There is a small update for the Plant Base Android app – version 1.43.
Some minor bug fixes and slightly improved handling of menus. There are no other changes.
The new APK file is available for downloaded from the website.
Category Archives: Website
Online Plant Database is no longer available
Our free online Plant Database has now been withdrawn from the website.
This is rather a shame as it’s always been very popular, but the time has come when we need to rationalize our resources.
If circumstances change in the future then it may be reviewed and possibly re-implemented. However, for the time being removing the online section makes a considerable saving on website support.
Online Plant Database to be withdrawn
Our free online Plant Database will soon be withdrawn and removed from the website.
It has been freely available for over 16 years and is still heavily used. However, although the plant information has been updated in sync with the Plant Base software product, the pages and back-end database are really due for a major refresh. Unfortunately we don’t have the resources to continue support of this free service. All advertising was removed several years ago and voluntary donations have been non-existent (no surprise), therefore the service has been personally funded.
Android Plant Base updated version
An updated version of the Plant Base Android app is released – version 1.42. Also a new version of its File Support app – 1.07.
This update has several bug fixes, mostly to resolve issues introduced in the previous version due to the larger changes required in adapting to newer Android releases. There are no other major changes.
Website replacement Picture Gallery
The Picture Gallery section of the website has been replaced by a new and quite different gallery using the Piwigo software. This provides a more modern and flexible solution than the old gallery which was composed of static HTML files. As well an improved user experience it should be much easier to maintain.
Plant Base update version – 2.1.14
An updated version of Plant Base has been released and is available on the Download page. This is for desktop/laptop editions – Windows, MacOS and Linux.
It is another maintenance update with a few small bug fixes plus some other little changes.
On the Plant List Details tab, the records can now be sorted by almost any of the fields (all except the GPS co-ords). This can be useful when doing project planning and was requested by several users.
There is also an enhancement to the local language selection, which has an additional option to replace common data records with translations, that is for things like colour names and plant types. It’s important to understand that this updates the database, so “power” users who make a lot of changes might need to consider this. Just like the text translation files, these new common data translation files can be created or amended by end-users – information is in the Help.
The Linux edition is now at Beta 11 and a free life-time licence is still available on request. This version has a few tweaks to the user interface to improve appearance for some desktop environments and themes. Certainly will not be perfect on every system, but looks very good on many! The more traditional DE’s such as Xcfe, MATE and Cinnamon tend to give the best appearance out of the box, but it’s often worth experimenting with the theme settings.
A revision of the plant data is included, bringing the database release to 31. There are some new plant records and pictures along with a large number of updates. Many of these are for plant name changes and plant family classifications. Some familiar plants now have different names – please don’t blame us for these, we are just trying to follow the main taxonomic authorities who make changes according to the latest scientific research (there are even more in the pipeline!). Of course we always include the older names as synonyms, so they can still be found in the database!
We recommend that all existing users update the new program version – easy, quick and safe. Loading the new database files is an optional choice, as usual all recent database releases are compatible with all program versions. Instructions to merge personal data are in the support section of the website.
No More Ads !!
I’ve decided to remove 3rd party advertising from the website. All external content ad-spaces (Google Ads) have already gone and also most affiliate scheme banner ads. A few direct referral text links remain, almost all on the Links page or in the picture gallery pages. These are relatively unproblematic but will be reviewed in the near future.
This is largely in response to the recent well publicised discussions about online privacy. 3rd party web adverts are known to give the possibility of tracking user’s behaviour. I’m uncomfortable about the fact that I have little direct control of 3rd party content and also aware that unwanted adverts can simply be annoying. It goes without saying that I’ve always been totally respectful of our user’s privacy.
Like the majority of websites, we have used adverts as a source of much needed income in order to pay for the website running costs. They have always been used with moderation and restraint. Although I don’t believe any there has been any significant problem in the past, I think the site is better without them.
This does mean a significant loss of revenue needed to keep the site going. Since the business has been substantially downscaled, this may be a real problem. In the hope (possibly over-optimistic!) of compensating a little there will be some new PayPal Donate buttons added to certain pages. A few small donations could go a long way towards keeping things running.
Plant Base web database updated
Our web database, Plant Base Online, has now been updated to the same data release level as the software products.
As well as the website plant search forms this same data is also available to the Android PBO viewer apps.
It’s taken a little longer than usual – been busy with other things!
Plant Base new version is released – 2.1.7
An updated version of Plant Base is released and available on the downloads page – 2.1.7.
This is essentially another maintenance release and there are no really big changes. It does contain some important bug fixes, so it is a recommended update for all existing users.
A handy small feature has been added – searches on the Plant Selector form are now remembered as a history. The criteria for the previous 200 searches are stored and can be retrieved by date and time, or just scanning back through.
There are also a few other minor changes to the program and a new release of the database is included – we are now on Release 27.
For new users, the trial period has been extended to 20 days.
For Mac users who run Plant Base from the normal Applications folder, the configuration settings file, PlantBase.prefs, has be relocated to the ~/Library/Application Support folder. Hopefully this will avoid any confusions with Mac’s plist files in the previously used Preferences folder. Our testing for the MacOS edition is much more limited than for Windows as we only have one machine. That system must necessarily remain on an old release of the operating system, so we cannot test on later ones.
Testing for the Windows edition has been done on XP, Windows 7, 8.1 and 10.
Plant Base purchase price drop
We have reduced the purchase price of a Plant Base license by £5 to just £20.
This is to coincide with the release of version 2.1.7
There is no definite plan about whether this will be a permanent price change or not, we will see how things go!
The price of the Android mobile app has also been reduced.
We feel that this makes Plant Base extremely good value (it always has been!) and easily competitive against any similar garden or plant software.
But the main reason for the change is related to fact that we are further down-scaling the software business, for various reasons. I already operate part-time and the hours spent at the computer will be further reduced and irregular. So for the time being at least, development progress will be slow and support done on a best effort basis only. However, regardless of this – the Plant Base project will continue for the foreseeable the future.