CollectionSpace Data Type Definitions
Field category | Field type | Data accepted via UI | Data accepted for migration (if different) | Example | Screenshot |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Alphanumeric fields | Text | Alphanumeric values | The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog on January 1st, 1994. | ||
Number: float | Whole or decimal numeric values | 12.34 | |||
Number: integer | Whole numeric values | -45 | |||
Date fields | Calendar date | Any single date In the default configuration, dates entered ##/##/#### are assumed to be US-style, i.e. MM/DD/YYYY; organizations may configure an alternate default | 1/1/2000 1999/12/31 | ||
Structured date | May be entered in a wide variety of forms, CollectionSpace will parse out into earliest/latest dates where appropriate A list detailing acceptable date forms and how dates are parsed is available in the program's Github repository | 1950 1/1/1945 1930-1950 ca. 1925 ... | |||
Identification numbers | Controlled number | Alphanumeric values, or may be filled by the ID number generator. Values created by the generator may be over-written or edited by a user Patterns in the generator are set by the implementing institution | 2001.001.0001a-d | ||
Vocabularies | Authority | Alphanumeric values Field pulls data from one or more hierarchical vocabularies User may add new terms to a vocabulary via the UI | We recommend data validation before migration, e.g. to standardize names, add delimiters between multi-valued field contents, etc. | Brown, Eleanor point, projectile United States of America | |
Controlled list: static | Any alphanumeric (scalar or string) values Field is linked to a non-hierarchical controlled list User may not add new terms to a static list via the UI | All terms in a controlled list must be provided to data migration services team before migration. We recommend data validation before migration, e.g. to standardize names, add delimiters between multi-valued field contents, etc. | red female Kroner | ||
Controlled list: dynamic | Any alphanumeric (scalar or string) values Field is linked to a non-hierarchical controlled list User may add new terms to a dynamic list via the UI | All terms in a controlled list must be provided to data migration services team before migration We recommend data validation before migration, e.g. to standardize names, add delimiters between multi-valued field contents, etc. | exhibition donation permanent collection | ||
Other field notes | Group fields | Made up of two or more fields, each of which has its own field type. | Terms in a group are migrated separately, all fields in a group do not have to have data to be migrated properly | ||
Repeatable fields | Fields may be repeatable individually, as a group, or as a subset of a group | If migrating via Excel, use a semicolon to separate values in repeatable / multi-valued fields, e.g. red; blue |