will my name appear publically on the site?

It means that someone researching the same area can get in touch with you,
and maybe give you more information or ideas relating to your request.  Also,
we're going to publish the response with the name of the civil servant who
wrote it, so it seems only fair that your name should be public too!
Therefore, we encourage you to use your real name, but you may use a pseudonym
if you would like to be anonymous.

So I can make an FOI request using a pseudonym?

It is good practice for the public authority to reply to an anonymous request,
except in special circumstances such as if they suspect you of making vexatious
requests. See Freedom of Information Good Practice Guidance No 6
for details.  You should refer to this if a public authority attempts to refuse
a request because you used a pseudonym.

However, there are good reasons to use your real name, see the question
above.  If nothing else, it avoids the risk of an authority being picky,
ignoring the guidance and refusing your request.

They've asked for my postal address!

If a public authority asks you for your full, physical address, reply to them saying
that section 8.1.b of the FOI Act asks for an "address for correspondence",
and that the email address you are using is sufficient.

The Ministry of Justice has guidance
on this –
"As well as hard copy written correspondence, requests that are
transmitted electronically (for example, in emails) are acceptable
... If a request is received by email and no postal address is given, the email
address should be treated as the return address."

As if that isn't enough, the Information Commissioner's
Hints for Practitioners say
"Any correspondence could include a request for information. If it is written (this includes e-mail), legible, gives the name of the applicant, an address for reply (which could be electronic), and includes a description of the information required, then it will fall within the scope of the legislation."

What will you do to me if I annotate requests with nonsense?

It won't be pretty :).

Seriously, annotations on WhatDoTheyKnow are to help
people get the information they want, or to give them pointers to places they
can go to help them act on it. We reserve the right to remove anything else.
Endless, content-free political discussions are not allowed, but
do post a link to a suitable forum elsewhere.

For example, if you think you know the reason someone posted a request,
and you don't approve of it, do not write a complex rant in the annotation.
Instead, simply write a short sentence, and link to another website which
already explains it in detail.

FOI officer questions

I just got here from bottom of an FOI request, what is going on?

WhatDoTheyKnow is a service run by a charity. It helps ordinary members
of the public make FOI requests, and easily track and share the responses.

The FOI request you got was made by someone using WhatDoTheyKnow. You can
simply reply to the request as you would any other request from an individual.
The only difference is that your response will be automatically published on
the Internet.

If you have privacy or copyright concerns, please read the answers below.
You might also like to read this page from the top to find out more about what
the site does from the point of view of a user. You can also search the
site to find the authority that you work for, and view the status of
any requests made using the site.

Finally, we welcome comments and
thoughts from FOI officers, please get in touch.

Why are you publishing responses to FOI requests?

Freedom of Information responses contain public information, which anybody could
easily request again from the public authority. Therefore,
there is no reason they shouldn't be published on the Internet. There are lots
of benefits - everything from preventing duplicate requests, to getting the public
more involved and interested in the work of government.

Are the people making requests real people?

Yes. The people are real people, for whom we have a verified email address
unique to each person.

Each request made by each person is also given a unique email, so that we
can keep track of and publish the responses. You can search this
site and find a page listing all requests that each person has made.

An email isn't a sufficient address for an FOI request!

Yes it is. This
letter from the ICO to Rother District Council gives guidance on the matter, specifically
in the context of requests made via WhatDoTheyKnow.

Aren't you making lots of vexatious requests?

WhatDoTheyKnow is not making any requests. We are sending requests on
behalf of our users, who are real people making the requests.

Look at it like this - if lots of different people made requests from
different Hotmail email addresses, then you would not think that Microsoft were
making vexatious requests. It is exactly the same if lots of requests are made
via WhatDoTheyKnow. Moreover, since all requests are public it is much easier
for you to see if one of our users is making vexatious requests, and for us to
block them when that happens.

If that isn't enough for you, the
letter from the ICO to Rother District Council gives some guidance on the matter.

Won't I be breaking copyright law by sending a response that you then publish?

No, you will simply be replying to an FOI request by email (the "expressed
preference" of the requester, under
section
11(1) of the Freedom of Information Act). That we are later republishing your
response is a separate matter of copyright law, and not something which FOIA lists
as a reason for rejecting a request.

Isn't it a problem that you publish the names of civil servants
and the text of emails?

Officers or servants responding to requests are doing so on behalf of the
public as part of their job, and we publish their response on that
basis. Usually the names and phone numbers of FOI officers are already
available on authority websites. We also encourage our users to give their real
name too, so it is fair both ways.

Do you publish email addresses or mobile phone numbers?

We automatically remove email addresses and labelled mobile phone numbers
that are in the email part of responses from public authorities. Please
contact us if we've missed one. We don't currently
remove these from attachments,
such as Word documents.

Can you take down private information about me?

If you see any information on the site which you'd like us to remove or
hide, then please let us know. We'll then
remove it, provided it is genuinely private information.

Credit where credit is due

Which people made WhatDoTheyKnow?

Oh, nearly everyone (and maybe you too)!

    Heather Brooke
    (vampy!) has
    been pushing the idea of a UK FOI archive for years now.

    Both Phil Rodgers and Francis Irving
    entered it in a mySociety competition for ideas for public interest websites to build.

    It won,
    and then Chris Lightfoot (RIP :()
    thought up the wheeze of intercepting email responses to requests and
    automatically publishing them.

    Tom Steinberg got the cash to pay for the site from
    a dead chocolate mogul (thank you!) ...

    ... so that Francis Irving, Angie Ahl, Tommy Martin, Louise Crow, Matthew Somerville
    and Tom Steinberg could do the complex mixture of design and coding to build
    what you see today.

    Thanks particularly to Julian Todd (great blog!),
    Francis Davey, and Etienne Pollard for using the site early on and giving
    feedback (and/or legal advice!), and also to all our other users and
    testers.

    Lots of people have been looking up FOI email addresses, and a few
    volunteering to run the site - most especially Adam McGreggor, Alex
    Skene, John Cross and Tony Bowden.

Finally we couldn't do any of this without those
crazy people who volunteer,
amongst many other things, to do the accounts and fill in our VAT return.

You're all stars.

<% @title = "About" %>

Contact us

If your question isn't answered here, or you just wanted to let us know
something about the site, contact us.

Introduction to WhatDoTheyKnow

What is WhatDoTheyKnow for?

To help you find out inside information about what the UK government
is doing.

How does the site work?

You choose the public authority that you would like information from, then
write a brief note describing what you want to know. We then send your request
to the public authority. Any response they make is automatically published on the
website for you and anyone else to find and read.

Why would I bother to do this?

You pay taxes, and then government does things with the money. All sorts of
things that affect your life, from healthcare through to national defence. Some
it does badly, some it does well. The more we find out about how government
works, the better able we are to make suggestions to improve the things that
are done badly, and to celebrate the things that are done well.

Why would the public authority bother to reply?

Under Freedom of Information (FOI) law, they have to respond.

Who makes it?

WhatDoTheyKnow is made by mySociety,
and was initially funded by the JRSST Charitable Trust. mySociety is a project of the
registered charity UK Citizens Online Democracy.
If you like what we're doing, then you can
make a donation.

