CUCC Expedition Handbook

Troggle - Maintenance Manuals

Troggle is the software which runs the the expo cave survey data management and website.

This part of the handbook is intended for people maintaining the troggle software:

• Annual tasks: preparing for next year, finishing last year.
• Regular tasks: housekeeping as surveys are digitised.
• Other scripts - photos, folk, wallets - not integral parts of troggle.
• Troggle and database architecture: how it all fits together
• Design decisions: e.g. new systems for website menus
• Maintain troggle itself. The code is public on repository ::troggle::
• Uncategorised notes and past speculations

Troggle - why we developed it

Troggle..

1. Coherently publishes expo data by cave, by expedition, by person, by trip or by survey - without requiring duplicate data entry.
2. Manages and safely archives the typed and scanned survey data, entrance data, trip records (logbooks) and expo records.
3. Enforces consistency - making it easier to detect mistakes and omissions
4. Publishes the "guidebook descriptions" of caves by a combination of online forms and uploading files.
5. Supports the process of turning scribbled notes into finished cave surveys
6. Generates prospecting guides so that we don't waste time looking at holes which have already been explored
7. Reformats the webpages such that they have a coherent style and have a small menu at the top-left hand corner. These are the handbook you are reading now and the historic records of past expeditions.
8. Provides a way of editing individual pages of the handbook for very quick and urgent changes. [This is the "Edit this page" capability; see for how to use it and how to tidy up afterwards].