Associations

If a new group is required for a group of Associations select the New Group button, give the group a title / name. Click Save.
The new group will now be available to add associations to. Tip It may be useful to have a 'general' group for one-off Association types.

To add a new Association type click the Add New Association button at the top right of the table.
This opens the Add Association definition panel where the following details are completed.

1. Group - select the Group this Association belongs to.
2. Title - name the Association type.
3. Bidirectional - only check Bidirectional when the description is the same both ways (e.g. “is linked to”) and between Entities of the same type for the From Entity Type and the To Entity Type - e.g Person to Person. Leave unchecked when the Forward and Reverse descriptions differ (e.g. “is parent of” / “is child of”) so both descriptions can be offered when creating a link. If bidirectional is checked and the Rules include different Entity Types - e.g Person to Location, then the reverse description will not be available for selection (when creating Document Links) between the To Entity type and the From Entity Type e.g Location to Person.
4. Forward description - Mandatory; the label to be displayed when viewing an association description e.g Jones Steven employed Smith John
5. Reverse description - Mandatory; the label to be displayed when viewing an association description in the reverse direction e.g Smith John is employed by Jones Steven. Note:
6. Time dependent - check this to be able to record From and To dates if the association could be valid for or from a defined date/period of time.

Click Save to add the New Association type to the selected Group.
The record also captures and shows the CreatedBy User and On date.

The next step is to define the Rules (required) for the Association. Add as many Rules as needed for the various combinations that are applicable for the Association.
Click on the new Association name which opens the record on the Details page.

From the Association details page, open the Association record by expanding the Group name then clicking on the Association Title then select Rules from the Association left menu.
Add a rule for each combination of Entity types that it may be applied to. E.g - Person-Person, Person-Organisation, Person-Vehicle, etc.
To add a Rule click the add + button.

1. Select the From Entity Type
2. Select the To Entity Type
3. Click Save. The Description (as per the recorded details) will auto-populate when saved.

The new Rule will be added creating both the Forward description and the Reverse description. If the Description is around the wrong way, fix this by editing the Association Details record and swapping the Forward and Reverse descriptions. Add as many Associations as required for the Entity combinations.

Association Properties - currently this function is not in use or available

To Edit the Details - open the Association Definition and on the Details page select Edit - all fields are editable. Save changes.

To Edit the Rules - open the Rules of the Associations and select Edit - the From and To Entity types are editable. Save each changes. Any existing Links using the original rules will be retained. New Links of that type will use the edited rules.

Association rules can only be deleted if they have not been used to create Links in Documents e.g are not currently in use.
To delete a Rule. in the column to the right select Delete - if the Rule is already 'in use' a message will display to show it cannot be deleted.