Making requests

You're missing the public authority that I want to request from!

Please contact us with the name of the public authority and,
if you can find it, their contact email address for Freedom of Information requests.
If you'd like to help add a whole category of public authority to the site, for example all
primary care trusts or all schools, then please
edit this shared spreadsheet (Google account required).

How quickly will I get a response?

By law public authorities must respond "promptly", and in any event not later
than 20 working days after receiving your request. The date of that hard limit
is shown on the page for your request. You will be emailed if this date goes by
without a response, so you can send the public authority another note to remind
them that they are breaking the law. Note: If you had to
clarify your request, the clock starts from that date, instead of the date they
received your initial request.

What if I'm not satisfied with the response?

If you didn't get the information you asked for, or you didn't get it in time,
then read our page 'Unhappy about the response you got?'.

Can you tell me more of the nitty gritty about the process of making requests?

Have a look at the
access to official information
pages on the Information Commisioner's website.

Can I request information about myself?

Not using this site. Requests made using WhatDoTheyKnow are public, made under the
Freedom of Information Act, and cannot help you find information about a
private individual. If you would like to know what information a public
authority holds about yourself, you should make a "Subject Access Request" in
private using Data Protection law.  The leaflet Subject
Access - A guide for data subjects (on the Information Commisioner's
website) explains how to do this.

I'd like to keep my request secret! (At least until I publish my story)

WhatDoTheyKnow is currently only designed for public requests. All
responses that we receive are automatically published on the website for anyone
to read.  You should contact the public authority directly if you would like to
make a request in private.  If you're interested in buying a system which helps
you manage FOI requests in secret, then contact us.

Why can I only request information about the environment from some authorities?

Some public authorities, such as South East Water,
don't come under the Freedom of Information Act, but do come under another law called
the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR). It's a very similar law, so you make a request
to them using WhatDoTheyKnow in just the same way as an FOI request. The only difference
is that on the page where you write you request, it reminds you that you can only
request "environmental information" and tells you what that means. It is quite broad.

So can I request information using EIR from other authorities?

Yes, just make a Freedom of Information (FOI) request as normal. The
authority has a duty to work out if the Environmental Information Regulations
(EIR) is the more appropriate legislation to reply under.

Privacy questions

Who gets to see my email address?

We will not disclose your email address to anyone, including the public
authority you are sending a request to, unless we are obliged to by law,
or you ask us to. If you send a message to another user on the site, then
it will reveal your email address to them. You will be told that this
is going to happen.

Will you send nasty, brutish spam to my email address?

Nope. After you sign up to WhatDoTheyKnow we will only send you emails
relating to a request you made, an email alert that you have signed up for,
or for other reasons that you specifically authorise. We will never give or
sell your email addresses to anyone else, unless we are obliged to by law, or
you ask us to.

Why will my name appear publically on the site?

It means that someone researching the same area can get in touch with you,
and maybe give you more information or ideas relating to your request.  Also,
we're going to publish the response with the name of the civil servant who
wrote it, so it seems only fair that your name should be public too!
Therefore, we encourage you to use your real name, but you may use a pseudonym
if you would like to be anonymous.

So I can make an FOI request using a pseudonym?

It is good practice for the public authority to reply to an anonymous request,
except in special circumstances such as if they suspect you of making vexatious
requests. See Freedom of Information Good Practice Guidance No 6
for details.  You should refer to this if a public authority attempts to refuse
a request because you used a pseudonym.

However, there are good reasons to use your real name, see the question
above.  If nothing else, it avoids the risk of an authority being picky,
ignoring the guidance and refusing your request.

They've asked for my postal address!

If a public authority asks you for your full, physical address, reply to them saying
that section 8.1.b of the FOI Act asks for an "address for correspondence",
and that the email address you are using is sufficient.

The Ministry of Justice has guidance
on this –
"As well as hard copy written correspondence, requests that are
transmitted electronically (for example, in emails) are acceptable
... If a request is received by email and no postal address is given, the email
address should be treated as the return address."

As if that isn't enough, the Information Commissioner's
Hints for Practitioners say
"Any correspondence could include a request for information. If it is written (this includes e-mail), legible, gives the name of the applicant, an address for reply (which could be electronic), and includes a description of the information required, then it will fall within the scope of the legislation."

What will you do to me if I annotate requests with nonsense?

It won't be pretty :).

Seriously, annotations on WhatDoTheyKnow are to help
people get the information they want, or to give them pointers to places they
can go to help them act on it. We reserve the right to remove anything else.
Endless, content-free political discussions are not allowed, but
do post a link to a suitable forum elsewhere.

For example, if you think you know the reason someone posted a request,
and you don't approve of it, do not write a complex rant in the annotation.
Instead, simply write a short sentence, and link to another website which
already explains it in detail.

FOI officer questions

I just got here from bottom of an FOI request, what is going on?

WhatDoTheyKnow is a service run by a charity. It helps ordinary members
of the public make FOI requests, and easily track and share the responses.

The FOI request you got was made by someone using WhatDoTheyKnow. You can
simply reply to the request as you would any other request from an individual.
The only difference is that your response will be automatically published on
the Internet.

If you have privacy or copyright concerns, please read the answers below.
You might also like to read this page from the top to find out more about what
the site does from the point of view of a user. You can also search the
site to find the authority that you work for, and view the status of
any requests made using the site.

Finally, we welcome comments and
thoughts from FOI officers, please get in touch.

Why are you publishing responses to FOI requests?

Freedom of Information responses contain public information, which anybody could
easily request again from the public authority. Therefore,
there is no reason they shouldn't be published on the Internet. There are lots
of benefits - everything from preventing duplicate requests, to getting the public
more involved and interested in the work of government.

Are the people making requests real people?

Yes. The people are real people, for whom we have a verified email address
unique to each person.

Each request made by each person is also given a unique email, so that we
can keep track of and publish the responses. You can search this
site and find a page listing all requests that each person has made.

An email isn't a sufficient address for an FOI request!

Yes it is. This
letter from the ICO to Rother District Council gives guidance on the matter, specifically
in the context of requests made via WhatDoTheyKnow.

Aren't you making lots of vexatious requests?

WhatDoTheyKnow is not making any requests. We are sending requests on
behalf of our users, who are real people making the requests.

Look at it like this - if lots of different people made requests from
different Hotmail email addresses, then you would not think that Microsoft were
making vexatious requests. It is exactly the same if lots of requests are made
via WhatDoTheyKnow. Moreover, since all requests are public it is much easier
for you to see if one of our users is making vexatious requests, and for us to
block them when that happens.

If that isn't enough for you, the
letter from the ICO to Rother District Council gives some guidance on the matter.

Won't I be breaking copyright law by sending a response that you then publish?

No, you will simply be replying to an FOI request by email (the "expressed
preference" of the requester, under
section
11(1) of the Freedom of Information Act). That we are later republishing your
response is a separate matter of copyright law, and not something which FOIA lists
as a reason for rejecting a request.

Isn't it a problem that you publish the names of civil servants
and the text of emails?

