I would like to set a rule for some of our collections to require unique Alternative Catalogue Numbers within the collection.
If I follow the guide, setting the scope to Collection, I end up with ‘existing duplicates’ warnings. Within the desired collections it’s realistic to fix the duplicates, but in many cases it would take too much effort from the collection managers who are not even interested in this feature.
So, ideally we would like to force this uniqueness rule only in the selected collections, not in all of them. Is it doable?
Thank you for your question! At the moment, this is not possible.
The Uniqueness Rules are fundamentally set at the discipline level (excluding globally-scoped rules), meaning all collections within that discipline will adhere to those rules. This request could be added to New Feature Requests, but the current configuration was intentional and carefully considered before the implementation. If you do move forward with this and need any guidance on removing duplicates for those collections in batches, please let us know!
Discipline level would be manageable, but I might misunderstand something.
When I try to create a new Uniqueness rule to have unique Alternative catalogue numbers within the collection, I try to achieve that in a discipline, which only has this single collection in question. So my understanding is that it should not be a problem.
However, when I export the duplicates using the corresponding button on the panel, all the duplicates are exported in all collections, not only in the chosen discipline/collection.
If I try this feature in a discipline, where no duplicate occurs, I still cannot implement this rule, because there are duplicates within the database.
Since using the Alternative catalogue number is not consequent among all our collections, removing all duplicates in the database is not viable solution for us so far.
You are correct, when you create a uniqueness rule, the validation check for existing duplicates runs globally across all disciplines in the database. It isn’t currently scoped to just the discipline where you want the rule to apply. This is why you are being blocked by duplicates in collections you aren’t even targeting.
Based on your feedback, we have created a new, formal feature request on GitHub to address this specific problem. The request proposes that the validation check should be scoped to match the rule itself, so it only looks for duplicates within the records the rule will actually affect.
