The Events Edition Page

Purpose

This screen is used to create, view, update, clone and delete Event records. In the context of Project Hirtius, Events can be created and studied as historical objects in their own right, or used as metadata to document the history of other objects stored in the database, such as physical artefacts (through Slides), Sources, Individuals or Families. In the last two cases, Event objects will even be created automatically during object creation (becoming so-called Auto-Events -- see Concepts and Individuals Management Workflow for more information about these and how to manage them).

Getting There...

To reach the Edition Page of an existing Event:

From the Main Application Menu (or indeed almost any other Project Hirtius page), click on the "Manage Events" icon in the header (). This gets you to the Events List.
Navigate the Events List until you locate the event you're looking for.
Then click on the event ID (first column), or on any of the action links (last column) to view, edit, clone or delete the event record in question.

Of course, you can also reach the Event view or edition screen through a lot of other ways, such as using search results (see Navigation Tips).

To add a new Event record:

From the Main Application Menu, click on the "Manage Events" icon in the header (). This gets you to the Events List.
Press [End] to reach the bottom of the list.
Click the Add action link in the bottom-right corner of the list.

Supported actions

The Event Edition Page supports the following actions:

Add: the form to fill in and submit in order to create a new Event record.
Insert: creating the new Event record in the database (post Add action).
Edit: modifying an existing Event record through a form populated based on the current database contents.
Update: storing the modified data in the database, updating the appropriate Event record (post Edit action).
View: display the current database contents for the selected Event record. No form in this case.
Clone: create a new Event record from a form filled by the database contents of an existing record. The Clone action will be followed by an Insert upon submit.
DelCon: first step when requesting the deletion of a record -- issues a prompt for confirmation. You will be warned if there are files attached to the selected record.
Del: the actual removal of the selected record (as well as all linked metadata records) from the database (post DelCon action).
That action will be recorded: a new entry will be added to the Event Log.

Of these, only Add, Edit, View, Clone and DelCon are entry points. They are typically reached from the Events List or the Main Application Menu (but in the case of View, there are many more possibilities).

Fields

Here below are the fields that you can expect to find on the Event Edition Page. The goal here is not to simply duplicate the database layout information. If this is what interests you, please refer to the Database Layout, the database creation script or the database itself. The purpose is rather to explain what each field is meant for [D], what format it is expected to follow [F] and what are the conditions for its validity (if applicable) [V].

A star (*) after the name of the field denotes a mandatory field (the star is shown in red with the same meaning in the application user interface).

