CUCC Expedition Handbook

Cave entry page fields

There are a lot of fields on the 'new/edit cave' page and the 'new/edit entrance' page and some of them are a quite mysterious. This page explains what they mean. The same fields appear in each cave_data/ xml file.

Instructions on how to enter the data for new caves and entrances, and especially how to add images/surveys so that they appear properly, is to be found on the sequence of pages starting here.

Only one field is essential

There is only one essential field which must be there before the Submit button will work:

• caveslug e.g. 1623-195 or 1623-2012-dd-01

See below for explanations.

Names of identifiers and files

Today we use CAPITAL LETTERS for cave names, e.g. 2014-MF-03, but lower case for the names of files, e.g. 2014-mf-03.svx, despite what you might see in historical data.

However we always use lower case for entrance identifiers 'a', 'b', 'c' etc.

So a new cave would be 2023-ZZ-01 and its entrances would be 2023-ZZ-01a, 2023-Z-01b and 2023-ZZ-01c.

This convention is to prevent confusion between Windows and Linux machines, and unintentional deletion of data.

Our generic guidance for typing logbooks, handbook pages etc. applies particularly to cave descriptions and entrance descritpions where we have to be particularly picky about the formats and character encodings, so now read: expo typing conventions.

List of New Cave/Cave_data fields

non_public

'False' or 'True'. True if the cave should only be visible to logged-in users. Caves are normally public, so enter 'False' unless you know otherwise.

caveslug

(Required). Internal I.D. used to refer to this cave in entrance data files. Typically the same as the filebase (e.g. 1623-195).

area

(Required).The Kataster area (always 1623 or 1626). It's important to get this right, especially if near the border between the two areas. 1623 is our main area, but the border is not too far beyond the Stone Bridge so since 2014 some of our caves are in 1626.

area

Yes - there really are two different fields, both called 'area'. Bonkers. This second one is the CUCC-defined areas shown in this plan.

kataster_code

The length/type/exploration code used in the Austrian kataster. Look-up table here.

kataster_number

(Either this or unofficial_number is required). Offical number in Austrian kataster if one has been allocated.

unofficial_number

(Either this or kataster_number is required). Initial temporary cave ID used until kataster number is allocated. (e.g. 2012-DD-01) If you do not give this (or the kataster_number if issued) then your cave will not appear in the caves list (Main Index/caves).

entrance

Enclosing tag for each entrance, containing an entranceslug ID and a letter (if more than one entrance)

entranceslug

Internal ID to refer to each entrance instance in the entrance files (typically the same as that filename (e.g. 1623-161a). Matches the 'slug' field in the entrance file.

letter

Leave blank for single-entrance cave. If there is more than one entrace then the letter needs to be given. Generally matches the entranceslug ID.

explorers

Club (CUCC) and year(s) of exploration. To distinguish from caves explored by foreign groups. Names can be given too if it was a small cave. HTML freeform field.

underground_description

Underground description (the description of the approach and entrance goes in entrance file). For a small cave this will be the entire description. For larger caves it will be the front page of the description, or a short intro, containing links to other pages with the cave description in. You can leave this field empty and put a filename in description_file instead, in which case that will be used. HTML freeform field.

equipment

For a small cave, summary of gear needed to descend. For longer caves it could be blank, a table, or just refer to the description/topos. Leave blank if this info is in the description. HTML freeform field.

references

References to documentation. Could be Journal articles or Logbook entries. Can be links if the docs are online. HTML freeform field.

survey

Drawn-up surveys. Scans of paper surveys or images/PDFs of electronic surveys. Should include HTML to display current plan and elevation, with links to larger versions (See section on URLs and files). Could list links to multiple years of survey, or even a separate survey page if it's complicated enough. HTML freeform field.

kataster_status

Normally empty but can be used for notes on process of getting cave into Austrian kataster. (e.g. 'Too small to be in Kataster', 'Number applied for on 'date', awaiting allocated number). HTML freeform field.

underground_centre_line

A text field: set to 'In dataset' if there is a survex file in the right plac ein the Loser repository. Blank if not, or notes about status such as 'surveyed, but no entrance fix so not yet in dataset'. HTML freeform field.

notes

Normally empty, but place for anything else that should be noted, such as info on cave maybe being a duplicate, or lost. HTML freeform field.

length

Cave length. Can be left blank and system should fill it in automatically from survey data (it doesn't yet)

depth

Cave depth. Can be left blank and system should fill it in automatically from survey data (it doesn't yet)

extent

Cave extent(as defined by survex. Not very useful. Best left blank and system could fill it in automatically from survey data (it doesn't yet). We should probably scrap this field.

survex_file

Name of top-level survex file for this cave. Relative to the 'loser' survex repository. So for most caves that's caves-{area}/cavenum/cavenum.svx e.g. 'caves-1623/204/204.svx'

description_file

Filename: the name of top-level description file for this cave, when a separate file is used. Used instead of above entrance_description field for large caves with complex descriptions. Blank if the description is in the 'underground_description' field.

url

(No longer required). URL of this cave. i.e the URL this cave appears at on the website. It is now fixed as area/cavenum/cavenum.html e.g '1623/165/165.html' or '1626/2023-BL-10/2023-BL10.html'. This is no longer something the user inputs and it is ignored during file import if it is there

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Template files for bulk entry

There are template files for you to fill-in when creating new caves and entrance in the online system. Download them:

• cave_data template
• entrance_data template

Back to Cave data entry