Manage Project Fields

Add, edit, and delete fields

To add a field:

1. Navigate to the Fields tab from Project Settings.
2. Select Add Field at the top of the field list.
3. Enter a field label, select a field type, apply an optional default value, and enter a description of the field.
   • You may leave the position blank to let the system auto-populate a number, or enter the preferred placement. The position number affects the column position in the item panel and Excel template.
   • If creating a List or Linked field, you will need to connect the field with the relevant lists and sources.
   • Check the cataloging forms to which you would like to display this field.
4. Select Create.

Your new field should appear in the list of fields and will be visible to users in your Forum project.

To edit a field:

1. Select the field from your field list, then select Edit, OR double-click the field to open the edit window.
2. Apply the edits to the field as desired. Note that you cannot edit a field type if data has already been cataloged in that field without removing the data first.
3. Select Save, and refresh the edit tab in Forum to see the changes take effect.

To delete a field, select the field from your field list and then the trash can icon . Select Delete. A field cannot be deleted if it already contains data. Much like changing a field type, you can use Excel to delete the data from a field in order to delete the field.

Configure default values, read-only, and required fields

Default values

Administrators can configure default values to auto-populate certain fields when new records are created. Fields will be populated with the default value when creating new records through:

• using the Options menu;
• uploading a new media file; and
• creating a new record though an Excel spreadsheet import with the SSID entered as NEW and the other fields left blank

Unless a field is read-only in the cataloging form, default values may be overwritten when a record is being created or edited, for example, when importing an Excel metadata spreadsheet.

To set a default value for a field:

1. Navigate to the Fields tab, select a field to edit or create a new field.
2. Under Default Value, enter a value.
   • Text and Text Area fields allow for free-text values.
   • Number fields allow for numeric values.
   • Date field allows for a calendar value in the form of MM/DD/YYYY.
   • List field allows for a default value from the selected list.
   • Linked field allows for a default value of text plus the Getty term ID in brackets. For example Pablo Picasso [[SSN 500009666]].
   • Boolean Checkbox field allows for a default value of None, True, or False.
3. Create your new field or Save your changes to an existing field.

When creating new items, the field will automatically populate with the defined default value, and you can overwrite this value by supplying a different value on creation, if needed.

Read-only fields

Fields by default are editable. However, administrators can set up read-only fields in the cataloging form so that different fields or entire forms may be rendered as read-only for different catalogers.

Read-only fields appear as gray in the cataloging form and cannot be edited. When a cataloger is uploading Excel spreadsheets to create new or modify existing records, any fields that are read-only in their cataloging forms will not accept new or modified data.

To set a field as read-only:

1. Navigate to the Cataloging Forms tab.
2. If a cataloging form does not already exist, create a new one and add the appropriate fields.
3. Select the field intended as read-only and select Edit.
4. In the edit window, uncheck the box for Editable, this will render the field as read-only.
5. Save your changes.

Required fields

Required fields are established in the publishing target, because it prevents items with fields that do not contain data from being published. The default for a field is not required.

To set a field as required for publishing:

1. Navigate to the Targets tab.
2. Select the target name from the list or create a new target.
3. Select Map Project Fields. Ensure the field you want to require is mapped.
4. Check the box under the Required column and Save your changes.

Field types

Your project’s fields are where you will input metadata to describe your items and make them searchable in end-user environments. Field types range from simple free-text entry to date fields that restrict values to a calendar date. There are several different types to choose from and you will need to decide which field type is best suited for the metadata you wish to catalog.  Each field type acts differently in how it sorts data, how the data can be searched, and how the data can be edited.

There are nine Field Types you can choose from when building your project’s field list in Forum Fields.

Text and Text Area Fields

Text and text area fields both hold the same amount of characters and act similarly. Although, the text area field will display as a larger box suitable for larger text entries, whereas a text field will display as a single-lined box in your cataloging form.

To create line breaks in a Text or Text Area field, use a pipe (|) character.

Number Fields

As expected, the number field type will only accept numeric characters as a value. When searching or filtering data in the project, enter numeric values using (>) greater than, (<) less than, or (=) equal to.

Alphanumeric Fields

Alphanumeric fields support alphabetic and numeric characters, such as accession numbers, including lowercase a-z, uppercase A-Z, numbers 0-9, and decimal points.

Date Fields

Date fields provide a calendar selection for data entry, filtering and searching. All entries in the data field must be formatted as either mm-dd-yyyy or yyyy-mm-dd. When importing dates from Excel, some formatting issues may occur. If you expect to use Excel for importing data to a project, we recommend using text fields instead for non-formatted date entries.

List Fields

Administrators can create controlled lists of terms to ensure standardized and consistent data. Lists can be setup as simple single-field lists of terms, or they can have multiple fields to qualify the term’s definition, its source, etc. It’s even possible to nest lists within a list.

Linked Fields

Linked fields connect a text field to a controlled authority, such as the Getty Art and Architecture Thesaurus or the Library of Congress. The Getty’s vocabularies Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT), Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN), and Union List of Artist Names (ULAN) are fully integrated within Forum.

Shared Shelf Names (SSN) builds from the Getty ULAN (Union List of Artist Names) and for most purposes, the two can be considered synonymous.

When searching on JSTOR, searches for variants of Getty terms will return relevant results that have been cataloged with the preferred term and vice versa. This includes keyword searches, searches using fields, and when performing an Advanced Search.

For more information on how to catalog linked authorities, see Names & Getty Vocabularies.

Boolean (Checkbox) Fields

Boolean fields are established as a checkbox with a value of True when checked or a value of False when unchecked. Values can also be left empty as a null value (N/A), in which the box will appear with a blue square.

Field descriptions

When setting up a new or editing an existing field, there is a text area box in the dialog window to enter a description. This area is a designated space to enter defining language for the field’s data information, meaning you can add instructions for what type of information to enter and how to enter it. The text would then appear when the cataloger hovers their cursor over the field label in the cataloging form. The description can be edited under the Fields tab to be used across all cataloging forms, or you can edit the description in each cataloging form to provide specific instructions to specific catalogers.

The Description field is not just limited to text, you may add clickable URLs to the instructions for more information. For example, using the Creator field, apply HTML coding to create a hyperlink and use the added code to open the link in a new browser tab. In this Dublin Core example, name, brief biographical information, and roles (if necessary) of the named creator or creators in the design and production of the work, will be presented in a syntax suitable for display to the end-user.

Follow Dublin Core format standards:

<a href="http://dublincore.org/documents/name-representation/" target="_blank">http://dublincore.org/documents/name-representation/</a>.

The hover text in the cataloging form will display with a hyperlink, and the additional coding will open the page in a new browser tab. 

Since field descriptions can be unique to a cataloging form, if you edit the description in an existing field under the Fields tab, check that those changes have applied to the Cataloging Forms tab if you want the field descriptions to be the same.

Position numbers

Another step when setting up a new or editing an existing field is to designate the position number. The position number relates to the placement of the field in the item panel’s column view, which can be re-arranged, but it is more importantly related to the default column order of the Excel template.

If you or your catalogers anticipate working in Excel, creating a hierarchy or structure to the order of fields in this template can be defined through the position number. Leaving that field blank during new field set-up will prompt the system to apply a number starting at 1000, translating to the columns at the far end of the item panel and Excel template.