4.4  Different types of field - references to records

You can include references to other records in the catalog. The field type is "Reference". This is useful if multiple records want to refer to the same piece of information (e.g. many experiments may use the same sample).

Adding links : references to other records within a catalog

A reference to another record shows the target record's name:

Click on the "+" button to expand the target record:

The Folder icon lets you point the reference at a new record; the arrow jumps to that record.

Reference or Subrecord?

A reference field looks similar to a Subrecord field - which should I use? The rule here is that a reference is used when you're pointing to a record which is already stored somewhere else in the catalog. You can have multiple references to the same record. A Subrecord field is useful when a record is only used by its parent.

Reverse Links: When you publish a catalog as a website, you'll see the references as hyperlinks - but you'll also see a list of all records which reference a particular record - so when you browse to the Protocol, you'll see a list of all corresponding Experiment records.

See also the reference pages on adding Reference fields.