Specifications

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Data Collection and Validation
Tag Session Overview
A tag session contains individual records of each fish marked or recaptured with a
PIT tag. These records are referred to as detail records. In addition, a tag session
contains global information about the marking session, such as location, time and
temperatures. This global information is stored in header fields.
Tag sessions can be closed and reopened for data input at a later time. Only one tag
session can be opened at any given time. When a tag session is opened, it loads
configuration settings from the active profile
, which includes connections to
peripheral devices
. Many of the menu/toolbar commands are context sensitive; they
will be enabled only when a tag session is open.
A tag session has two basic sections: Session Header
, Tag Detail. These sections are
represented by tab pages in the tag session data entry window. The user can switch
between these sections by clicking on the top of the tab page, using a pre-
programmed map command
, or navigating from the keyboard with the TAB and
cursor keys.
Note: PITTag2 users may be wondering where the statistics tab page is. It has been
moved to a separate window so that it can be viewed side-by-side with the open tag
session.
Tag Files and Tag Sessions
When a user has completed entering or editing data, the tag session can be validated
and exported
into a tag file for uploading to the PTAGIS database system. A tag file
is an ASCII text file and the content is specified in the current PIT Tag Specification
Document. A tag file can be imported back into P3 as a new tag session.
Naming conventions for Tag Sessions and Tag Files
The tag file name
is generated by P3 and stored in a read-only header field. By
default, when the user saves a tag session the very first time, it is automatically
given the same name generated for the tag file. The name of a tag session is used
throughout the application and can be modified
in the tag session manager. The tag
session name gives the user a simple mechanism for managing copies
of a tag
session or importing multiple versions of the same tag file into P3.
Tip: Experienced PITTag2 users can think of a tag session name in P3 as the Header
ID field in PITTag2, but instead of a number, its default value is the name of the tag
file.
Header Templates and Tag Sessions
Because many of the header field values are usually the same between tag sessions,
users can create predefined header templates
to associate default values to header
fields when a tag session is created. In addition to supplying default values, header