Object ID*	D	Sequential ID, automatically assigned by the DB during record creation. Displayed read-only once available.
Location*	D	Town, village, region where the event took place. Use "Unknown" or similar if unknown, "n/a" or equivalent if not applicable.
Country*	D	Country where the event took place. Select from list. Use special value "Unspecified (--)" if needed.
Description 1*	D	Event description.
Description 1*	F	Free text. HTML markup allowed, but it is recommended to limit its use to simple tags (e.g. italics). Do *not* terminate by a full stop (.), as these will be added by the application when displaying.
Description 2	D	Event description (continued). Use this second field to provide more specific info on the current event. E.g. you might have multiple events with an identical first description, but then they should each have a second description that allows you to differentiate between them.
Description 2	F	Free text. HTML markup allowed, but it is recommended to limit its use to simple tags (e.g. italics). Do *not* terminate by a full stop (.), as these will be added by the application when displaying.
Start date	D	Date the event took place. If this event is considered as having a duration, use this field to record the date it started. Can be left empty if unknown. In view mode and if set, the date will be followed by a letter between parentheses denoting the selected era (see next field). The corresponding Julian Day Number (JDN) representation will be displayed below it.
	F	Hirtius "historical" dates format, based on the ISO one: year in 1 to 5 digits, then month in 2 digits (padded with zero if needed), then day in 2 digits (padded with zero as needed). The date parts have to be separated with '/' (forward slash). Prefix the date with '-' (minus sign) for BCE years. If month and/or day parts are unknown, they can be specified as '00' (for the purpose of JDN computation, zero values are set arbitrarirly to 1). Examples: "2012/10/31", "136/00/00" or "-44/03/15".
	V	The date string is parsed and checked against the above format. Month part should be between 0 and 12, day part between 0 and 31. If day and month parts are provided, day is checked against month length with leap-ness computed based on selected era (see next field). The year part has to be different from zero.
Start era	D	Calendar in which the Start Date field is expressed. Select from list. Unset ('-') by default. Required if Start Date is set.
End date	D	If this event is considered as having a duration, use this field to record the date it ended. Can be left empty if unknown or irrelevant. In view mode and if set, the date will be followed by a letter between parentheses denoting the selected era (see next field). The corresponding Julian Day Number (JDN) representation will be displayed below it.
	F	Hirtius "historical" dates format, based on the ISO one: year in 1 to 5 digits, then month in 2 digits (padded with zero if needed), then day in 2 digits (padded with zero as needed). The date parts have to be separated with '/' (forward slash). Prefix the date with '-' (minus sign) for BCE years. If month and/or day parts are unknown, they can be specified as '00' (for the purpose of JDN computation, zero values are set arbitrarirly to 1). Examples: "2012/10/31", "136/00/00" or "-44/03/15".
	V	The date string is parsed and checked against the above format. Month part should be between 0 and 12, day part between 0 and 31. If day and month parts are provided, day is checked against month length with leap-ness computed based on selected era (see next field). The year part has to be different from zero.
End era	D	Calendar in which the End Date field is expressed. Select from list. Unset ('-') by default. Required if End Date is set.
Event Type	D	The type of event. Select from list. The choices available in the list are managed through the Event Types Management Page. Most of these types are based on the GEDCOM standard, but some are Project Hirtius additions, as they do not relate to individuals, but to history in general. The appropriate event type will be selected automatically for auto-events, in which case it cannot be further modified. For regular events, the default event type proposed on the creation form can be selected as a user preference on the Users Edition Page.
Automatic	D	Denotes whether or not this event is an auto-event (i.e. an event created automatically during the creation process of another object, e.g. an individual or a family) and linked to that object. This field is always rendered read-only, as it is always set by the program.
Comment	D	Any comment you might have on the event itself (its circumstances, context, consequences). This is where you would store the bulk of your research concerned specifically with this event (of course, a much broader scope of reseach is possible as well, encompassing all supported kinds of objects and any number of them -- please refer to Projects Management Workflow for advice on how to manage that).
Comment	F	Free text. HTML markup allowed. Special formats: '`{D1234}`': quote another Hirtius object using its object prefix and ID. Automatically rendered as a link to that object view page. See Objects and Metadata Types for a list of all prefixes supported by the application. Only objects and lesser objects can be referred to in this way. '`[1234]`': Bibref. Refers to the bibliographical reference with said number, as defined further down the page in the *References* section. Rendered as a link to a named anchor. Only works with bibrefs attached to the current object. '`[S1234]`': Srcref. Refers to the source reference with said number, as defined further down the page in the *Sources* section. Rendered as a link to a named anchor. Only works with srcrefs attached to the current object. Insert these formats in your text without the enclosing quotes. If the object that you refer to doesn't exist (yet) or is not linked to the current object (in the case of Bibref and Srcref), the reference will be rendered in a special style (orange italics) and the associated link will point to that object creation page (where possible).
See also	D	Use this field to link different objects together, even objects of different kinds. For instance, you might wish to link the historical event with later works of art (stored as Slides) that it has inspired. As long as the list is empty, you only see the Add field. Once some See also entries have been created, you can also select one or more in the list below and check the Remove selected checkbox to remove the selected entries from the list.
	F	One or more object IDs, each composed of a single letter identifying the object type (see Objects and Metadata Types for a list of supported prefixes -- only fully-fledged objects are eligible here) followed by the numerical ID of the object. The prefix letter is case-insensitive. To add links to multiple objects at the same time, use a comma and an optional space to separate members in the list. E.g. '`d1242, i43, d239`'.
	V	Each object ID has to refer to an existing object. Attempts to link the current object to itself will be reported and ignored.

