Glossary & Terminology

Here are some common terms you may see on our website, mobile app, or these guides, and what we mean by them:

User

Synonyms: Account, Role, Person

The entity which people use to log in and interact with the platform. Each user has their own unique login details (email and password). A user can have access to multiple groups and/or projects.

There are two main types of user roles:

• Admin - Admins are added at a group-level and have access to all the data within the group, managing project users, spots, the group listing, etc.
• Users - Users are added to specific projects and/or spots within a group and have access to submit/view/edit their own data within their project(s).

For more information on the specific permissions each role has, please refer to our documentation here.

Group

Synonyms: Team, Organisation

The entity which has ownership over the projects and spots associated with it. Each group has a unique listing managed by group admins.

Groups can also be given access to projects they do not have ownership of as Project Collaborators.

Project

A project often represents one initiative or ongoing mission of a group where users submit data, organise events, or create discussion threads.

Like groups, they have a unique listing where they connect with new users.

Spot

Synonyms: Point of interest (POI), Area of interest, station, site, installation

Spots are location(s) associated with a group. They can be set up for administrative reasons, such as providing an option for users to select in a form (e.g. picking a bird monitoring site).

They can also be used for listing reasons as well, such as connecting with volunteers/sponsors for a certain area.

Spots can be represented as a specific coordinate on a map, a cluster of multiple coordinates, a geographic radius, a geographic polygon (boundary shape), or a geographic line.

Form

Synonyms: Project-form, data type

Forms are how users capture and store data on the platform. Forms can be associated with one or many projects.

Forms can be created using a range of ready-to-go templates, or customised to a project's specific needs using our online form editor.

View

Synonyms: Table, map, page, board

Views are how people see and interact with the data on the platform, such as: tables, maps, boards, etc.

Field

Synonyms: Input, attribute

Fields are a store of data against a form submission, user, or spot. Examples of fields are a text field such as “Name”, or a number field such as “Weight”.