skylark:baskets


After searching for the variables you are interested in, the results screen gives several options to start building a basket.


search results

  • Single variable add – click on the Σ symbol for the variable you wish to add to the basket
  • Multiple variable add – use the tick boxes to select several variables, then click ‘multiple add’ to put them all into your basket
  • All variables add – use the ‘check all’ and ‘multiple add’ buttons to highlight and add all the variables listed

On adding variables, you will see a confirmation message for each variable. If one or more of your chosen variables cannot be added, a different message will appear.


After adding variables you can perform further searches to find more variables to add to the basket, or you can save the basket once complete.



The main Basket menu list options are as follows:

basket menu
Save basket – this saves your current basket. When saving a basket, you will be asked to name it: please pick a memorable, descriptive name as you may end up creating several baskets! N.B. your basket will be lost if you do not save it prior to emptying it, logging off or closing your browser window

View current basket – shows the variables in your currently active basket. If you wish to remove variables, you can delete them individually (click on the ✂ symbol) or delete them all by following the link at the bottom of the page.
If you have previously saved your basket, deleting the variables will not delete the whole basket. So, if you wanted to start a new basket you could ‘remove all’ then search and create a new basket from scratch. However you must save the basket first to retain it prior to removing all the variables.

Load/share my basket – click here to load a previously-saved basket for editing or updating. You can also share your basket for other researchers to see the contents

Load a shared basket – this allows you to load the variables from another user's shared basket into your own basket

Overwrite basket – overwrite an existing basket with your current one

Download basket – download an XML version of your basket’s variables to export and submit for processing once your application has been accepted



If you select 'Load/share my basket', 'Overwrite basket' or 'Download basket' you will see a list of your saved baskets. The example here is from 'load/share':

load/share basket

The 'BasketID' is a unique identifier comprised of your username and the basket code. This ID is the standard way to refer to baskets so be sure to quote it in any correspondence or enquiries.


Suggested maximum basket size

A ‘traffic light’ notification system is used in Skylark to denote the size of your current basket.
When variables are added to the basket and you click on ‘view current basket’, the header text will be amber if you have over 250 variables in the basket, and red if over the recommended maximum of 500 variables.

  • skylark/baskets.txt
  • Last modified: 23 months ago
  • by nmpo