Creating Records

Introduction

Records are the core data entities in your application that represent actual instances of the models you've defined. Each record contains values for all the attributes in its parent model, storing your research data in a structured format.

This guide will walk you through the process of creating new records, filling in their values, and establishing relationships with other records. By the end, you'll be able to efficiently populate your models with well-structured research data.

Prerequisites

Before you can create records, make sure you have:

• Created at least one model in your project
• Added attributes to your model to define its structure
• Established model relationships (optional, but necessary if you want to link records to each other)
• Appropriate permissions to create records in the current project and model

Record Creation Process

Follow these steps to create a new record:

1. Navigate to the Records page:
   • Go to your project dashboard
   • Select the model you want to add a record to
   • You'll be taken to the Records view for that model
2. Initiate record creation:
   • Click the "Create Record" button in the upper right corner of the Records page
3. Fill in attribute values:
   • Enter values for each attribute in the form
   • Required attributes are marked with an asterisk (*)
   • Different attribute types will present appropriate input fields (text boxes, date pickers, etc.)
4. Set up relationships (if applicable):
   • Scroll to the "Relationships" section
   • Select related records from the provided dropdowns
5. Save the record:
   • Click the "Create Record" button at the bottom of the form
   • If there are validation errors, correct them and try again
   • Upon success, you'll be redirected to the record list page

Form Field Types

Depending on the attribute types defined in your model, you'll see different input fields when creating a record:

Validation Rules

When creating records, your input will be validated against rules defined for each attribute. Common validation rules include:

• Required: The attribute must have a value
• Minimum/Maximum Length: Text must be within specified character count limits
• Minimum/Maximum Value: Numbers must be within specified range
• Pattern Matching: Value must match a specific format (e.g., email, URL)
• File Type/Size: Uploaded files must meet specified requirements
• Alpha/Alphanumeric: Text contains only alphabetic or alphanumeric characters
• Date Range: Date must be within a specified range

If validation fails when you submit the form, error messages will appear below the offending fields, guiding you on how to correct your input.

Adding Relationships

If your model has relationships defined with other models, you can establish connections between records:

Relationship Types

• Single Relationship: Connect to exactly one record (e.g., an experiment belongs to one researcher)
• Multiple Limited Relationship: Connect to up to N records (e.g., a publication has up to 5 authors)
• Multiple Unlimited Relationship: Connect to any number of records (e.g., a specimen can have many observations)

Setting Up Relationships

1. Locate the "Relationships" section in the record creation form
2. For each relationship type, you'll see a dropdown or multi-select field
3. Search for existing records by typing in the search box
4. Select the appropriate record(s) to establish the relationship
5. For single relationships, only one selection is allowed
6. For multiple relationships, you can select several records (up to the defined limit)

Record Limits

The number of records you can create is determined by your project's subscription tier:

• Planula Tier: Up to 300 records per project
• Polyp Tier: Up to 5,000 records per project
• Jelly Tier: Up to 50,000 records per project
• Swarm Tier: Up to 500,000 records per project
• Bloom Tier: Up to 5 million records per project

When you reach your record limit, you'll see a warning message when attempting to create new records. The message will show your current record count and the maximum allowed by your tier. You'll need to upgrade your subscription to add more records.

Best Practices

Follow these guidelines to maintain clean, well-structured data:

• Plan your data structure before creating large numbers of records
• Create related records first before creating records that need to reference them
• Use consistent formatting for text fields (e.g., capitalization, date formats)
• Include descriptive values for fields that will be used for display in relationships
• Consider bulk import for large data sets rather than manual entry. Use CSV import when you have 10+ records to create at once.
• Periodically review and clean up old or duplicate records