Create collection relationships to all other collections

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Hi @Marion,

I am happy to clarify how the relationship sides work!

Left Side and Right Side are fixed roles defined when the Relationship Type is created. They establish the “direction” of the link.

Left Side Source
Left Side Source2348×956 149 KB

For your specific goal (linking many collections from various disciplines to Historical Context):

  • Left Side (Source): Your 30 different collections.
  • Right Side (Destination): The “Historical Context” collection.

How it works in practice

The “direction” determines how you interact with the relationship in the forms:

1. From the “Left Side”
When you are in a collection like DNA, you are on the Left Side. You want to create a link pointing to the Right Side (Historical Context).

  • Action: You need to create the link here.
  • Tool: You must use the CollectionRelOneToManyPlugin.
  • Why? Standard ‘dropdowns’ (query combo boxes) in Specify can only see records in the current collection. This plugin is special since it allows you to search and select a record from a different collection (the Right Side) to bridge the gap.

You can even create these in bulk, see:

2. From the “Right Side” (Historical Context)

When you are in the Historical Context collection, you are on the Right Side. You want to see all the incoming links from the Left Side (DNA, Tissue, etc.).

  • Action: You want to view the links here.
  • Tool: You use the rightsiderels subview (like the one I provided).
  • Why? Since this record is the “destination” for potentially many records across 30 collections, a subview is the best way to list them all in one place. The ColRelTypePlugin only supports showing a single right side relationship (which is good for tissues and vouchers, not in this case).

Setup Summary

  • Add the CollectionRelOneToManyPlugin so users can search for and attach a Historical Context record, using the ‘Collection Relationship Type’ you create bridging the two collections.
  • Add the custom rightsiderels subview to the Historical Context forms so you can see the list of all connected specimens from other disciplines.

I hope this helps demystify the terminology a bit. Let me know if this is still not clear.