Specify 7.12 Release Announcement
With special delight, the SCC would like to introduce Specify 7.12—a transformative release that heralds the arrival of GeoSpecify, a research domain extension to support digitization and curation of Geological collections. Specify 7.12 also includes a bevy of community requested capabilities and launches our new logo and graphic design.
One of the headline capabilities of Specify 7.12 is a new Guided Setup tool that enables users to create a new Specify database entirely from within the Specify 7 interface, which eliminates legacy dependencies on admin functions in Specify 6.
Database administrators can also now use the Specify System Config tool to expand their site’s database by enabling the addition of new Divisions, Disciplines, and Collections.
Defaults for newly created disciplines and collections have been added to the release, aligning with the standard vocabularies defined by GBIF, and on community feedback. That includes new default values for geocollections. (See: GeoSpecify: From Biodiversity to Earth Science and Beyond )
A new visual editor for Field Formatting and Auto-Numbering has been added, reflects an ongoing priority to surface user interfaces for underlying setup and configuration functions.
Collection Preferences are introduced in 7.12 to provide an interface for administrators for setting defaults for simple aspects, such as whether assets are public by default, and enabling the configuration for tree behavior.
Viewing attachments has been enhanced in this release, adding support for image panning and zooming when viewing attachments in a Specify data form or dialog.
Introducing GeoSpecify
The Specify Collections Consortium (SCC) is particularly thrilled to extend its reach to the earth sciences with GeoSpecify, a powerful new subsystem integrated directly into Specify 7.12. GeoSpecify is the result of a three-year engagement among geoscientists of the Swiss Natural History Museums of Bern, Basel, Geneva, Lausanne, and SCC staff. We gratefully acknowledge the investment and confidence of the Swiss Academy of Sciences which funded the collaborative effort under the Swiss Natural History Collections Network “SwissCollNet” Program.
Elaborating the Data Model
In comparison to the typical description of biological specimens, cataloging in geological collections often requires broader and more nuanced collection object information concepts.
For example, in a geological collection a single physical object (matrix, plate, slab, rock, core, etc.) may contain multiple discrete biological or geological entities. This juxtaposition or co-location of distinct catalogable ‘species’ within a single physical entity challenged Specify’s existing definitions of Collection Object and Preparation, which are at the core of the Specify data model.
To address this “matrix challenge” and support unique ways in which geologists think about collection objects, we significantly expanded the Specify data model in ways that can also benefit all biological and paleontological disciplines. We did this by carefully integrating the new specimen information concepts: Components, Collection Object Types, and Collection Object Groups.
- Components allow for the granular identification, description, and classification of sub-parts within a single, cataloged Collection Object. Distinct parts can now have their own descriptions and associations (linkages) to name classifications in Specify appropriate for that element type.
- Collection Object Types (COTs) enable grouping of Collection Objects within a Specify Collection that share a common set of identifiers, taxonomy, and description practices. A single collection can now support multiple taxon/name classifications, e.g., one for minerals, and one for fossils.
- Collection Object Groups (COGs) allow Collection Objects that share physical integrity to be logically associated, whether they are currently physically connected on a single matrix or substrate, or if they are, distinct, individually catalogable fragments of what was originally a single physical object.
- Geologic Context & Advanced Age Tracking: We have introduced a dedicated Geologic Context module (including a Tectonic Unit Tree) and Extended Age Queries, allowing collections to search for a specific name or period directly within the Chronostratigraphic Chart.
The figure below is a snippet of Specify’s updated data model. It shows the new core information elements added for GeoSpecify and their relationships. Several of these changes will also be useful for biological collection databases that include heterogeneous types of specimens. All sites upgrading to Specify 7.12 will be updated with these data model changes during installation.
