The latest 9.1.3.414 update with a few bug fixes and some new functions is now available for download (Aquabase will check for an update on start-up) and will require a password to complete the update process. This password is included in an email to subscribers to the Aquabase Support and Development Programme. If Aquabase cannot download the update automatically you can also get it from the Download section of this website. You have to be a registered user to access the individual downloads in this section.
Please read the notes during installation for the latest exciting additions and bug fixes! We (the developers and the users) are constantly working on improving and fixing Aquabase functionality. Please let me know if you find any bugs and/or would like to make suggestions for new functions.
WHAT’S NEW IN THIS LATEST VERSION?
- The automatic altitude/elevation of sites can now also use the very accurate gpxz.io and the maps.googleapis.com API services. Please read https://www.gpxz.io/ and https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/elevation/get-api-key?setupProd=enable for details and to register for an API key needed to use these services. An Internet connection is required for the function to work and the “Survey Method” needs to be set to ‘T’ or ‘O’ respectively, which will then retrieve the elevation for the coordinates on posting the record. If there is an existing altitude/elevation value this needs to be cleared first by pressing Shift-Del (set to NULL) while on the field and setting the “Survey Method” to ‘T’ or ‘O’. The API keys are saved in the workspace to allow different API keys for different workspaces and can only be set in the Aquabase Preferences after the workspace has been created. When using “Survey Method” ‘O’ (or any other method code for that matter) and having set an elevation database different from ‘maps.googleapis’ the elevation will not be calculated. When registering an API key for ‘maps.googleapis’ make sure to allow the API access to the map elevation service!
- The Windows “proj” coordinate conversion libraries have been updated to the latest version (9.7) and the Aquabase code refined with the help of AI to use these directly, which makes coordinate conversions and browsing through sites a lot faster.
- The coordinate reference systems WGS84 3D (4979) and Pseudomercator (3857) have been added as choices for all countries when setting the coordinate system in Preferences or when creating a new workspace.
- On the Basic Information entry form the Site Name / Description field will now show the contents also as hint, so that long names can also be seen directly.
- The Drainage Region / Catchment field has been made wider and the dropdown shows two columns, which is necessary for countries with descriptions/names for the catchments.
WHAT HAS BEEN FIXED SINCE THE LAST VERSION?
- The automatic altitude/elevation API service always ran when posting records with the “Survey Method” on ‘T’, using up API credits. This has been changed to only run when the “Altitude/Elevation” field is empty.
- When changing directory for the Aquabase settings files to the default installation directory the options for deleting the settings files from the current directory were incorrect and have been changed.
- The ArcGIS REST service of the DRDLR in South Africa to determine land parcles seems to be more offline than online. Therefore the REST service has been switched to the Department of Environmental Affairs, requiring some field changes in the query. An option to switch between different services will be implemented in future, if this service also becomes unreliable.
- The time-dependent chemistry report did not print detection limits with summary values. This is working now.
- The chemistry page report did not work as expected when having more than one sample for a site. The keeping-together of column headers and results also did not work properly for all chemistry sections. This should be working now.
- Some smaller bugs were also fixed.