I am trying to find a way to associate a collection object (=fossil specimen) with the physical drawer it can be found in. I would like the storage tree to be searchable/selectable from the New collection object form, but there is no reference to the storage tree on the form. Is there a way to add that and make assignment to a drawer a normal part of entering a new specimen? I’ll also want to do this in bulk through the Workbench. Thanks.
Good morning Micheal,
What you are seeking to do is totally possible.
The data model
You can associate a preparation with a storage location, and collection objects can have associated preparations (many preparations can be associated with one CO). For example:
Collection Object #12345 → Preparation (a particular rock/fossil) → Storage (a drawer)
Interacting with the storage tree from the new collection object form
To allow the user to interact with the storage tree from the form when entering the new collection object form, you should include a querycombobox for the storage tree within the xml definition for the preparation table. For example
<row>
<cell type="label" labelfor="4"/>
<cell type="field" id="4" name="storage" uitype="querycbx" initialize="name=Storage" colspan="12"/>
</row>
This should be placed within the preparation viewdef. This will result in something like the screenshot below (I have excluded the other fields from the xml for brevity)
Using the workbench
You can assign objects to a particular drawer through the workbench. To do this, use the Collection Object table as your base table, and then include the preparation table (and any required fields) and the ranks of the storage tree that are required for your configuration. Something like the below
I hope this helped, and please let me know if I have been unclear in anything or you if you have any questions