Taxon Attribute: loading up data

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1

Beause many historical speciments, especially in our mollusc collection, lack locality info (or true collecting event data for that matter), we often need to resort to known distributional data for a given taxon. I would like to upload distribution info for taxa for which we have then. I figure the best place is within the Taxon Attribute (one of the customizable TextN fields). Correct?
However, when trying to upload my list of taxa and their distribution on the Taxon Attribute table, the WorkBench doesn’t show the related Taxon table to map on the given taxon. That Taxon table IS NOT available within Taxon Attribute.
It’s stange because building a query on Taxon Attribute, the table Taxon and its respective fields are perfectly available. But not in the WB.
Of course, I made sure that both, Taxon table within Taxon Attribute the table, and viceversa, are both visible. Plus the box for revealing hiden fields/tables is always checked. Still, when in the WB, within Taxon Attribute no table appears for Taxon. Just Agent tables.
Any clues?
Thanks.
Íñigo.

(on v7.11.3: Generated on 2026-04-20T22:26:46.418Z
as well as on v7.12.0.4: Generated on 2026-04-20T22:24:10.307Z)

2

Hi @igranzow,

Thank you for reaching out!

In WorkBench, -to-many relationships are hidden because this upload path is currently unsupported (see [a11y] Adding a Taxon name to the Taxon Attribute WB mapping gives an error · Issue #1457 · specify/specify7 · GitHub).

However, you can easily work around this limitation by batch editing taxon records! Using a saved query on the Taxon table or record set of Taxon records, you can use Batch Edit to associate them with TaxonAttributes.

Batch Edit Workaround via Query Steps:

  1. Create a query on the Taxon table
  2. Map to the necessary Taxon and Taxon Attribute fields
  3. Save this query
  4. Run the query and select Batch Edit
  5. In the grid editor interface, modify cells in the TaxonAttribute columns for each row with a Taxon record that needs a TaxonAttribute associated with it.

Batch Edit Workaround via Record Set Steps:

  1. Create a Record Set of all Taxon records that need TaxonAttributes
  2. Click the pencil by the Record Set name
  3. Click Query in this dialog
  4. Choose an existing query with necessary fields or create new
  5. Run the query and select Batch Edit
  6. In the grid editor interface, modify cells in the TaxonAttribute columns for each row with a Taxon record that needs a TaxonAttribute associated with it.

The Record Set method is beneficial because it ensures your Batch Edit data set is limited to only the chosen Taxon in need of a TaxonAttribute.

I hope this helps! Please let us know of any follow up questions you may have :smile:

3

Thanks so much Bronwyn

Yes, via Batch Edit will do