Field level help: Help View, Field properties and Tooltip

Details about how to add and edit the text that displays in Help View can be found in the Axiell Designer Help.

Before looking at what help is available at the field level, it is useful to understand the difference between a field's system name and its label in the User Interface, and how we refer to fields in this documentation:

When working with records in Record details View (or a Zoom screenClosed A Zoom screen is a pop-up screen similar to Record details View but with fewer options, fields and panels. It will pop-up and display summary details of a Linked record (for a term, person, location, etc.) when an underlined value is clicked in Display mode or the Details button is selected when linking records in Edit mode, for instance. Typically, record details in a Zoom screen can be edited.) you will see that a field has a label, Notes for instance, which broadly describes the information expected in the field. Field labels are not unique and the same label can be used elsewhere in the same record. You will find many Notes, Type and Date fields for instance:

Field labels

Field labels can be customized by your institution; and in a multilingual environment they can be translated. Clearly, a field's label will say something about the data the field holds, but it is not a unique identifier, and when working in Collections, running a report or performing an Advanced search for instance, it is necessary to uniquely identify a field.

To do that we use a field's system name or tag.

The simplest way to identify a field's system name and tag is to hover the mouse cursor over the field. A tooltip will display the field's system name and tag, name and BA respectively in this example:

System name and tag

For the most part, you can use the system name or tag to uniquely identify a field. Note however that in a multilingual environment a field's system name can be translated and the tooltip will show the system name in the current interface language, French in this example:

While this should not be an issue when referencing a field in the current interface language (and it is not an issue if your system is monolingual), keep in mind that the field tag is the same across all languages and it is an infallible identifier of a field.

This has implications for how we refer to fields in this documentation, and for the most part we refer to a field using its system name and tag:

name (BA)

If we do not need to identify a field uniquely, we may use a field's label, the group of fields it belongs to and perhaps the panel on which it is found in Record details View. For example:

Identification tab

Because the same field label can appear in more than one group of fields, it can be useful to identify a field by its label and the group to which it belongs: for example, Name: (Authorised form of name) refers to the Name field in the Authorised form of name group of fields. If necessary, the name of the panel and data sourceClosed The management of a collection can involve a vast amount of information about objects / items / books, people and organizations, events, administration and more. This information is stored as records in data sources. Each data source stores a specific type of information: details about collection items, people, events, loans, and so on. can be included: Name: (Authorised form of name) on the Identification panel in Persons and institutions.

Information about fields is accessible in several ways from within Axiell Collections:

Source of help

Details

Help View

Help View provides a description of a field's purpose and other data entry instructions for users.

Details here.

Field properties box

Back-end details about a field are available in the Field properties box. This information is more technical than that available in Help View and is typically used by Power users and Application Administrators.

Below you will find an explanation of many of the properties listed in the Field properties box. Field properties are defined in Axiell DesignerClosed A tool for designing, creating, customizing and managing Axiell Collections applications and databases, broadly speaking, the Axiell Collections Model Application. As well as managing databases, including user access and permissions, Designer is used for such tasks as translating field labels, tooltips, values in drop lists, etc. and Application Administrators will find full details about all field properties in the Axiell Designer Help.

Application Administrators define fields in a .inf database definition file in Axiell Designer: a .inf file defines a single table in a SQL database.

Many of the properties shown in the Field properties box are specified on the Field properties tab in Axiell Designer. Here we see an example of the Field properties tab for the creator (VV) field, which is defined in collect.inf:

Field properties

To display the Field properties box:

  1. Right-click a field in Record details View or Result set View when viewing or editing a record.
  2. Select Properties in the context menu that displays to display the Field properties box:

    Properties

Information about a field and its data is presented across four tabs in the Field properties box (the Link Info tab only displays for Linked fields)1. Here we see the properties defined for the creator (VV) field:

Field Info tab

Prior to Collections version 1.16, the Field properties box had a single tab with details about a field's properties and data organized under the headings Field Info, Screen, Data:

Field Info

To accommodate the greater range of information now available in the Field properties box, each of the three sections has a dedicated tab of the same name, with an additional Link Info tab provided for details about Linked fieldsClosed A type of field used to link one record to another. A Linked field is a drop list of values (records that the field can link to). When a link is made, the field stores a reference to the linked record (a linkref).. Below, you will find an explanation of all of the properties listed in the prior version of the Field properties box, but note that some properties have moved (for instance, Occurrence has moved from the Field Info section to the Screen tab).

