{% load i18n %}

{% blocktrans %}The Reference Data Management (RDM) enables the creation and maintenance of controlled vocabularies that are used throughout your database. In Arches, controlled vocabularies consist of Concepts, and these Concepts are managed in Thesauri and Collections. In the RDM you can create new Thesauri, create new Concepts, import Concepts from external an endpoint (like the Getty AAT), and -- the ultimate goal -- create Collections, which will be used in your database as data input dropdown lists.{% endblocktrans %}

{% trans "Concepts" %}

{% blocktrans %}A Concept is a qualitative property that can be attached to a resource, something like "Stone" (which may describe a building material) or "House" (which may describe a past use for a structure). The advantage of storing these properties as Concepts is that a Concept may have attributes of its own. In the case of "House", we could add an alternate label, "Dwelling" to that Concept. Then, if a user searches for "dwelling", any resource with the "House" Concept attached to it will be found.{% endblocktrans %}

{% blocktrans %}Concepts can also be nested, to allow more complex and meaningful relationships between them. For example, "House" may appear next to "School" within a parent Concept called "Building Use".{% endblocktrans %}

{% trans "Thesauri" %}

{% blocktrans %}A Thesaurus is an entire set of Concepts which can be imported and exported as a whole. You can create as many new Thesauri as you need, or just add new Concepts to the default "Arches" Thesaurus. The organization of your Thesauri has no impact on the way Concepts will be exposed to the public or used throughout the app.{% endblocktrans %}

{% trans "Collections" %}

{% blocktrans %}Collections, or Concept Collections as they are sometimes called, are custom aggregations of Concepts that will be used in your app as dropdown lists during the data entry process. Collections allow you to reorganize your Concepts for the specific purpose of data entry, so your dropdown lists do not have to look anything like your Thesaurus. You can create as many Collections as you want, or add new Concepts to existing Collections.{% endblocktrans %}

{% trans "Example - Create a New Thesaurus" %}

{% blocktrans %}In the video below, a new Thesaurus is created. Once you have made a Thesaurus, you can begin creating a hierarchy of Concepts within it. Remember, the final step will be to make a new Collection and add Concepts to it (from any of your Thesauri).{% endblocktrans %}

{% trans "click to view demonstration" %} {% trans "open in new tab" %}  

{% trans "Example - Create a Top Concept" %}

{% blocktrans %}The first level of organization within a Thesaurus is a set of Top Concepts. A Top Concept may be something like "Architectural Styles" and its children Concepts will be the actual styles themselves. Below, a new, empty Top Concept is added to an empty Thesaurus.{% endblocktrans %}

{% trans "click to view demonstration" %} {% trans "open in new tab" %}  

{% trans "Example - Create New Concepts" %}

{% blocktrans %}To create a new Concept, begin by selecting the Top Concept under which it should be placed. This will bring the details about the Top Concept into the main panel. Use the Manage dropdown to "Add Child", type in a label, and select the correct language for the label.{% endblocktrans %}

{% trans "click to view demonstration" %} {% trans "open in new tab" %}  

{% trans "Example - Add an Alternate Label to a Concept" %}

{% blocktrans %}To improve the searchability of your Concepts, you can add as many alternate labels to each one as you want Below, the label "Dwelling" is added to the Concept "House". The result is that anyone using "Dwelling" as a search term will be shown Resources that have the "House" Concept.{% endblocktrans %}

{% trans "click to view demonstration" %} {% trans "open in new tab" %}  

{% trans "Example - Create a Collection" %}

{% blocktrans %}Creating a Collection is very similar to creating a Thesaurus. However, you will be adding existing Concepts to a Collection (potentially from more than one Thesaurus) instead of creating new ones. Below, a new Collection is created. To go further, select the Collection, and use the "Add dropdown entry" link to add existing Concepts to this Collection. When configuring the Graph for a Branch or Resource Model, you will now be able to add this Concept Collection to a node.{% endblocktrans %}

{% trans "click to view demonstration" %} {% trans "open in new tab" %}