Rucksacks

The Rucksack is simply a handy container in which you can keep frequently used items. It consists of a series of lists in which you can keep Taxon names, Biotope classes, Locations, Names & Addresses or References. When you are entering data in Recorder 6, or selecting items on which to report, the rucksack provides a handy source from which frequently used items can be obtained. Rucksacks are stored in plain text files with a .ruk extension, consisting of lists of record keys between html tags.

The user can export a Rucksack to produce a file in NBN transfer format (XML) or NBN Access Database format (ZIP) containing a collection of Locations, Names and addresses and Documents. This is a particularly useful facility for a Recording Scheme, Organisation or a Local Record Centre, who work with volunteers. A rucksack fcan be built for a particular survey containing the Locations, Names and Addresses and Documents relating to that survey and then sent to survey participants. The file provides all the reference information needed for the survey.

Creating rucksacks

Rucksacks can be created within the user interface or outside of Recorder and can be used to populate a recording card or used to select the items on which to report. To create a rucksack within the user interface drag and drop items onto the rucksack screen from the dictionary windows. You can add a search code to use with the taxon list for quick data entry in a recording card and you can also use drag and drop to re-order your rucksack items. To create a rucksack outside of Recorder refer to the Building rucksacks outside of Recorder tutorial.

Adding a rucksack

To add a rucksack to your system for use in Recorder 6 simply download the file, unzip it and save the .ruk file it in the Rucksacks folder of the User Files folder (usually C:\Program Files\Recorder 6\User Files\Rucksacks but you can check this by viewing Tools\Options\File Locations). The following rucksacks are now available as system supplied on the installation DVDs from 6.14 onwards (those preceded by 'BRC' are a direct copy of the BRC recording cards and include the search codes for fast data entry).