Details about a field's properties and data are available across four tabs:

Field labels, Name, Name type, etc. in the English example below, are specified separately to system names in a screen file (these have a .fmt extension) or on the User interface text tab in Axiell Designer.

More details in the Axiell Designer Help

  • See Fields for more background details about field names and tags.
  • See Field names for details about specifying a field name on the Field properties tab in Axiell Designer.
  • See Screens for more details about designing screens.

The system name of the field and the field tag in brackets, e.g.:

creator (VV)

Fields are defined in a .inf file in the Collections administration application, Axiell DesignerClosed A tool for designing, creating, customizing and managing Axiell Collections applications and databases, broadly speaking, the Axiell Collections Model Application. As well as managing databases, including user access and permissions, Designer is used for such tasks as translating field labels, tooltips, values in drop lists, etc.. In this example, the creator (VV) field is defined in collect.inf and the name and tag are specified on the Field properties tab in Axiell Designer:

Field properties

The primary identifier of a field is its tag. A tag:

  • Consists of two characters: a letter, digit or % sign followed by a letter or digit.
  • Must be unique within the current .inf file.

    Tags are case sensitive: both a1 and A1 can be used within the same database definition file.

The field name, creator in this example, is a more user-friendly reference to the field and it can be translated for all available languages in your implementation. The field name is used in an Advanced search and other processes (such as Exports) and the name should be descriptive of the information stored in the field.

When you change the language of the User Interface in a multilingual system by selecting a language from the Main menu, the field name translated in Axiell Designer will be used (in tooltips for example):

The system name in English:

System name and tag

The system name in French:

The simplest way to identify a field's system name and tag is to hover the mouse cursor over the field. As we see above, a tooltip will display a field's system name and tag in the current interface language (selected in the Main menu).

More details about the tooltip below.

The maximum number of characters that can be entered in the field.

More details in the Axiell Designer Help

This tells us the field's data type, e.g.:

A field's data type determines what type of data can be saved in the field.

More details in the Axiell Designer Help

Field occurrence is specified with the Repeatable field property in the data dictionary in Axiell Designer. Fields can also be assigned to a group in the data dictionary with the Member of group property. A group comprises one or more repeatable fields: all fields in the group are repeated or moved together when an occurrence of any field in the group is added or deleted.

In this example, author.name (au) is defined in document.inf and the Repeatable property is specified on the Field properties tab in Axiell Designer, allowing for multiple occurrences of the field in a record:

Repeatable

If a field is also a member of a group of fields, all fields in the group are repeated together as a new occurrence is added to a record. See Group below for more details.

More details in the Axiell Designer Help

The Repeatable property is listed on both the Field Info and the Screen tabs in the Field properties box.

If a field in the current record can have more than one value (there can be more than one occurrenceClosed If a field in the current record can have more than one value, we add an occurrence of the field for each value (e.g. a book can have multiple authors so we add an occurrence of the author.name (au) field for each author). An occurrence can be a member of a group of fields, and adding an occurrence of the field adds all members of the group at once. of the field), the Field properties box will show Repeatable = True.

Occurrence on the Screen tab will indicate which occurrence the current field is (the second of three for instance).

Note: Occurrence does not indicate how many occurrences there are, only which one the current field is. If there are three occurrences of a field, three authors for instance, and we check Field properties for the second of them, Occurrence will indicate 2.

Because a book can have more than one author the author.name (ya) field is configured to be Repeatable so that each author's name can be added to a record for the book. If three authors are recorded, there will be three occurrences of the field:

Occurrence

If we checked Field properties for the third occurrence, it would indicate 3.

