Note: I don't know to what forum I should submit feature requests, but since this is more technical, I'll post it to this Technical Collaboration Forum. Maybe it's worth to have a Bugs and/or Feature Requests forum?
There are two ways of connecting multiple (e.g. 3) collectors to a collecting event:
1) A link between the collecting event and each collector.
2) A link between the collecting event and a group, with the 3 collectors as group members.
I prefer to use the second option, since it's more structured, and it saves time entering information (especially for more than 2 collectors). You create the group once (luckily groups often recur), and you only perform one "adding action" per collecting event. For multiple determiners (e.g. a couple doing determinations) it's even necessary to use groups , since you can only add one determiner per determination.
However, uploading data via the WorkBench only allows you to use the first option. You can create up to 8 direct links between collectors and a collecting event, and 1 determiner for a maximum of 2 determinations. There is no possibility to define groups.
I thought that one way to "cheat" the system would be to write the group's name in the collectors last name in the WorkBench (e.g. Collector Last Name = Beatty & Donnelly), which Specify will accept as a "person". If you upload similar data later (Collector Last Name is again: Beatty & Donnelly), Specify detects this is the same agent.
Unfortunately, once you modified your Specify agent "Beatty & Donnelly" to a group and you added group members, new similar uploads via the WorkBench will not be detected as the same, but added again as a new agent with Agent Type = person.
Thus, my feature request is:
1) Users can specify the Agent Type in the WorkBench, at least for Collector1 and Determiner1&2, but other agents might be useful too.
OR
2) Specify detects that an agent (collector, determiner) uploaded via the WorkBench with a Last Name (Beatty & Donnelly), First Name (NULL), Middle Name (NULL) and Title (NULL) that is identical to an agent in the Specify database, is not a new agent, no matter what the Agent Type is.
uploading group agents request
Peter,
Part 2 of your request is completed, and, barring unforeseen issues during testing, it will most likely be included in an upcoming Specify 6.1 update.
It works exactly as you requested, and for all agents. When no existing agent is matched new agents are always of type "Person". This limitation will be eliminated when/if Part 1 of your request is made available.
Part 1 is also mostly working, but will require (probably) some additional work to prevent choosing say Type='Group' with non-blank FirstName or MiddleInitial.
Tim Noble
Great!
Either option 1 or 2 is fine with me. If both are implemented, that's even better. :-)