[!info]
This summary only scratches the surface of GeoSpecify innovations. Read the background behind the initiative, more on the new data model elements, and about our collaboration with the Swiss museums in the article: GeoSpecify: From Biodiversity to Earth Science and Beyond
New Documentation
- System Configuration Tool
- User Preferences
- Collection Preferences
- How to Change or Add a Field Format
- Components
Updated Documentation
- Self-Hosting Specify 7
- User Tools Menu
- Customizing Statistics
- Collection Object Groups
- Trees in Specify
- Adding a New Taxon Tree
- Catalog Number Regular Expression Formatter Set Up
- Interactions
7.12.0.4 (18 April 2026)
- Fixes an issue where WorkBench Schema records would be preserved instead of standard Schema Config records when deduplicating (#7989)
- Prevents schema container duplication when initializing the database and removes existing duplicates
- Added a ‘schema repair’ utility for adding missing schema config records
- Fixes Redis key collision so that keys are now automatically qualified by database name (#7761)
- Fixes a bug that prevented partial dates from appearing in query results in some cases (#7970)
- Fixes a bug preventing the use of the ‘negate’ operator on tree query fields (#7986)
- Fixes an issue that resulted in overly complex queries on the backend (#7981)
- Fixes an issue where app resources are hidden for users that do not have permission to edit Collection Preferences (#7990)
- Fixes an issue where users would automatically gain access to collections they have access to in Specify 6, even if permissions were removed in 7 (#7991)
7.12.0 (10 April 2026)
Added
- Introduces the Guided Setup Tool, a step-by-step wizard for new Specify installations that enables the initial creation of institutions, divisions, and disciplines (#7647, #7674)
- Adds the System Configuration Tool, a new administrative interface for managing high-level system settings and infrastructure configurations without direct database access (#7312, #7647)
- Introduces a UI Branding Refresh, featuring new logos, updated color palettes, and modern graphics, including accessibility improvements to meet WCAG 2.1 AA compliance (#7788)
- Adds a Visual Editor for Field Formatters, providing a visual interface for configuration and reducing the need for manual XML/JSON editing (#5075)
- Adds a Collection Preferences UI for managing collection-specific settings directly within the application (#7557, #7608)
- Adds the Tree Import feature, enabling the direct import of new default tree data for Taxon, Storage, and other hierarchical trees (#6429)
- Adds support for using Interaction Identifiers (preparation identifiers) when creating or adding items in the Interactions modules, including Loans (#7644)
- Adds support for the Components data model, enabling the capture of constituent parts as named or numbered parts of a Collection Object (#6721)
- Adds zoom support for images within the attachment previewer (#7526)
- Adds Batch Edit support for attachment-related tables to streamline metadata management (#7453)
- Adds the
ALLOW_SUPPORT_LOGINenvironment variable to Docker to facilitate troubleshooting by support staff (#7399) - Adds support for automatic database user creation for new Specify 7 instances (#6389)
Changed
- Updates the Query Builder “NOT” logic to include records with empty (null) values by default for “In”, “Contains”, or “=” comparisons (#7477, #7651)
- Enhances the Catalog Number Search to intelligently detect if a number is numeric or alphanumeric before searching to prevent casting errors (#7469)
- Moves attachment downloading for record sets to the backend to improve performance (#6625)
- Changes Object Formatters to automatically apply date formatting to temporal fields (#7807)
- Replaces legacy table icons with modern
SvgIconcomponents (#7429) - Upgrades the backend framework Django to version 4.2.27 (#7591)
Fixed
- Fixes an issue in Workbench where attachment imports could become stuck (#7798)
- Fixes an issue where deleting a dataset in Workbench incorrectly navigated the user away from the page (#7519)
- Fixes an issue where the WorkBench would only match to Agent records that had the type ‘Person’ (#3723)
- Fixes an issue where Quantity Resolved enforcement was not correctly handled in validation (#7670)
- Fixes the Auto-populate preference during record merging (#7478)
- Fixes an issue preventing the cloning of Collection Object Attribute (COA) values (#7538)
- Fixes ordering issues in tree queries (#7528) and bad structures on taxon imports (#7765)
- Fixes a regression that prevented manual typing in tree rank picklists (#7597)
- Fixes an issue that caused broken transactions during autonumbering (#7671)
- Implements a “Delete Blockers” hotfix to resolve stability issues during record deletion (#7833)
- Fixes an issue in Firefox where “Download All” failed for single attachments (#6619)
- Fixes an issue with multi-select functionality in embedded record sets (#7796)
- Fixes Host Taxon disambiguation cases in query results (#7509)
The full changelog is available on GitHub
For source code go to the GitHub Specify 7 repository
For more information about Specify 7, or about this release, see https://www.specifysoftware.org/products/specify-7/, or email support@specifysoftware.org.