Attachments

In Vitalware information about life event registrations and product orders is stored in various modules, each specific to the type of information recorded. For example:

  • The Marriages module stores marriage registration details used to produce a marriage certificate.
  • The Births module records birth registration details used to produce a birth certificate.
  • The Products module stores information about products for sale (e.g. marriage and birth certificates).
  • The Parties module stores information about people and organisations involved with your Registry and registrations in any way (hospitals, funeral homes, government organisations, celebrants, etc.).

Where records in different modules relate to each other, they are linked together through a simple process called Attachment (definitions of the Attachment terminology are available below). For example:

  • A record in the Births module would attach to a record in the Parties module which details the Hospital / Clinic in which the birth took place.
  • A record in the Divorces module would attach to a record in the Marriages module.

An attachment field is a field in a module that can be linked to a related record in another module. It can be identified by the Attachment Attach and View Attachment View Attachments buttons beside it, e.g. the Hosp./Clinic: (Child) field:

Note: The View Attachment View Attachments button is greyed out until an attachment is made.

As we see in How to make, view and delete attachments there are several methods you can use to attach records.

Baby Robert Jones is born at the Winston County Hospital and the registration details arrive at your Registry. To record these details in Vitalware you would create two records:

  1. A record for Robert Jones in the Births module.
  2. A record for the Winston County Hospital in the Parties module.

You would then Attach (link) the two records to each other.

So, the three steps are:

  1. Create a record in the Births module recording details about Robert Jones: mother's name, father's name, birth weight, place of birth, birth date, etc.
  2. Create a record in the Parties module recording details about the Winston County Hospital, e.g. address, phone number, contact person, etc.
  3. In the Births module there is a field called Hosp./Clinic: (Child) and it is here that the Winston County Hospital record in the Parties module is attached to the birth record in the Births module:

One advantage of this is that details about the Winston County Hospital can be viewed from within the Robert Jones' Birth record. And, even though the information is stored in two modules, you could now search for information about Robert Jones and would find out which hospital he was born in, or you could list all babies born at the Winston County Hospital.

This search of the Births module will locate the Robert Jones record (and any other births at the Winston County Hospital):

Let's say your Registry now receives baby Jane Smith's birth registration details, also born at the Winston County Hospital. To record this in Vitalware you would:

  1. Create a new Births record for Jane Smith.
  2. Attach Jane Smith's Births record to the existing Parties record for the Winston County Hospital.

Thus, one advantage of the Attachment process is that the Winston County Hospital details only need to be entered into Vitalware once and can then be used as many times as necessary.

Information stored in one record can be attached to many other records.

For example:

  • A birth clinic will be recorded once in the Parties module
  • Many babies can be born at this clinic (and each baby will have its own birth record in the Births module).
  • The record of every baby born at this clinic can attach to the clinic's record in the Parties module.

If any details of the clinic change, such as telephone number, only the one Parties record needs to be updated. The Birth records automatically display the correct information.

It is possible to search for records using search data in an attached module. For instance you could search the Births module for babies born at the Winston County Hospital (details of which are stored in the Parties module).

See How do I search an attachment field? for details.

Term

Definition

Attachment

A link between a record in a module and a record in the same or another module.

For example, the Marriages module records details about the marriage of two people. The Births module records details about their birth. The Birth Registration: (Groom) and Birth Registration: (Bride) fields in the Marriages module would be linked to the couple's birth records in the Births module.

Primary and Target module / record

In this example the Marriage module is the Primary module. The Births module is the Target module.

Most modules can be both Primary and Target modules (simultaneously).

For instance, the Births module is the Primary module when it makes a link to the Parties module (linking to a Hospital/clinic); it is the Target module when a Marriages record links to one of its records.

Reverse Attachment

The term Reverse Attachment simply means tracing an attachment back from the Target to the Primary record. From a Primary record it is a simple matter to navigate to a record that it has linked to.

It is also possible to navigate from the Target record back to the record that linked to it.

For example an attachment is made from the Marriages module to the Births module. The direction of the link is Primary to Target or Marriages to Births. The link can be followed back from the Births module to the Marriages module, that is the attachment can be navigated in reverse.