Auto-populating a reversely associated field
From Designer 7.13, there's the possibility to auto-populate a reversely associated field in an internally linked record with an entry-dependant default value.
When creating a new record with some internal link, e.g. a Thesaurus record with a narrower, related or non-preferred term where you'd like to fill in some standardardized comment in a notes field to further clarify the relation between the two terms (something like "based on" or "is variant of" or "copied from" etc.) then you'd maybe wish that the opposite (or some other matching) comment would automatically be added to the internally linked record (like "result of" maybe or "has variant" or "copied to".
A new properties tab called Internal link association properties for internal link definitions now allows you to specify such default comment pairs for one or two fields in the current database table definition. (The internal link type determines whether you can select one or two fields.)
In the Association field property you enter the field name in which a value from the Association column in the list on this properties tab must be entered, while in the field entered in the Reverse association field (if not greyed out) a value from the Reverse association field must be entered. If the Reverse association field property cannot be filled in, then it is implied that the Association field will also be used as the Reverse association field.
You can specify as many value pairs as you like. Both values can be the same too.
Some example use cases for related works that you could use:
based on <> result of
has part <> is part of
sequel of <> presequel of
released with <> released with
is variant of <> has variant
For related name for example:
changed from <> changed to
has alias <> is alias for
has member <> is member of
hived off from <> has hived off
merged with <> merged with
Or for copy history:
copied from <> copied to
However, you are free in choosing the values and fields for your particular internal link.
Then when the user creates a new record in the current database table and adds an internal link of the current type and enters one of the values from the Association/Reverse assocation list in the associated field then on saving of the record the matching value from the other column will be entered in its associated field in the other record (as long as that field was still empty).
Also when a record with an internal link already exists but the association fields in the current record and in the internally linked record are still empty before you enter a value from the list in the current record, will the matching value automatically be entered in the other record too.