Officers or servants responding to requests are doing so on behalf of the
public as part of their job, and we publish their response on that
basis. Usually the names and phone numbers of FOI officers are already
available on authority websites. We also encourage our users to give their real
name too, so it is fair both ways.

Do you publish email addresses or mobile phone numbers?

We automatically remove email addresses and labelled mobile phone numbers
that are in the email part of responses from public authorities. Please
contact us if we've missed one. We don't currently
remove these from attachments,
such as Word documents.

Can you take down private information about me?

If you see any information on the site which you'd like us to remove or
hide, then please let us know. We'll then
remove it, provided it is genuinely private information.

Credit where credit is due

Which people made WhatDoTheyKnow?

Oh, nearly everyone (and maybe you too)!

    Heather Brooke
    (vampy!) has
    been pushing the idea of a UK FOI archive for years now.

    Both Phil Rodgers and Francis Irving
    entered it in a mySociety competition for ideas for public interest websites to build.

    It won,
    and then Chris Lightfoot (RIP :()
    thought up the wheeze of intercepting email responses to requests and
    automatically publishing them.

    Tom Steinberg got the cash to pay for the site from
    a dead chocolate mogul (thank you!) ...

    ... so that Francis Irving, Angie Ahl, Tommy Martin, Louise Crow, Matthew Somerville
    and Tom Steinberg could do the complex mixture of design and coding to build
    what you see today.

    Thanks particularly to Julian Todd (great blog!),
    Francis Davey, and Etienne Pollard for using the site early on and giving
    feedback (and/or legal advice!), and also to all our other users and
    testers.

    Lots of people have been looking up FOI email addresses, and a few
    volunteering to run the site - most especially Adam McGreggor, Alex
    Skene, John Cross and Tony Bowden.

Finally we couldn't do any of this without those
crazy people who volunteer,
amongst many other things, to do the accounts and fill in our VAT return.

You're all stars.


Don't collapse blank lines in source view; upgrade to YUI 2.5.1.

<link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/error.css" />

<%== @title %>

      File
      Line
      Method

    <% @backtrace.each do |source, hash, file, line, method| %>
      <tr class="file" id="<%== hash %>">
        <%== file %>
        <%== line %>
        <%== method %>

      <tr class="source hidden" id="source_<%== hash %>">

          <a href="txmt://open?url=file://<%= u(file) %>&line=<%== line %>"
              class="textmate">
            Open in TextMate

          <ol start="<%== source.first[0] %>">
            <% source.each do |lnum, lcode, lcurrent| %>
              <li<%== lcurrent ? ' class="current"' : '' %>>
                <%== lcode.to_s.rstrip %>

            <% end %>

    <% end %>

<% {'Session'  => Thread.current[:session],
    'Request'  => Thread.current[:request],
    'Response' => Thread.current[:response],
    'Global'   => Global
  }.each do |title, content| %>
    <% hash = [title, content].object_id.abs %>

      <h2 id="<%= hash %>"><%= title %>

      <pre id="is_<%= hash %>"><%== content.pretty_inspect %>

<% end %>


Fixed form formatting

Fixed form formatting

Kontaktujte

instituci pro vznesení dotazu

Zde můžete vznést dotaz veřejnou cestou a odpověď instituce bude také zveřejněna.

Přečtěte si také, jak zacházíme s
      osobními informacemi..

složky státní správy přímo

Napište svému zastupiteli, tedy poslanci nebo senátoroviprostřednictvím spřáteleného projektu NapišteJim.cz, který funguje jako živá brána emailové konverzace mezi občany a politiky..

Vznést dotaz na instituci můžete také přímo, pokud nechcete, aby byl váš dotaz zveřejněn na stránkách Informace pro všechny.

tým stránek Informace pro všechny

Ještě než se na nás obrátíte, přečtěte si nejdříve nápovědu, kde požadovanou odpověď můžete najít mnohem rychleji.

Jsme schopni vám pomoci pouze s technickými potížemi nebo s dotazem, který se týká svobodného přístupu k informacím. Pokud chcete získat informace od složek státní správy, tedy institucí, politiků nebo senátorů, využijte formulář pro vznesení dotazu, využijte služeb portálu NapišteJim.cz nebo oslovte státní správu přímo.

Rádi se dozvíme, zda jsou pro vás stránky Informace pro všechny užitečné a pomohly vám. Můžete vyplnit kontaktní formulář níže nebo poslat e-mail na postmaster@informaceprovsechny.cz. Budeme se snažit váš dotaz zodpovědět co nejrychleji.

Pro vaši informaci – jsme registrováni jako občanské sdružení, nejsme součástí státní správy.

<% form_for :contact do |f| %>

<% if not @user %>

Jméno

<%= f.text_field :name, :size => 20 %>
(nebo <%= link_to "se přihlašte", signin_url(:r => request.request_uri) %>)

Email:

<%= f.text_field :email, :size => 20 %>

<% end %>

  Předmět:

<%= f.text_field :subject, :size => 50 %>

  Zpráva pro tým stránek IPV:

  <%= f.text_area :message, :rows => 10, :cols => 60 %>

<% if !@last_request.nil? %>

Přidejte odkaz k dotazu:
<%=request_link(@last_request) %>
<%= submit_tag "remove", :name => 'remove' %>

<% end %>
<% if !@last_body.nil? %>

Přidejte odkaz na instituce:
<%=public_body_link(@last_body) %>
<%= submit_tag "remove", :name => 'remove' %>

<% end %>

  Jsme schopni vám pomoci pouze s technickými potížemi nebo s dotazem, který se týká svobodného přístupu k informacím.

<%= hidden_field_tag(:submitted_contact_form, 1) %>
<%= submit_tag "Odeslat dotaz týmu stránek Informace pro všechny" %>
<-- tuto stránku spravuje občanské sdružení Informace pro všechny, nikoliv státní správa.

Pokud jste poskytovatel informací a považujete naši službu za užitečnou, požádejte své IT nebo oddělení spravující vaše webové stránky o propojení se stránkami Informace pro všechny – ideálně tam, kde uveřejňujete povinné informace.

<% end %>


Fix categorisation game path

Fix categorisation game path

<% @title = "Credit where credit is due" %>

<%= render :partial => 'sidebar' %>

<%= @title%> #

Which people made WhatDoTheyKnow? #

Oh, nearly everyone (and maybe you too)!

    Heather Brooke
    (vampy!) has
    been pushing the idea of a UK FOI archive for years now.

    Both Phil Rodgers and Francis Irving
    entered it in a mySociety competition for ideas for public interest websites to build.

    It won,
    and then Chris Lightfoot (RIP :()
    thought up the wheeze of intercepting email responses to requests and
    automatically publishing them.

    Tom Steinberg got the cash to pay for the site from
    a dead chocolate mogul (thank you!) ...

    ... so that Francis Irving, Angie Ahl, Tommy Martin, Louise Crow, Matthew Somerville
and Tom Steinberg (mySociety team)
could do the complex mixture of design and coding to build what you see today.

    Thanks particularly to Julian Todd (great blog!),
    Francis Davey, and Etienne Pollard for using the site early on and giving
    feedback (and/or legal advice!), and also to all our other users and
    testers.

