The Individuals Edition Page

Purpose

This screen is used to create, view, update, clone and delete Individual records. Individual records in Project Hirtius are used, as they would in a genealogy program, to record a person's life details (taking advantage as well of all available metadata).

To help record a person's life and their relationship with their ancestors and descendants, other object types should be used in conjunction, namely Events (for their biography) and Families (to trace their ancestry). For more information on how these different objects interact, please refer to the Individuals Management Workflow.

Getting There...

To reach the Edition Page of an existing Individual:

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

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

To add a new Individual record:

From the Main Application Menu, click on the "Manage Persons" icon in the header (). This gets you to the Individuals 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 Individual Edition Page supports the following actions:

Add: the form to fill in and submit in order to create a new Individual record.
Insert: creating the new Individual record in the database (post Add action).
Edit: modifying an existing Individual record through a form populated based on the current database contents.
Update: storing the modified data in the database, updating the appropriate Individual record (post Edit action).
View: display the current database contents for the selected Individual record. No form in this case.
Clone: create a new Individual 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 Individuals 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 Individual 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.
Prefix	D	Name component: prefix (e.g. "Prof."). Leave empty if not applicable.
Prefix	F	Free text.
First	D	Name component: first (given) name. Leave empty if unknown or not applicable.
First	F	Free text.
Middle	D	Name component: middle name(s). Leave empty if unknown or not applicable.
Middle	F	Free text.
Last*	D	Name component: last (family) name. Required field. Use a dummy name like "Unknown" if unknown (for instance when you need to create a record for the spouse in order to link children, but the name of the spouse has not been preserved). There's more on this issue in the Individuals Management Workflow.
Last*	F	Free text.
Cognomen	D	Name component: cognomen (typical of Roman onomastics) or documented epithet. Leave empty if unknown or not applicable.
Cognomen	F	Free text.
Suffix	D	Name component: suffix (e.g. "Jr."). Leave empty if not applicable.
Suffix	F	Free text.
Sex	D	Sex of the individual. Select from list.
Nickname	D	This field is *NOT* a name component. It gives you, the user, the ability to assign any of the Individuals you research a name of your own chosing, to make locating it later on easier. For instance, you might give the nickname "Top guy" to the central individual in your current project, or you could use "Cesar" as a shorthand for "Caius Julius Caesar". Do not confuse this nickname with the Alternate Names features (see Alternate Names Edition Page). The nickname is for your own use only, and doesn't have to be attested in the documentation. The nickname field values should be unique (you can't give two individuals the same).
Nickname	F	Free text.
Birth date	D	Date of birth. Can be left empty if unknown. Please note that this field is technically not part of the Individual record, but of the linked birth Event (= auto-event). See Individuals Management Workflow for details. 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.
Birth era	D	Calendar in which the Birth Date field is expressed. Select from list. Unset ('-') by default. Required if Birth Date is set.
Birth location*	D	Town, village, region where the birth event took place. Use "Unknown" or similar if unknown. Please note that this field is technically not part of the Individual record, but of the linked birth Event (= auto-event). See Individuals Management Workflow for details.
Country*	D	Country where the birth event took place. Select from list. Use special value "Unspecified (--)" if needed. Please note that this field is technically not part of the Individual record, but of the linked birth Event (= auto-event). See Individuals Management Workflow for details.
Death date	D	Date of death. Can be left empty if unknown. If the individual is still alive, please check the Is alive field instead. Please note that this field is technically not part of the Individual record, but of the linked death Event (= auto-event). See Individuals Management Workflow for details. 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.
Death era	D	Calendar in which the Death Date field is expressed. Select from list. Unset ('-') by default. Required if Death Date is set.
Death location*	D	Town, village, region where the death event took place. Use "Unknown" or similar if unknown. If the individual is still alive, please check the Is alive field instead. Please note that this field is technically not part of the Individual record, but of the linked death Event (= auto-event). See Individuals Management Workflow for details.
Country*	D	Country where the death event took place. Select from list. Use special value "Unspecified (--)" if needed. If the individual is still alive, please check the Is alive field instead. Please note that this field is technically not part of the Individual record, but of the linked death Event (= auto-event). See Individuals Management Workflow for details.
Is alive	D	Checkbox. Check it if the individual in question is still alive. When checked, all other fields pertaining to the death event will be disabled in the use interface, and the death event either won't be created (initial creation of the Individual record) or will be removed if it already exists (later edition of an existing Individual record).
Comment	D	Any comment you might have on the person in question (general information about his/her life, historical significance, etc.). This is where you would store the bulk of your research concerned specifically with this individual (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 individual with his/her portrait or the house where he/she lived (stored as Slides). 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 NAME and ID, flanked by arrows pointing left and right, that you can use to browse your Individuals collection based on these 2 sort keys (full name for the former [full name is built, based on the name components described above], object ID for the latter). Going "right" moves you toward the end of the list, going "left" toward the beginning, one Individual record at a time.
Calendar View icons (): Located next to the Birth Date and Death 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 individual): Located at the bottom of the page, just above the footer. Click on this link to clone the current object.
Del link (Delete this individual): 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 individual some more... link on the update result screen (see below) to return to the current individual 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).
Edit Birth Event: This will open the Events Edition Page on the linked birth event.
Edit Death Event: This will open the Events Edition Page on the linked death event (if applicable).
Edit Alternate Names: This will open the Alternate Names Edition Page.
Edit Titles: This will open the Titles Edition Page.
Edit Lineage: This will open the Individual - Family Edition Page.
Edit Biography: This will open the Object - Event Edition Page.
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 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 individual link: Brings you back to the current Individual record in view mode. Use this link to visually check the effect of the latest changes you submitted.
Edit this individual some more... link: Returns you to the current Individual record in edit mode. Use this link to further edit the individual in question. This link is also present just after you added a new individual. 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.)
Edit birth event link: Opens the Events Edition Page on the birth event for that Individual. Use it to further document the birth event by adding all relevant metadata. You can also use a similar link on the Individuals Edition Page in Edit mode at any time (see above).
Edit death event link: Opens the Events Edition Page on the death event for that Individual. Use it to further document the death event by adding all relevant metadata. You can also use a similar link on the Individuals Edition Page in Edit mode at any time (see above).
Add a new individual link: Opens the form that allows you to create a new Individual record. Usefull when creating multiple records in sequence.