More details about adding occurrences to a record

See Occurrences for details about how to add an occurrence of a field or group of fields to a record.

In the example below, the four fields are defined in collect.inf and the group name is specified in the Member of group property on the Field properties tab in Axiell Designer:

Member of group

More details in the Axiell Designer Help

If the field is a member of a group of fields, the name of the field group is shown here.

When a field is a member of a group of fields, all fields in the group are repeated together when a new occurrence of one of the fields is added to a record. In this example, five fields are members of the Production group:

  • Creator
  • Role
  • Qualifier
  • Place
  • Production notes

When a new occurrence of any field in the group is added:

New occurrence

all five fields are repeated:

New occurrence

Additionally, when fields are grouped:

More details about adding occurrences to a record

See Occurrences for details about how to add an occurrence of a field or group of fields to a record.

Collections system can be multilingual, with individual fields configured to accept data in two or more languages. In this example, creator (VV) is configured to be multilingual on the Field properties tab in Axiell Designer:

Multilingual

More details in the Axiell Designer Help

Indicates whether the field is multilingual (True) or not (False). Note that not all fields in a multilingual system are necessarily configured to be multilingual and therefore translatable.

When a field is configured to be multilingual, users can select a language from the Data language drop list in the Main menu to view and edit data in that selected language.

Note: See Working in multilingual systems for details about working with multilingual fields.

The Inheritable / Inherited property is listed on both the Field Info and the Data tabs in the Field properties box.

Indicates whether the field is inheritable (True) or not (False).

Where records can be arranged in a hierarchy, a field can be configured to be inherited so that a record lower in the hierarchy inherits a value entered in a record immediately higher in the hierarchy (its parent). This can be efficient as a value only needs to be entered and saved in the parent record to be inherited by all of its children; importantly, while the value displays in a child record it is not stored in that record (in the child record the field is actually empty until the field is edited and the inherited value is overwritten).

This is explained in more detail here.

More details in the Axiell Designer Help

Link Info tab

A Linked fieldClosed A type of field used to link one record to another. A Linked field is a drop list of values (records that the field can link to). When a link is made, the field stores a reference to the linked record (a linkref). links the current record to a record in the same or another data sourceClosed The management of a collection can involve a vast amount of information about objects / items / books, people and organizations, events, administration and more. This information is stored as records in data sources. Each data source stores a specific type of information: details about collection items, people, events, loans, and so on.. In this example, the Author field (author.name (ya)) links a record for a book in the Library catalogue to a record for the author in Persons and institutions:

The unique record number (prirefClosed A record's unique identifier (aka Record number). The Record number field is found on the Management details (or Notes and description) panel in Collections version 5.0 onwards. Alternatively, add the priref column to Result set View. The field tag for the priref field is %0.) for the linked record is not stored in author.name (ya) but in a back-end field called a Forward reference field or lref. On the Link Info tab we see, amongst other things, the field name and tag for the lref:

Link reference field

Other useful information shown is the domainClosed A subset of records in an Authority data source, grouping similar sorts of records. When a search or Linked field is associated with a domain, only records in that domain are available to that field. For example, records for authors can be assigned to the AUTHOR domain (using the Name Type / name.type (do) field). When linking a record for a book to a record for its author, the Author Linked field will point to the AUTHOR domain, a subset of records in Persons and institutions exclusively for authors. In the Thseaurus, a record is assigned to a domain using the Term Type / term.type (do) field. that the current Linked field is associated with. Domains are described here.

Screen tab

A screen is a design component used, amongst other things, to present record data in the Collections User Interface. Here you find details about the screen tab / sheet / form on which the field was placed, including whether more than one instance of the field can display.

Field occurrence is specified with the Repeatable field property in the data dictionary in Axiell Designer. Fields can also be assigned to a group in the data dictionary with the Member of group property. A group comprises one or more repeatable fields: all fields in the group are repeated or moved together when an occurrence of any field in the group is added or deleted.