    The amazing team of volunteers who run the site, answer your support
    emails, maintain the database of public authorities and
    so much more.
    Thanks to
    Helen Cross,

    John Cross,

    Ben Harris,

    Adam McGreggor,

    Ganesh Sittampalam,

    Alex Skene,

    Richard Taylor.

    Volunteers who have provided patches to the code – thanks Peter Collingbourne,
    Tony Bowden, David Cabo, James McKinney.

    Everyone who has helped look up FOI email addresses.

    We couldn't do any of this without those
    crazy people (UKCOD Trustees) who volunteer,
    amongst many other things, to do the accounts and fill in our VAT return.

    Finally, all the officers and servants who have answered the many requests
    made through the site. Their diligence, patience and professionalism is
    what has actually made the information that you see here. Thank them for
    helping make Government more transparent.

You're all stars.

Can I help out? #

Yes please! We're built out of our supporters and volunteers.

You can make a donation. We're a registered charity.

Help people find successful requests, and monitor performance of authorities, by
    <a href="<%= categorise_play_path %>">playing the categorisation game.

Find out FOI email addresses of <a href="<%= help_requesting_path(:anchor => 'missing_body') %>">authorities that we're missing.

Write a blog post about either WhatDoTheyKnow or an interesting request that you've
    found. Post about it on a forum that you frequent. Tell friends about it.

If you're
    a programmer, get the source code for our parent project, Alaveteli
    and tell us about patches we can pull. It's made in Ruby on Rails.

Read more about volunteering for WhatDoTheyKnow.

<% @title = "Credit where credit is due" %>

<%= render :partial => 'sidebar' %>

<%= @title%> #

Which people made WhatDoTheyKnow? #

Oh, nearly everyone (and maybe you too)!

    Heather Brooke
    (vampy!) has
    been pushing the idea of a UK FOI archive for years now.

    Both Phil Rodgers and Francis Irving
    entered it in a mySociety competition for ideas for public interest websites to build.

    It won,
    and then Chris Lightfoot (RIP :()
    thought up the wheeze of intercepting email responses to requests and
    automatically publishing them.

    Tom Steinberg got the cash to pay for the site from
    a dead chocolate mogul (thank you!) ...

    ... so that Francis Irving, Angie Ahl, Tommy Martin, Louise Crow, Matthew Somerville
and Tom Steinberg (mySociety team)
could do the complex mixture of design and coding to build what you see today.

    Thanks particularly to Julian Todd (great blog!),
    Francis Davey, and Etienne Pollard for using the site early on and giving
    feedback (and/or legal advice!), and also to all our other users and
    testers.

    The amazing team of volunteers who run the site, answer your support
    emails, maintain the database of public authorities and
    so much more.
    Thanks to
    Helen Cross,

    John Cross,

    Ben Harris,

    Adam McGreggor,

    Ganesh Sittampalam,

    Alex Skene,

    Richard Taylor.

    Volunteers who have provided patches to the code – thanks Peter Collingbourne,
    Tony Bowden, David Cabo, James McKinney.

    Everyone who has helped look up FOI email addresses.

    We couldn't do any of this without those
    crazy people (UKCOD Trustees) who volunteer,
    amongst many other things, to do the accounts and fill in our VAT return.

    Finally, all the officers and servants who have answered the many requests
    made through the site. Their diligence, patience and professionalism is
    what has actually made the information that you see here. Thank them for
    helping make Government more transparent.

You're all stars.

Can I help out? #

Yes please! We're built out of our supporters and volunteers.

You can make a donation. We're a registered charity.

Help people find successful requests, and monitor performance of authorities, by
    <a href="<%= play_path %>">playing the categorisation game.

Find out FOI email addresses of <a href="<%= help_requesting_path(:anchor => 'missing_body') %>">authorities that we're missing.

Write a blog post about either WhatDoTheyKnow or an interesting request that you've
    found. Post about it on a forum that you frequent. Tell friends about it.

If you're
    a programmer, get the source code for our parent project, Alaveteli
    and tell us about patches we can pull. It's made in Ruby on Rails.

Read more about volunteering for WhatDoTheyKnow.


fixing missing squirly brace

fixing missing squirly brace

<% for column in @model_ui.user_columns_for_display %>

  <%= column.human_name %>:	<%=h @streamlined_item.send(column.name) %>

<% end %>
<% for relationship in @model.reflect_on_all_associations %>
<% if @model_ui.relationships[relationship.name].summary_def %>

	<div id="<%= relationship_div_id(relationship, @streamlined_item, true) %>">
		<%= render(:partial => "#{@model_ui.relationships[relationship.name].summary_def.partial}", :locals => {:item => @streamlined_item, :relationship => relationship, :streamlined_def => @model_ui.relationships[relationship.name].summary_def})%>

 <%= link_to_function("Edit", "Streamlined.Relationships.open_relationship('#{relationship_div_id(relationship, @streamlined_item, true)}', this, '/#{params[:controller]}')")%>

<% end %>
<% end %>

<%= link_to 'Edit', {:action => 'edit', :id => @streamlined_item},
                    {:onclick => "Streamlined.Link.submit(this); return false;"} %>

<% for column in @model_ui.user_columns_for_display %>

  <%= column.human_name %>:	<%=h @streamlined_item.send(column.name) %>

<% end %>
<% for relationship in @model.reflect_on_all_associations %>
<% if @model_ui.relationships[relationship.name].summary_def %>

	<div id="<%= relationship_div_id(relationship, @streamlined_item, true) %>">
		<%= render(:partial => "#{@model_ui.relationships[relationship.name].summary_def.partial}", :locals => {:item => @streamlined_item, :relationship => relationship, :streamlined_def => @model_ui.relationships[relationship.name].summary_def)%>

 <%= link_to_function("Edit", "Streamlined.Relationships.open_relationship('#{relationship_div_id(relationship, @streamlined_item, true)}', this, '/#{params[:controller]}')")%>

<% end %>
<% end %>

<%= link_to 'Edit', {:action => 'edit', :id => @streamlined_item},
                    {:onclick => "Streamlined.Link.submit(this); return false;"} %>


git-svn-id: http://svn.castleproject.org:8080/svn/castle/trunk@128 73e77b4c-caa6-f847-a29a-24ab75ae54b6

<% @page_title = "Documentation" %>
<% @main_title = "Interceptors" %>
<%= render "/containerdocs/deflinks" %>

In others container you usually have to proxy a component
in order to implement a chain of interceptors. The MicroKernel
exposes an interesting infrastructure to allow interceptor in a
painless fashion.

Basically facilies can associate one or more interceptors with a component.
When the component is activated the MicroKernel checks whether
is there any interceptors associated with a component and if so, a proxy
is created and a interceptor chain is associated with the proxy.

if (Something())
{
  model.Interceptors.Add(
    new InteceptorReference( typeof(MyTransactionalInterceptor) ) );
}

The rationale behind this design

The whole principle behind Castle project is orthogonality, so
by choosing this design, more than one facility could register
their inteceptors to handle different concerns.
Something that have been implemented, for example, is the
NHibernate facility that register an AutomaticSessionInterceptor,
and the Automatic Transaction Management facility that register an
TransactionInterceptor to carry on with the Begins/Committs/Rollbacks.

