WHER - down for maintenance 02/10/2011

In order to perform database modifications this Thursday, February 10, 2011, the Wildlife Health Event Reporter (WHER) application will be temporarily offline.  The outage is planned for early in the morning (approximately 7am CST) and we hope to bring the site back up as quickly as possible. 

Users will still be able to access the WHER URL (http://www.wher.org), but a temporary page will be up in its place until the system is brought back online.

Thank you for understanding!

A Short Video Introduction to WHER

The Wildlife Health Event Reporter (WHER) team has just launched a two minute video to provide a quick overview of WHER. The video highlights WHER's features and describes its purpose. Click play to watch the video now or view it here on YouTube.

The WHER team strongly encourages everyone to pass this video link along through email, listservs, blogs and other social networking tools to let others know about WHER.

The more reports WHER receives about sick and/or dead wild animals sighted by an engaged public, the greater the potential for everyone to gain a better understanding of wildlife disease and its impact on human, domestic animals and wildlife.

Oops, something is wrong with my entry! How do I change it?

In the event you complete the entry of a record and then realize, OOPS - something went wrong!  Don't fret.  You can quickly correct the problem by removing the erroneous entry and re-entering the correct information.  At the present, the ability to edit is not available.  However, due to the simplicity of the reporting process, it is a simple task to remove and re-add an event with the correct information. 

How to delete an erroneous entry on WHER (see full help file)

1. Log into WHER (http://www.wher.org)
2. Click on the 'My Reports' option from the main menu or the menu bar
3. Next to the corresponding entry in your report, locate the 'Delete' link
4. Click the 'Delete' link and confirm in the pop-up window that you wish to delete this record
5. That's it, you're done.

After you have removed the erroneous entry, you can start a new report to replace the incorrect entry.

Please make sure you spend a few minutes reviewing your data at the Review step in the simple data entry forms.  If you have additional questions, feel free to email us at wher@wdin.org.



  

I received an Internal Error message trying to save my record!

If you are saving a wildlife health event report and encounter this message, it may be caused by a number of things. The server the application is hosted on could have encountered a problem (not your fault!) or a cached version of information in your browser may be conflicting with the request to save your event.

To get past this issue, we recommend within your internet browser, clearing the cache. This may help clean out any 'dust' that may be causing the problem. Here are step-by-step instructions for clearing the cache in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari.

Internet Explorer

1. Click on the 'Tools' menu in the browser. This should display an option to select called 'Internet Options' at the very bottom of the menu list.
2. In the first 'General' tab of options, select the button marked 'Delete...' about 1/4 down the dialogue window in the section called Browsing History. 
3. A new window will appear, with a series of check boxes. The one that is important is the Temporary Internet Files option. Click this box (at least) and then click the Delete button at the bottom of the screen.

Firefox

1. Click on the 'Tools' menu in the browser. Select the Options option.
2. Under the 'Privacy' tab of options, click the link marked 'clear all current history' - which will open another small dialogue window.
3. In the new small dialogue window, check at least the 'Cache' option and click the 'Clear Now' button at the bottom of the window.

Chrome

1. Press CTRL+SHIFT+DEL to open the Clear cache dialog. Alternatively, click on the "Wrench" icon in the upper right hand corner of the browser (when you hover over it, the tool tip 'Customize and Control Google Chrome' appears) and select the Tools -> Clear Browsing Data option.
2. At a minimum, check the box next to the 'Empty Cache' option and click the 'Clear Browsing Data' button at the bottom of the screen.

Safari

1. Press CTRL+ALT+E to open the Clear cache dialog window.  Alternatively, go to the Edit menu, and select 'Empty Cache' from the list of options. 
2. Click the 'Empty' button to complete the task.

After your cache has been cleared, go back to http://www.wher.org, log in, and attempt to submit your report again. 

If you are still encountering problems after clearing your cache, drop us a line at wher@wdin.org for more assistance.

WHER help documentation updated!

To reflect the most recent changes and modifications in the WHER application, the online help document has been updated. If you have any questions or problems while you're using WHER, check out the new document, as well as the FAQs posted to this blog.  If you don't find the solution to your problem, try the Feedback Form link at the bottom of each WHER page, or email us directly at wher@wdin.org

What do I do if my confirmation email link is not working?

Like most web applications, if you sign up for a WHER account, you will receive a confirmation email which contains a link you must click on to verify your identity and desire to sign up for an account.

If you open that email, click the link, and nothing happens...  try copying and pasting the URL into your browser rather than depending on the click to work.  Different programs handle links differently or may erroneously handle email links altogether.

If this doesn't solve the problem, drop us an email and we will be happy to help you get your account set up successfully.

Does your group or agency have alternate mechanisms for reporting?

Does your agency or group have a similar mission to WHER?  Would you like to share a message with WHER users about specific events you would be interested in them reporting to you in an alternate means?

Upon submission of an event, users are presented with a pop up thank you window as well as a follow up email with a few details about the event they just reported.  Built into WHER is a means for us to include follow up information for the users at a state/province/administrative unit level.  Here is an example for Alberta, Canada:

Example pop-up confirmation window. Click to enlarge.

Other details you might want to include are what makes an event special that you would like to know about. Such as a certain number of animals involved, or those that involve a certain species like birds or amphibians. Other suggestions include:

• A short, informational message
• Preferred web link(s)
• Email address(es)
• Telephone number(s)
• USPS mail contact information