Lets look at a few fields in the main Collection Object (CO) Form.
When a data table is embedded in the main collection object form, it is called a subform. Different subforms link to the main Collection Object form in a variety of ways. They also can link to more than one Collection Object, which saves you from having to type the same information over and over. There's a draw back, though.
Sometimes, when you edit a subform, you may be changing information for lots of specimens instead of just the one you are working with. ALWAYS be wary when editing existing records!
In red, we see a field for the Taxon information.
- When you go to enter the taxon of a specimen, you can type the first few letters of the Genus (or Class, Order, Family) and hit the 'tab' key, a window will pop up asking you to select from a list which taxon name you want to use.
- It does this by launching a sort of mini-query from the Collection Object form to the Taxon Table, which holds all our taxon data.
- You can see the Taxon table records more than just taxonomy- name of the person who first published the name, date published, and reference are some of the other fields in this table.
The Green subform is the Collecting Info (CI) . This field takes a lot of information from at least 3 tables and merges it into a single line.
- First, it reaches out to the Collecting Info table. This table has many fields, but only the Field Number is displayed off the main CO form.
- Next, it reaches into the Locality table. Here it takes the Locality name.
- Deeper in the Locality form are the Locality details, from which the CI field takes the Geography information and any georeference data.
- All these parts are combined in one line with a comma separating segments of information.
The blue subform Inventory.
- It reaches out to the Storage Table much in the same way as the Taxon field reaches out to the Taxon Table.
- There are many fields to the inventory data, and some of them reach out to more tables (like the Agent table).