What's an interceptor exactly?

An interceptor is a component registered like any other
component. The only requirement is that the inteceptor must
implement (correctly) the interface IMethodInterceptor.

The transactional interceptor code follows:

public class TransactionInterceptor : IMethodInterceptor
{
	private ITransactionManager _manager;

	public TransactionInterceptor(ITransactionManager manager)
	{
		_manager = manager;
	}

	public object Intercept(IMethodInvocation invocation, params object[] args)
	{
		if (!invocation.Method.IsDefined( typeof(TransactionAttribute), true ))
		{
			return invocation.Proceed(args);
		}
		else
		{
			object[] attrs = invocation.Method.GetCustomAttributes(
				typeof(TransactionAttribute), true );

			TransactionAttribute transactionAtt =
				(TransactionAttribute) attrs[0];

			ITransaction transaction =
				_manager.CreateTransaction(
					transactionAtt.TransactionMode,
					transactionAtt.IsolationMode );

			object value = null;

			transaction.Begin();

			try
			{
				value = invocation.Proceed(args);

				transaction.Commit();
			}
			catch(Exception ex)
			{
				transaction.Rollback();
				throw ex;
			}
			finally
			{
				_manager.Dispose(transaction);
			}

			return value;
		}
	}
}

<% @page_title = "Documentation" %>
<% @main_title = "Interceptors" %>
<%= render "/containerdocs/deflinks" %>

WORK IN PROGRESS.

<p> </p>


ActionItem3: minor typo fix

ActionItem3: minor typo fix

git-svn-id: 43659daf80e124e0b603d67096418e58e4f21099@125 3f533792-8f58-4932-b0fe-aaf55b0a4547

<%= _('Enable/Disable features') %>

<%= render :partial => 'features_table' %>

<%= help_textile _('Here you can enable or disable several features of your virtual community. Each feature represents some funcionality that your virtual community can use if you enable it.') %>

<%= _('Enable/Disable features') %>

<%= render :partial => 'features_table' %>

<%= help_textile _('Here you can enable or disable several features of your virtual community. Each feature represents some funcionality that your virtual community can use you enable it.') %>


Set all variables

Set all variables

<% @show_tips = @xapian_requests.nil? || (@total_hits == 0) %>

<% # XXX should call find_tracking_people in controller, not here / in partial
   if @track_thing and TrackThing.find_tracking_people(@track_thing).size > 0 %>

People tracking this search

    <%= render :partial => 'track/tracking_people_and_link', :locals => { :track_thing => @track_thing, :list_people => true, :own_request => false } %>

<% end %>

<% if @query.nil? %>
    <% @title = "Search Freedom of Information requests, public authorities and users" %>

<%=@title%>

<% elsif @total_hits == 0 %>
    <% @title = "Nothing found for '" + h(@query) + "'" %>
<% else %>
    <% @title = "Results page " + @page.to_s %>
<% end%>

<% form_tag({:action => "search_redirect"}, {:id => "search_form"}) do %>

       <%= text_field_tag 'query', @query, { :size => 40 } %>
       <%= hidden_field_tag 'sortby', params[:sortby] %>
       <%= submit_tag "Search" %>
       <% if not @show_tips %>
             Advanced tips
       <% end %>

<% end %>

<% if not @query.nil? %>
    <%=link_to_unless @sortby.nil?, "Show most relevant results first", search_url(@query, nil) %>
    |
    <%=link_to_unless @sortby == 'newest', "Newest results first", search_url(@query, 'newest') %>
    <% if @sortby == 'described' %>
    | Recently described results first
    <% end %>
<% end %>

<% if @total_hits == 0 %>

<%=@title %>

<% end %>

<% if not @query.nil? %>
    <% if @spelling_correction %>

Did you mean: <%= link_to @spelling_correction, search_url(@spelling_correction, @sortby) %>

    <% end %>

    <% if @track_thing %>
        <%= render :partial => 'track/tracking_people_and_link', :locals => { :track_thing => @track_thing, :list_people => false, :own_request => false } %>
    <% end %>

    <% if @xapian_bodies.results.size > 0 %>

<%= "Public authorities " + ((@page-1)*@bodies_per_page+1).to_s + "-" + [@page*@bodies_per_page, @xapian_bodies.matches_estimated].min.to_s + " of " + @xapian_bodies.matches_estimated.to_s + " for '" + h(@query) + "'" %>

        <% for result in @xapian_bodies.results %>
            <%= render :partial => 'body/body_listing_single', :locals => { :public_body => result[:model] }  %>
        <% end %>

        <%= will_paginate WillPaginate::Collection.new(@page, @bodies_per_page, @xapian_bodies.matches_estimated) %>
    <% end %>

    <% if @xapian_users.results.size > 0 %>

<%= "People " + ((@page-1)*@users_per_page+1).to_s + "-" + [@page*@users_per_page, @xapian_users.matches_estimated].min.to_s + " of " + @xapian_users.matches_estimated.to_s + " for '" + h(@query) + "'" %>

        <% for result in @xapian_users.results %>
            <%= render :partial => 'user/user_listing_single', :locals => { :display_user => result[:model] } %>
        <% end %>

        <%= will_paginate WillPaginate::Collection.new(@page, @users_per_page, @xapian_users.matches_estimated) %>
    <% end %>

    <% if @xapian_requests.results.size > 0 %>

<%= "FOI requests " + ((@page-1)*@requests_per_page+1).to_s + "-" + [@page*@requests_per_page, @xapian_requests.matches_estimated].min.to_s + " of " + @xapian_requests.matches_estimated.to_s + " for '" + h(@query) + "'" %>

        <% for result in @xapian_requests.results %>
            <%= render :partial => 'request/request_listing_via_event', :locals => { :event => result[:model], :info_request => result[:model].info_request } %>
        <% end %>

        <%= will_paginate WillPaginate::Collection.new(@page, @requests_per_page, @xapian_requests.matches_estimated) %>
        <% if @track_thing %>
            <%= render :partial => 'track/tracking_people_and_link', :locals => { :track_thing => @track_thing, :own_request => false, :list_people => false } %>
        <% end %>
    <% end %>
<% end %>

<% if @show_tips %>

Search tips

Enter words that you want to find separated by spaces, e.g. climbing lane

Use OR (in capital letters) where you don't mind which word,  e.g. commons OR lords

Use quotes when you want to find an exact phrase, e.g. "Liverpool City Council"

variety: with value sent, followup_sent, response, authority or user to select type of thing to search for.

Type status: to select based on the status or historical status of the request, see table below.

requested_from:home_office to restrict to requests from the <%= link_to "Home Office", show_public_body_url(:url_name => 'home_office') %>, typing the name as in the URL.

requested_by:julian_todd to restrict to requests made by <%= link_to "Julian Todd", show_user_url(:url_name => 'julian_todd') %>, typing the name as in the URL.

request: to restrict to a specific request, typing the title as in the URL.

Type 01/01/2008..14/01/2008 to only show things that happened in the first two weeks of January.

Read about advanced search operators, such as proximity and wildcards.

status:waiting_response	 Waiting for the public authority to reply

status:not_held	 The public authority does not have the information requested

status:rejected	 The request was rejected by the public authority

status:partially_successful	 Some of the information requested has been received

status:successful	 All of the information requested has been received

status:waiting_clarification	 The public authority would like part of the request explained

status:waiting_classification	 A new response has arrived, but it hasn't been categorised yet

status:requires_admin	 A strange reponse, required attention by the WhatDoTheyKnow team

<% end %>

<% @show_tips = @xapian_requests.nil? || (@total_hits == 0) %>

<% # XXX should call find_tracking_people in controller, not here / in partial
   if @track_thing and TrackThing.find_tracking_people(@track_thing).size > 0 %>

People tracking this search

    <%= render :partial => 'track/tracking_people_and_link', :locals => { :track_thing => @track_thing, :list_people => true } %>

<% end %>

<% if @query.nil? %>
    <% @title = "Search Freedom of Information requests, public authorities and users" %>

<%=@title%>

<% elsif @total_hits == 0 %>
    <% @title = "Nothing found for '" + h(@query) + "'" %>
<% else %>
    <% @title = "Results page " + @page.to_s %>
<% end%>

<% form_tag({:action => "search_redirect"}, {:id => "search_form"}) do %>

       <%= text_field_tag 'query', @query, { :size => 40 } %>
       <%= hidden_field_tag 'sortby', params[:sortby] %>
       <%= submit_tag "Search" %>
       <% if not @show_tips %>
             Advanced tips
       <% end %>

<% end %>

<% if not @query.nil? %>
    <%=link_to_unless @sortby.nil?, "Show most relevant results first", search_url(@query, nil) %>
    |
    <%=link_to_unless @sortby == 'newest', "Newest results first", search_url(@query, 'newest') %>
    <% if @sortby == 'described' %>
    | Recently described results first
    <% end %>
<% end %>

<% if @total_hits == 0 %>

<%=@title %>

<% end %>

<% if not @query.nil? %>
    <% if @spelling_correction %>

Did you mean: <%= link_to @spelling_correction, search_url(@spelling_correction, @sortby) %>

    <% end %>

    <% if @track_thing %>
        <%= render :partial => 'track/tracking_people_and_link', :locals => { :track_thing => @track_thing, :list_people => false } %>
    <% end %>

    <% if @xapian_bodies.results.size > 0 %>

<%= "Public authorities " + ((@page-1)*@bodies_per_page+1).to_s + "-" + [@page*@bodies_per_page, @xapian_bodies.matches_estimated].min.to_s + " of " + @xapian_bodies.matches_estimated.to_s + " for '" + h(@query) + "'" %>

        <% for result in @xapian_bodies.results %>
            <%= render :partial => 'body/body_listing_single', :locals => { :public_body => result[:model] }  %>
        <% end %>

        <%= will_paginate WillPaginate::Collection.new(@page, @bodies_per_page, @xapian_bodies.matches_estimated) %>
    <% end %>

    <% if @xapian_users.results.size > 0 %>

<%= "People " + ((@page-1)*@users_per_page+1).to_s + "-" + [@page*@users_per_page, @xapian_users.matches_estimated].min.to_s + " of " + @xapian_users.matches_estimated.to_s + " for '" + h(@query) + "'" %>

        <% for result in @xapian_users.results %>
            <%= render :partial => 'user/user_listing_single', :locals => { :display_user => result[:model] } %>
        <% end %>

        <%= will_paginate WillPaginate::Collection.new(@page, @users_per_page, @xapian_users.matches_estimated) %>
    <% end %>

    <% if @xapian_requests.results.size > 0 %>

<%= "FOI requests " + ((@page-1)*@requests_per_page+1).to_s + "-" + [@page*@requests_per_page, @xapian_requests.matches_estimated].min.to_s + " of " + @xapian_requests.matches_estimated.to_s + " for '" + h(@query) + "'" %>

        <% for result in @xapian_requests.results %>
            <%= render :partial => 'request/request_listing_via_event', :locals => { :event => result[:model], :info_request => result[:model].info_request } %>
        <% end %>

        <%= will_paginate WillPaginate::Collection.new(@page, @requests_per_page, @xapian_requests.matches_estimated) %>
        <% if @track_thing %>
            <%= render :partial => 'track/tracking_people_and_link', :locals => { :track_thing => @track_thing, :own_request => false, :list_people => false } %>
        <% end %>
    <% end %>
<% end %>

<% if @show_tips %>

Search tips

Enter words that you want to find separated by spaces, e.g. climbing lane

Use OR (in capital letters) where you don't mind which word,  e.g. commons OR lords

Use quotes when you want to find an exact phrase, e.g. "Liverpool City Council"

variety: with value sent, followup_sent, response, authority or user to select type of thing to search for.

Type status: to select based on the status or historical status of the request, see table below.

requested_from:home_office to restrict to requests from the <%= link_to "Home Office", show_public_body_url(:url_name => 'home_office') %>, typing the name as in the URL.

requested_by:julian_todd to restrict to requests made by <%= link_to "Julian Todd", show_user_url(:url_name => 'julian_todd') %>, typing the name as in the URL.

request: to restrict to a specific request, typing the title as in the URL.

Type 01/01/2008..14/01/2008 to only show things that happened in the first two weeks of January.

Read about advanced search operators, such as proximity and wildcards.

status:waiting_response	 Waiting for the public authority to reply

status:not_held	 The public authority does not have the information requested

status:rejected	 The request was rejected by the public authority

status:partially_successful	 Some of the information requested has been received

status:successful	 All of the information requested has been received

status:waiting_clarification	 The public authority would like part of the request explained

status:waiting_classification	 A new response has arrived, but it hasn't been categorised yet

status:requires_admin	 A strange reponse, required attention by the WhatDoTheyKnow team

<% end %>


added support for random images picked from album

Albums

  <%random_no = ((Time.now.sec % 15) + 1).to_s-%>
  <img src="album/<%=random_no-%>.jpg" alt="Picture gallery" width="215" height="161" />


Made style explicit in labels layout so Chrome print could find it

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
  <title><%= :app_title.l %>: <%= if @title.nil? then controller.action_name else @title.strip_html end %></title>
  <%= "<link rel=\"SHORTCUT ICON\" href=\"#{HTTP_DOMAIN}/favicon.ico\" />"%>
  <meta property="og:image" content="http://mushroomobserver.org/images/facebook_icon.png" />
  <meta property="og:title" content="Mushroom Observer" />
  <meta property="og:description" content="Mushroom Observer is a forum where amateur and professional mycologists can come together and celebrate their common passion for mushrooms by discussing and sharing photos of mushroom sightings from around the world." />
  <style>
  body, p, ol, ul, td {
    font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;
    font-size:   9px;
    line-height: 15px;
    margin-top: 0px;
    margin-left: 0px;
    margin-right: 0px;
  }

  body {
    margin-bottom: 0px;
  }

  .break {
    page-break-before: always;
  }

  table {
    page-break-inside:avoid;
  }
  </style>
</head>
<body>
  <%= @content_for_layout %>
</body>
</html>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
  <title><%= :app_title.l %>: <%= if @title.nil? then controller.action_name else @title.strip_html end %></title>
  <%= "<link rel=\"SHORTCUT ICON\" href=\"#{HTTP_DOMAIN}/favicon.ico\" />"%>
  <meta property="og:image" content="http://mushroomobserver.org/images/facebook_icon.png" />
  <meta property="og:title" content="Mushroom Observer" />
  <meta property="og:description" content="Mushroom Observer is a forum where amateur and professional mycologists can come together and celebrate their common passion for mushrooms by discussing and sharing photos of mushroom sightings from around the world." />
  <%= stylesheet_link_tag('labels.css?v=1') %>
</head>
<body>
  <%= @content_for_layout %>
</body>
</html>


Make sure there isn't a full stop immediately after our email, in case some mail clients include it in the address

<%= @outgoing_message.body.strip %>

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Is <%= @info_request.public_body.request_email%> the wrong address for Freedom
of Information requests to <%= @info_request.public_body.name%>? If so please
let us know by emailing <%=@contact_email%> - we'll make sure future ones go to
the right place.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

<%= @outgoing_message.body.strip %>

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Is <%= @info_request.public_body.request_email%> the wrong address for Freedom
of Information requests to <%= @info_request.public_body.name%>? If so please
let us know by emailing <%=@contact_email%>. We'll make sure future ones go to
the right place.
-------------------------------------------------------------------


added permissions on various administrative links.

<%content_for("left") do-%>
<%= render :partial => "layouts/nav_bar", :locals => {:category => "Articles", :property => nil} -%>

    Id
    Title
    Author
    Created on
    <%= "Published" if @current_user-%>

<% for article in @articles %>

    <%= article.id-%>.
    <%= link_to article.title, :action => 'show', :id => article%>
    <%= link_to article.author.fullname, :controller => 'people', :action => 'show', :id => article.author.id-%>
    <%= article.created_at.strftime("%d %b, %Y")%>
    <%= (article.published == true ? 'Yes' : 'No') if @current_user%>

    <%= link_to('Edit', {:action => 'edit', :id => article}) if @current_user %>
    <%= link_to('Delete', { :action => 'destroy', :id => article }, :confirm => 'Are you sure?', :method => :post) if @current_user%>

<%= truncate(article.body,100)-%>

<% end %>

<%= link_to 'Previous page', { :page => @article_pages.current.previous } if @article_pages.current.previous %>
<%= link_to 'Next page', { :page => @article_pages.current.next } if @article_pages.current.next %>

<%= link_to 'New article', :action => 'new' if @current_user%>
<%end-%>
<%content_for("right") do-%>
<%= render :partial => "layouts/categories_nav" -%>
<%end-%>

<%content_for("left") do-%>
<%= render :partial => "layouts/nav_bar", :locals => {:category => "Articles", :property => nil} -%>

    Id
    Title
    Author
    Created on
    Published

<% for article in @articles %>

    <%= article.id-%>.
    <%= link_to article.title, :action => 'show', :id => article%>
    <%= link_to article.author.fullname, :controller => 'people', :action => 'show', :id => article.author.id-%>
    <%= article.created_at.strftime("%d %b, %Y")%>
    <%= article.published == true ? 'Yes' : 'No'%>

    <%= link_to('Edit', {:action => 'edit', :id => article}) if @current_user %>
    <%= link_to('Delete', { :action => 'destroy', :id => article }, :confirm => 'Are you sure?', :method => :post) if @current_user%>

<%= truncate(article.body,100)-%>

<% end %>

<%= link_to 'Previous page', { :page => @article_pages.current.previous } if @article_pages.current.previous %>
<%= link_to 'Next page', { :page => @article_pages.current.next } if @article_pages.current.next %>

<%= link_to 'New article', :action => 'new' %>
<%end-%>
<%content_for("right") do-%>
<%= render :partial => "layouts/categories_nav" -%>
<%end-%>


Updated news

Updated news

git-svn-id: 3ebd8a4fd9006ff03462623fffc479a1d4750d42@95 7a65b82a-1d14-0410-b525-e2835e71a0b4

<% @title = 'News' %>

<%= @title %>

This page lists the latest changes to and news about the Mushroom Observer website.

Tuesday February 13, 2007

Added multiple upload option for Add Images.

Changed some of the links in the left hand panel based on user feedback.

Saturday February 10, 2007

Added image and location search within the site.

Thursday February 8, 2007

Added Google image search links to Observation and Name pages.

Wednesday February 7, 2007

Added checklists.  Items in the checklist are the results of the
                latest search or viewed species list.  Viewing large lists like
                'Latest Changes' or 'Name Index' will reset the checklist to all
                names.

Moved loading species lists from files to a separate page off of
                Edit Species List to avoid an interaction between the checklist
                and file loading.

Saturday January 27, 2007

Name edits now appear in the RSS feed.

Sunday January 21, 2007

Added How To Use page.

Changed 'New' links to 'Create'.

Fixed a bug with the search box.

Fixed a couple of bugs with the next/prev links.

Thursday January 11, 2007

Fixed a bug with creating new species.

Fixed many bugs with page titles, some of which were preventing pages from loading.

Tuesday January 9, 2007

Names are now database objects rather than just strings.  They have a
                rank, a text name an author and notes.

A show_name page shows this information as well as a list of all
        observations that use that Name.  The show_pages can be accessed from
        each show_observation page as well as the name_index page that is
        available in the left-side panel.

Names can be edited on the edit_name pages that are accessible from
        the show_name pages.  Anyone is allowed to edit any name, but
        following the Wikipedia model,
        a record is kept of every version.  The previous versions are stored as
        'past names'.  A show_past_name page shows the name information for a
        previous version of a name and is accessible from each show_name page.

Names are associated with observations through the 'what' field of the
        observation.  When the 'what' field is changed, the names are searched
        for a match.  The 'what' field can either be the text_name or the
        text_name and the author for a name.  No match is found for a 'what'
        value, then the user is given the option to create the new name.  If a
        'what' value matches more than one name (due to different authors
        publishing the same name), then the user is given a choice between the
        options.  The options list how many observations use each version of
        the name.  If you add an author to a 'what' field for a name that does
        not have an author already, it will ask you if you want to create the
        new name, but it will actually update the existing name.

Names given in species lists are treated in the exact same manner,
        except that all the new names and all of the multiple matches are
        dealt with on the same page.  There is also an option on the
        new_species_list and edit_species_list pages to 'Just Create New
        Names'.  This adds the names without updating the species list or
        creating the corresponding observations.

The search box is now available on every page.

Removed the Observation Index in favor of the Name Index.

Fixed some of the list ordering to make it more intuitive.

A filter was added to the account creation process that should reduce the
        number of bot created users.

Fixed a bug with bouncing between observations and images and using the
        next/prev links.

Monday December 18, 2006

Added prev/next links that follow the RSS feed.

Improved prev/next functionality throughout the site.

RSS feed descriptions now have appropriate line breaks.

Monday December 4, 2006

Species lists can now be uploaded from files.

Separated note for species list from note that applies to member observations.

Fixed use of multiple tabs by switching from session data to hidden fields.

mushroomobserver.org/# == mushroomobserver.org/observer/show_observation/#

Monday October 26, 2006

Switched Observations->By Name to include thumbnails and follow layout.

Maintained old By Name behavior as Observations->Index.

Added simple search box to Activity Log (Latest Changes) and Observation list pages.

Monday October 23, 2006

Changed default page to the RSS feed.

Changed page layout for observation and image list pages.

Added layout controls to user preferences.  Set to 10 rows x 1 column
			and turn off 'Put text below images' to get old layout.

Changed thumbnail image size from 100px to 160px with lower quality (jpeg 50 vs. 75).

Provided Prev/Next buttons for images.

Added link to ask the webmaster a question about the site.

Split up 'Manage Images' into 'Add Image', 'Reuse Image' and 'Remove Images' and made
			them more visible.

'Reuse Image' allows you to look at the images.

Added links for viewing the log for observations and species lists.

Made database lookup for all observations much more efficient.

Rearranged left-hand panel.

Images no longer have titles.  They are derived from the observation(s) they are
			connected to.

Removed Edit and Destroy links from view pages.

Add mini-icon for webpages.

Sunday September 9, 2006

Links to email the creator of observations or images with questions or commerical inquiries.  The creator receives an email with the address of the user who wants to contact them.  It is up to the creator whether they want to respond.

User preferences added to disable the above email feature and to stop receiving emails like this letting you know about new features.

RSS feed has been overhauled to reduce the number of entries and make them more relevant.

Copyright holder now has an option to be something other than a registered user.  The user who uploads the image is the default, but it can now be changed on a per image basis.

Monday August 21, 2006

	Added RSS feed for all interesting events that happen on the site.

	Added 'Create Account' link on login page to make it more obvious.

	Tweaked page titles to make the site easier to index.

Sunday August 13, 2006

	Added this news page.

	List pages now have a better interface for paging than just next/previous,
	and its at the top and bottom of each page.

Saturday August 12, 2006

	Added email verification system to user signup.

<% @title = 'News' %>

<%= @title %>

This page lists the latest changes to and news about the Mushroom Observer website.

Wednesday February 10, 2007

Added image and location search within the site.

Wednesday February 8, 2007

Added Google image search links to Observation and Name pages.

Wednesday February 7, 2007

Added checklists.  Items in the checklist are the results of the
                latest search or viewed species list.  Viewing large lists like
                'Latest Changes' or 'Name Index' will reset the checklist to all
                names.

Moved loading species lists from files to a separate page off of
                Edit Species List to avoid an interaction between the checklist
                and file loading.

Saturday January 27, 2007

Name edits now appear in the RSS feed.

Sunday January 21, 2007

Added How To Use page.

Changed 'New' links to 'Create'.

Fixed a bug with the search box.

Fixed a couple of bugs with the next/prev links.

Thursday January 11, 2007

Fixed a bug with creating new species.

Fixed many bugs with page titles, some of which were preventing pages from loading.

Tuesday January 9, 2007

Names are now database objects rather than just strings.  They have a
                rank, a text name an author and notes.

A show_name page shows this information as well as a list of all
        observations that use that Name.  The show_pages can be accessed from
        each show_observation page as well as the name_index page that is
        available in the left-side panel.

Names can be edited on the edit_name pages that are accessible from
        the show_name pages.  Anyone is allowed to edit any name, but
        following the Wikipedia model,
        a record is kept of every version.  The previous versions are stored as
        'past names'.  A show_past_name page shows the name information for a
        previous version of a name and is accessible from each show_name page.

Names are associated with observations through the 'what' field of the
        observation.  When the 'what' field is changed, the names are searched
        for a match.  The 'what' field can either be the text_name or the
        text_name and the author for a name.  No match is found for a 'what'
        value, then the user is given the option to create the new name.  If a
        'what' value matches more than one name (due to different authors
        publishing the same name), then the user is given a choice between the
        options.  The options list how many observations use each version of
        the name.  If you add an author to a 'what' field for a name that does
        not have an author already, it will ask you if you want to create the
        new name, but it will actually update the existing name.

Names given in species lists are treated in the exact same manner,
        except that all the new names and all of the multiple matches are
        dealt with on the same page.  There is also an option on the
        new_species_list and edit_species_list pages to 'Just Create New
        Names'.  This adds the names without updating the species list or
        creating the corresponding observations.

The search box is now available on every page.

Removed the Observation Index in favor of the Name Index.

Fixed some of the list ordering to make it more intuitive.

A filter was added to the account creation process that should reduce the
        number of bot created users.

Fixed a bug with bouncing between observations and images and using the
        next/prev links.

Monday December 18, 2006

Added prev/next links that follow the RSS feed.

Improved prev/next functionality throughout the site.

RSS feed descriptions now have appropriate line breaks.

Monday December 4, 2006

Species lists can now be uploaded from files.

Separated note for species list from note that applies to member observations.

Fixed use of multiple tabs by switching from session data to hidden fields.

mushroomobserver.org/# == mushroomobserver.org/observer/show_observation/#

Monday October 26, 2006

Switched Observations->By Name to include thumbnails and follow layout.

Maintained old By Name behavior as Observations->Index.

Added simple search box to Activity Log (Latest Changes) and Observation list pages.

Monday October 23, 2006

Changed default page to the RSS feed.

Changed page layout for observation and image list pages.

Added layout controls to user preferences.  Set to 10 rows x 1 column
			and turn off 'Put text below images' to get old layout.

Changed thumbnail image size from 100px to 160px with lower quality (jpeg 50 vs. 75).

Provided Prev/Next buttons for images.

Added link to ask the webmaster a question about the site.

Split up 'Manage Images' into 'Add Image', 'Reuse Image' and 'Remove Images' and made
			them more visible.

'Reuse Image' allows you to look at the images.

Added links for viewing the log for observations and species lists.

Made database lookup for all observations much more efficient.

Rearranged left-hand panel.

Images no longer have titles.  They are derived from the observation(s) they are
			connected to.

Removed Edit and Destroy links from view pages.

Add mini-icon for webpages.

Sunday September 9, 2006

Links to email the creator of observations or images with questions or commerical inquiries.  The creator receives an email with the address of the user who wants to contact them.  It is up to the creator whether they want to respond.

User preferences added to disable the above email feature and to stop receiving emails like this letting you know about new features.

RSS feed has been overhauled to reduce the number of entries and make them more relevant.

Copyright holder now has an option to be something other than a registered user.  The user who uploads the image is the default, but it can now be changed on a per image basis.

Monday August 21, 2006

	Added RSS feed for all interesting events that happen on the site.

	Added 'Create Account' link on login page to make it more obvious.

	Tweaked page titles to make the site easier to index.

Sunday August 13, 2006

	Added this news page.

	List pages now have a better interface for paging than just next/previous,
	and its at the top and bottom of each page.

Saturday August 12, 2006

	Added email verification system to user signup.