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May 17, 2013 – New ITIS Database Formats

In response to user requests, we have added ITIS database download files in PostgreSql and SQLite database formats. These new files contain the same data as our existing downloads, but formatted for their respective databases. The downloads also contain short Readme files with instructions for getting started with the database download.

ITIS now provides download files for Microsoft SQL Server, Informix, MySql, PostGreSql and SQLite. You provide the database software, and we provide the data. All our database download files are available on our download page at www.itis.gov/downloads

Note: As with all our database downloads, support for these files is limited to download problems and problems with the file format. Due to limited resources, ITIS Staff can't provide support for obtaining, installing or using any of the database applications supported by our file downloads.

February 20, 2013 – ITIS Web Service Update Adds JSON-P!

We have updated the ITIS Web Services again, this time to fix some minor bugs and add more new features. Chief among these are:

  • A bug that prevented the service from returning a TSN with the results of Search for Scientific Name has been fixed.
  • The ITIS services now include the Author name anywhere a Scientific Name is returned.
  • The JSON output service has been enhanced to support JSON-P calls.

The JSON service provides access to all the Web Service APIs, returning data in JSON format. JSON-P wraps the data in a JavaScript function to make usage even easier and safer for cross-domain access. Even better, you can specify the JavaScript function name when you make the Web Service call, so the result can be customized to what makes sense to you.

For details about using the JSON and JSON-P calls, see the Web Service Documentation.

January 31, 2013 – ITIS Databse Gets New Columns

We have updated the ITIS Database tables to add a number of new columns. These columns were originally added to make some functionality changes in the ITIS programming, but we feel they are helpful enough to release for everyone's use. The new columns are:

  • Taxonomic_units.complete_name – This is the complete scientific name for this TSN. It consists of all the unit name and unit indicator parts combined in the correct order. Complete_name can be helpful when searching for taxa by scientific name.
  • Taxonomic_units.name_usage – This is a duplicate of the current "usage" column. We are moving to the name usage terminology because it is more descriptive of the column's content and because usage is a SQL reserved word, which sometimes causes issues with database code. Note that the "usage" column is deprecated and will be removed in the future.
  • Taxon_authors_lkp.short_author – This is a duplicate of the author name column with certain punctuation removed. It is helpful when you are searching for an author whose name contains a different punctuation for different taxon names. The punctuation characters removed are parenthesis, commas and periods.
  • Hierarchy.TSN – This new column in the Hierarchy table gives the TSN for the hierarchy entry.
  • Hierarchy.Parent_TSN – This new column in the Hierarchy table gives the Parent TSN for the hierarchy entry.
  • Hierarchy.level – The level column gives the distance down the hierarchy from the kingdom. For example, TSN 51 – Schizomycetes – which is a Monera Class, has a level of 3.
  • Hierarchy.ChildrenCount - This new column shows how many total children a particular TSN has, from its direct children to the bottom of the hierarchy.
All these columns have been added to the end of the affected tables, so positional access to the original columns will still work. This could change and you should consider accessing data using the column names in the future.

We hope these database updates will be as useful for you as they have been for us.

For full ITIS database downloads, see the ITIS Downloads page.

December 12, 2012 – ITIS Web Service Update Includes JSON!

We have updated the ITIS Web Services to fix some minor bugs and add new features. Chief among these are:

  • ITIS Scientific Name services now include the Author name.
  • All Hierarchy services now include Rank names.
  • A JSON output service has been added.

The JSON service provides access to all the Web Service APIs, but returns data in JSON format for use with machine parsing and applications such as AJAX web pages.

For details about using the JSON calls, see the Web Service Documentation.

September 14, 2012 – ITIS Hierarchy Table Changes

If you've been using our database downloads from the downloads page, you'll be interested to know the structure of the ITIS Hierarchy table has changed.

While updating our search we've added new columns to make hierarchy queries faster. These columns were added:

  • TSN - the TSN this hierarchy string relates to
  • Parent_TSN - the immediate parent of the TSN
  • level - the number of steps down the hierarchy this TSN is located
  • ChildrenCount - the number of children this TSN has.

Please direct any questions to the ITIS team at itisgate@si.edu


September 12, 2012 – ITIS Adds RSS Feeds

ITIS news is now available through an RSS (Rich Site Summary) feed. This feed will provide announcements of ITIS news, such as items on this page, and new data loads.

To use the feed, you simple click on the RSS button RSS Feed at the top of this page or on the ITIS home page. Your browser will either show you the feed with instructions on how to subscribe, or will ask you to select the application (news reader) to use for RSS subscription.

Please direct any questions to the ITIS team at itisgate@si.edu


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