11  Tutorial: Example compilation

This tutorial walks you through an example of creating a traits.build database from scratch using the traits.build template. We then look at examples of how to add datasets to the database using the traits.build workflow.

11.1 Clone traits.build-template

traits.build-template is a GitHub repository that contains:

1. Core files required to build your own database:

   • a sample trait dictionary

   • a unit conversions file

   • a generic database metadata file

   • a placeholder taxon list

   • a script of useful R functions

2. Two pre-added datasets.

   • See how metadata is documented in fully propagated metadata files.

   • Build a skeletal database before adding your own datasets.

3. Datasets with explicit tutorials for filling in the dataset metadata files.

   • The tutorials for these datasets introduce you to the traits.build functions.

   • By working through the dataset tutorials, you are progressively introduced to how the complexities of ecological datasets can be documented within the traits.build structure

   • The datasets offer explicit examples of the types of complexities summarised in the Adding Data vignette.

   • As of September 2023 there are 3 tutorials, but this will expand to 6 tutorials by October 2023.

To clone the repository, either visit the GitHub repository and click on the green <> Code tab toward the upper right corner of the landing page, or clone the repository through GitHub desktop, R Studio, or your choice of Git client.

11.2 Build the example

Once you have cloned the repository and installed the package, the next step is to build the simplistic sample database:

build_setup_pipeline(method = "base", database_name = "traits.build_database")
source("build.R")

As described in the chapter on data structure the database is comprised of a series of relational tables and additional lists with metadata.

Once you’ve explored and feel familiar with the basic structure of a traits.build database, continue onto the tutorials to learn how to add datasets using the traits.build workflow.