Controls

In View mode

Navigation bar: At the top of the page, just below the header, you'll find links, two on each side, called DATE and ID, flanked by arrows pointing left and right, that you can use to browse your Events collection based on these 2 sort keys (start date then object ID for the former, object ID for the latter). Going "right" moves you toward the end of the list, going "left" toward the beginning, one Event record at a time.
Calendar View icons (): Located next to the Start Date and End Date fields, that icon is a link to the Calendar View for the year in question and drawn for the era in which the date was expressed, giving you a way to identify all other event-like objects in the temporal vicinity of the current one. Owing to the fact that the query is made based on the internal date representation as JDN, all applicable events will be found, irrespective of the calendar in which their own date was expressed.
These icons are only present when the respective date field is set.
Edit link (Switch to edit mode): Located at the bottom of the page, just above the footer. Click on this link to edit the current object (switches the view from a R/O rendering of the contents to an HTML form that allows you to modify that contents and submit it afterward).
Clone link (Clone this event): Located at the bottom of the page, just above the footer. Click on this link to clone the current object.
Del link (Delete this event): Located at the bottom of the page, just above the footer. Click on this link to delete the current object (jumps to the delete confirmation page).

In Edit mode

Submit button

(Also in "Add" and "Clone" modes). Commits the locally modified HTML form fields contents to the database that stores Project Hirtius data. Use it to save your latest modifications. It is of course perfectly legitimate to click Submit any number of times during a long edition session to avoid loosing unsaved data. When doing so, use the Edit this event some more... link on the update result screen (see below) to return to the current event record and edit it further.

Reset button

(Also in "Add" and "Clone" modes). Cancels any un-committed change, and returns all HTML form fields to their initial value (i.e. the one they had when the page was last loaded in the browser). Use this button to revert any erroneous edit you might have done (Beware: this only works on local changes that have not been saved to the database yet, i.e. for which you've not clicked on Submit yet).

Relative dating management

For events whose (exact) date is unknown, it may help to link them to other events that are more accurately dated, indicating at the same time the nature of this relationship (predeeds, follows, is equal). These relationships are managed in the present table. The current event is listed on a green background, all linked events that preceed it on top, and all those that follow it below. Contemporary events are listed below it, on a lighter green background.
All linked events feature the following actions:

Edit: opens the selected event in 'edit' mode.
Clone: opens the selected event in 'clone' mode.
Unlink: removes the "relative dating" relationship between the selected event and the current one.
Del: deletes the selected event (opens a confirmation dialog first).

In addition to these, use the Link action in the bottom right corner of the table to create new "relative dating" relationships. This will open the Event Selector in a new window.

Edit Categories

This will open the Object - Category Edition Page.

Edit References

This will open the Object - Bib. Ref. Edition Page.

Edit Sources

This will open the Object - Source Ref. Edition Page.

Edit Sequences

This will open the Sequence Membership Management Page.
Using the Prev and Next controls in the list below, on the line of each of the sequences this event is member of, you can navigate to other events in the sequence.

Edit Attachments

This will open the Object - Attached File Edition Page.

Switch to view mode link

Located at the bottom of the page, just above the footer. Click on this link to view the current object (switches from the current HTML form that allows you to modify the object contents and submit it afterward to a R/O rendering of that contents).

In Insert or Update result mode

This result page appears once you have clicked the Submit button on the Add, Edit or Clone page. It will offer the following links:

View this event link: Brings you back to the current Event record in view mode. Use this link to visually check the effect of the latest changes you submitted.
Edit this event some more... link: Returns you to the current Event record in edit mode. Use this link to further edit the event in question. This link is also present just after you added a new event. You have to use this link to add some of the metadata that can only be attached once the record has been created (categories, bibrefs, srcrefs, attachments, etc.)
Add a new event link: Opens the form that allows you to create a new Event record. Usefull when creating multiple records in sequence.