DINOShop Helpdesk
You can reach the DINOShop Helpdesk at ++31 (0)30-2664481 (Mr. Peter Jellema) from 08.30 a.m. to 17.00 p.m. You will find an e-mail link to the DINOShop mailbox (info@dinoshop.nl) on all pages in DINOShop as well.

New DINOShop, old DINOShop
DINOShop has changed. If you want to take a look at how DINOShop looked like, click here.

Use
DINOShop can only be operated with a browser (e.g., Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer, but also Mozilla or Opera) and most of the problems that you would be able to fix are related to the browser settings. This page contains information on the following topics:

• Browsers and Settings
• Loggin in.
• Error messages
• Data provision
• Known problems

Browsers
The Internet browsers required for satisfactory access to DINOShop are Netscape Navigator version 4.08 to 4.78 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher. Other browsers might also function well with DINOShop, but have not been specially tested.

Your browser settings(Netscape Navigator)
DINOShop works with the following browser settings. The browser must be enabled for "JavaScript" and "style sheets". The options for this are located under Edit --> Preferences --> Advanced.

Under Edit --> Preferences --> Advanced --> Cache, "Document in cache is compared to document on network" must be set to either "Once per session" or "Every time".

Your browser settings (Microsoft Internet Explorer)
In Internet Explorer, go to the "Temporary Internet files" section under the Tools --> Internet Options --> General tab.

The "Settings" button will open a new window with the setting options. You must choose one of the following options for checking for newer versions of stored pages: "Every visit to the page", "Every time you start Internet Explorer" or "Automatically". Internet Explorer does not allow separate setting options for JavaScript and style sheets.

Browsers and XML
The requested borings will also be provided in an XML file format. Several style sheets are being released in the near future that will enable a further processing of the XML files. The XML files themselves can be viewed in Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher. In Netscape 6, as well as in Mozilla and Opera, the contents are shown but not the structure.

Logging in
If you are having trouble logging in, it could be caused by one of the following reasons:

• You do not yet have an account for DINOShop. Go to the page Subscription Application to apply for one.
• Check your browser settings and ensure that:
  • for Netscape: under Edit --> Preferences --> Advanced --> Cache "Document in cache is compared to document on network" is set to "Once per session" or "Every time"
  • for Explorer: under Settings, either "Every visit to the page", "Every time you start Internet Explorer" or "Automatically" is selected. (see: Your browser settings).

Error messages
If a window appears with the message Execute Access Denied, it could be that you:

• tried to open the page without being logged in. See: Loggin in.
• Thought you were logged in but the DINOShop server automatically logged you off. This can happen if too much time passes between accessing different pages. The DINOShop server must distribute different users across a limited number of connections to the database. After 30 minutes of inactivity, the server logs you off and transfers the connection to a different user.

Data provision
Once your order has been processed, the DINOShop server will send an e-mail to the address that you listed on your account application. If you have ordered data and do not receive notification within 24 hours, check to make sure that the data on your account application form is correct.
Important: The data are not sent as an attachment to this e-mail. Because requests can comprise a considerable number of files, you will be sent a URL from which you can download your data.


Known problems
Date display for groundwater data in MicroSoft Excel (TM)
Groundwater data is furnished in a so-called comma-separated file format. This is simply an ASCII text format in which the different fields are separated by commas. These CSV files can be imported into Excel (Data --> Get External Data --> Import Text File). One problem that can occur is that, depending on the regional settings, Excel tries to convert the bit of text with "dd-mm-yyyy" into a date format. If the regional setting in Excel is not set to the Netherlands, date strings that fit into an Anglo-Saxon date format (e.g., 12-10-2003) are displayed as 12/10/2003 in the Excel column. This causes two undesirable things to happen: 12 October becomes 10 December and the dash symbol becomes a slash symbol. If the next date is 13-10-2003, Excel cannot convert it and the string remains unchanged.

Solutions

• Change the date format in Windows to "dd-mm-yyyy", under --> Settings --> Control Panel --> Regional Settings. This solution remains in effect until the setting is changed again, but it may affect other applications/programs as well.
  
  
  
  
• Select the cells (in Excel) that contain a date and go to Format --> Cells and select the "Number" tab; scroll down to "Custom" and fill in "dd-mm-yyyy" in the "Type" field. A sample date in the correct date format will appear above it. This setting will only apply to the active Excel window. It will be lost when the application is closed.
  
  

Zip files
Requested data are furnished in the form of a standard Zip file, which can be unzipped with version 6.0 or higher of WinZip. DINOShop does not furnish any "self-extracting executables", files that unzip themselves. The reasons for this have to do with platform independence: users must also be able to view the Zip files on a Macintosh computer (with ZipIt) or a Unix workstation (e.g. with Gunzip).

PDF files
Users can also download PDF files from DINOShop. We recommend using version 4.05 or higher of Adobe Acrobat to read and/or print these files.

Spreadsheets
The tab-spaced ASCII text files can be imported into Microsoft Excel. To do this, the user must create a new Excel document to load the file into. Importing the files into an open Excel file can cause problems because the settings used might not be standard.

The OpenOffice program offers functionality similar to MicroSoft Excel, and is freely available.