In this example, author.name (au) is defined in document.inf and the Repeatable property is specified on the Field properties tab in Axiell Designer, allowing for multiple occurrences of the field in a record:

Repeatable

If a field is also a member of a group of fields, all fields in the group are repeated together as a new occurrence is added to a record. See Group below for more details.

More details in the Axiell Designer Help

The Repeatable property is listed on both the Field Info and the Screen tabs in the Field properties box.

If a field in the current record can have more than one value (there can be more than one occurrenceClosed If a field in the current record can have more than one value, we add an occurrence of the field for each value (e.g. a book can have multiple authors so we add an occurrence of the author.name (au) field for each author). An occurrence can be a member of a group of fields, and adding an occurrence of the field adds all members of the group at once. of the field), the Field properties box will show Repeatable = True.

The Occurrence label on the Screen tab will indicate which occurrence the current field is (the second of three for instance).

Note: Occurrence does not indicate how many occurrences there are, only which one the current field is. If there are three occurrences of a field, three authors for instance, and we check Field properties for the second of them, Occurrence will indicate 2.

Because a book can have more than one author the author.name (ya) field is configured to be Repeatable so that each author's name can be added to a record for the book. If three authors are recorded, there will be three occurrences of the field:

Occurrence

If we checked Field properties for the third occurrence, it would indicate 3.

More details about adding occurrences to a record

See Occurrences for details about how to add an occurrence of a field or group of fields to a record.

If a regular expression has been specified for the field, it will be shown here. Regular expressions can be used to determine how the content entered in a field should be formatted when users enter data.

Regular expressions are specified for a field in a screen definition file (.fmt). Screen definitions are saved in the Screens folder on the server and are edited in Axiell Designer. A regular expression is specified by right-clicking a field in the Screen editor and selecting Properties from the menu that displays:

Edit screen

More details in the Axiell Designer Help

Data tab

The Inheritable / Inherited property is listed on both the Field Info and the Data tabs in the Field properties box.

Indicates whether the field is inheritable (True) or not (False).

Where records can be arranged in a hierarchy, a field can be configured to be inherited so that a record lower in the hierarchy inherits a value entered in a record immediately higher in the hierarchy (its parent). This can be efficient as a value only needs to be entered and saved in the parent record to be inherited by all of its children; importantly, while the value displays in a child record it is not stored in that record (in the child record the field is actually empty until the field is edited and the inherited value is overwritten).

This is explained in more detail here.

More details in the Axiell Designer Help

Data

Shows the data saved in the field.

If the field is multilingual (indicated on the Field Info tab), data is shown for each language in which data has been saved:

Data tab

The Invariant checkbox only displays for fields configured to be multilingual. It indicates whether the value in a particular language (en-GB in this example) is an invariant value: one that displays for all available data languages when no translation is currently available.

Invariance ensures that certain information in a record will display in every available language even if it has not been translated. It can also be useful for translators, as no matter what language is selected from the Data language drop list, the value to be translated will display until it has been translated.

Note: As soon as a translation is available, the invariant value will no longer display.

In the example above, the Notes field is multilingual:

  • The English (en-GB) value is flagged as Invariant.
  • A German translation is provided.
  • There is currently no French translation.

When the Data language is switched to French, the Notes field will be populated with the English value:

Language When the record is viewed in each language,
the value will be:		 Invariant

English

An interesting note in English

Yes

German

Ein interessanter Hinweis aus dem Englischen ins Deutsche übersetzt

 

French

An interesting note in English

 
   

 

Invariant value

The Invariant checkbox is read-only and cannot be changed here:

Lists the language code for each language in which data has been saved, e.g. en-US for US English, fr-FR for French.

Tooltip: hover-over field

When working with Axiell Collections it is often necessary to know a field's system name or tag (when performing an Advanced search for instance). The quickest and simplest way to identify these is to hover the cursor over a field: a tooltip will display the field's system name in current interface language (selected in the Main menu) and its unique tag.

This feature is available in different modesClosed A record is either in Display mode (we view its details) or Edit mode (we add or edit its details). A record enters Edit mode as soon as we create a new record, copy a record in Record details View or edit an existing record. and Views, including: