<p>Please do NOT use the "Edit this page" capability to edit previous logbooks. The HTML format is not robust enough
(to be honest all this logbook stuff is a bit of a kludge). See the link above "<ahref="computing/logbooks-parsing.html">Importing</a>" as any mistake will crash the import parser.
Historic logbooks should only be edited by an expert, and the import process should be tested offline before the edited logbook is uploaded to the server.
<p>The logbook is the place where we record the rigging of caves as we discover them. You will manually copy the notes you made underground into the logbook.
<p>Writing up this and the final rigging guide is an important part of the Expo cave exploration process and is documented in <ahref="survey/newrig.html">a specific "rigging" section</a> the survey handbook.
<b>type the text of your logbook trip report</b> instead of writing it by hand - see <ahref="#type">below</a>. But still do lots of drawings in the paper logbook.
<p>If you are up on the plateau, just write it up on your phone. OK you can't sketch diagrams really, but you can include photos easily. Just do it as a n email or a pot.
<p>We will have an online form for uploading logbook entries (text only, and HTML links to images) for the 2024 expo at <ahref="/logbookedit/">/logbookedit/</a>.
<h3=id="type">Typing your trip report - in the UK Caving Blog</h3>
<p>In recent years we have seen an admirable increase in the number of people writing up their trips and experiences on social media and in particular on the UK Caving blog, see <ahref="https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=25249.0">2019 Blog</a>. But please, please also make a handwritten entry in the logbook saying you have done this so that the text and pictures can be transcribed later. It is too easy to lose these: in 2018 there were two blogs in operation and most people didn't know that.
<p>These days, just write up your trip as a message on your phone and post it to the Matrix chat group 'expo' (<ahref="https://app.element.io/#/room/#expo:matrix.org">app.element.io/#/room/#expo:matrix.org</a>), or email it to a nerd.
<p>The first challenge is to find how to start up the text editor. The <em>expo laptop</em> is running debian Linux. On the Desktop is an icon labelled "Text Editor": click on it.
<li>Just type up your trip as a separate file with a useful filename e.g. "logbook-myname-2018-08-03.txt", or just write it in an email, and send it to someone nerdish, or
<li>Install and learn how to use the version control software. (This requires a <var><ahref="computing//bulkupdatelaptop.html">Bulk Update Laptop</a></var>).
ensure that the updates from all the people entering trip data are OK and don't get overwritten by ignorant use of this software. Not recommended until you have been on a previous expo and have helped do the post-expo data tidy afterwards.
idea to type up <i>just your trip(s)</i> in a separate file, e.g. "logbook-mynewtrip.txt", and email it to a nerd if you are sitting at a different laptop.
<p>Do whatever you like to try and represent the logbook in html but do keep is <em>simple</em>. Don't try any clever HTML stuff. See the <ahref="computing/hbmanual1.html#images">"Edit this Page"</a> instructions for how to insert images and figures.
<p>When writing logbook entries, just use <ahref="computing/hbmanual1.html#images">relative URLs</a> to the same folder as your text, e.g. <var>href="mynicepic.jpg"</var> and the image and the logbook HTML will, for a 2017 expo, be put into <var>/years/2017/</var>.
<p>One special suggestion: do not use <P> paragraph tags. Well, you can if you like, but they will be stripped out and replaced by double-newlines when the file is parsed. This is because <P> paragraph tags cannot be nested - that is not allowed in HTML - and the fragment you are writing will be merged with other fragments and may be put inside a higher-level paragraph. [This is also true for Cave Description text in <ahref="survey/caveentry.html">"Edit this Cave"</a>.]
<h4> Logbook-specific HTML</h4>
<p>
The only rigid structure is the markup to allow troggle to parse the logbook files into 'trips':</p>
<p>Note: <var><spanstyle="color:red">T/U</span></var> stands for "Time Underground" in decimal hours, e.g. "0.2" for 12 minutes (approx.) . We do not parse or collate this information currently.
<p>Note this special format <var>"<spanstyle="color:red">Top Camp - </span>"</var> in the triptitle line:
<code><pre><div class="triptitle"><spanstyle="color:red">Top Camp - </span>Setting up 76 bivi</div></pre></code>
It denotes the <var>cave</var> or <var>area</var> the trip or activity happened in. It is a word or two separated from the rest of the triptitle with "<var> - </var>" (space-dash-space). Usual values
for this are "Plateau", "Base camp", "264", "Balkon", "Tunnocks", "Travel" etc.
It is necessary that one (and only one) of the people on the trip is set in <spanstyle="color:red"><u></u></span> underline format. This is interpreted to mean that this is the author of the logbook entry. If there is no author set, then this is an error and the entry is ignored.
<p>If you like, you can put non-expo people in the trip-people line: <var>"<spanstyle="color:red">*Ol's Mum</span>"</var> with a <spanstyle="color:red">*</span> prefix and they will be totally ignored by troggle: