Hello everyone,
My question is where can i find the GUID number or code? or does it change from place, person, collection … etc. to another.
best regards
Hi @Ibrahim
The GUID is automatically generated for various tables in the database schema, however the one that you would likely be most interested in is the GUID for Collection Objects (CO). In the default form, the GUID is visible at the bottom.
The GUID is a UUID version 4 string. The purpose is to uniquely identify the record globally (among records from other institutions, on GBIF etc). There is no central coordinating entity that hands out the strings, instead it relies on the level of randomness to ensure uniqueness. Each “thing” (a person, location, colleciton event) has its own unique GUID, not shared with anything else in the database.
If you are moving records into Specify that have an existing GUID, you may map the column containing the GUID’s to the GUID field within the table, similar to any other field. It is only when a record does not already have a GUID that Specify will freshly generate one.
Does this answer your question? Is there anything that I have missed?
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that is clear and enough for now
Thanks a lot
The only thing I would add is that not every table has a GUID or generates one which can be an annoyance for cleaning up duplicate or similar records - for example, Collecting Trip. But that’s more of an internal database work issue rather than a global uniqueness issue.
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thank you @Plarson
Interesting information,
because i have thousands of specimens with some old numbering which i want to integrate their old number in my new database. and i was wondering if a certain GUID cell can help with that.
If the existing objects have a GUID following the UUID structure, then I would say mapping it to the CO GUID during import is the logical choice. Usually this also serves as the occurrenceID when shared with external entities like GBIF, and they will want you to keep that consistent if you have shared with them previously through your old database (and will even go so far as to contact you if they notice that the identifier has changed)
There are other fields for other numbers, most prominently AltCatalogNumber if the previous number is not a UUID string, that may also be appropriate. You can also create your own custom number field using one of the user definable fields.