Add Related Record

How to add and configure an Add Related Record field in the Notebook Editor.

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What This Field Does

A Related Records field creates connections between records, supporting both hierarchical parent-child relationships (e.g., site → trench → context → find) and semantic peer associations with qualified vocabulary pairs (e.g., “cuts / is cut by”, “fills / is filled by”). It is the only relationship field type in Fieldmark and is essential for modelling the structured data relationships common in archaeological and field science recording.

Adding the Field

To add this field, open the ADD A FIELD dialog, navigate to the RELATIONSHIP tab, and click the Add Related Record card. Then click the ADD FIELD button in the lower right.

Note: The RELATIONSHIP tab may not be visible in the tab bar initially — click the › arrow button on the right side of the tab bar to scroll until it appears.

Configuring the Field

Click the field’s grey header bar to expand it and see its settings. For an overview of the settings shared by all fields — including Label, Helper Text, Field ID, and the field toolbar — see Field Identity and Field Toolbar.

Give the field a meaningful Label, review the auto-populated Field ID, and add any desired Helper Text.

Related Records-Specific Settings

The Related Records field provides several settings for defining how records are connected:

Setting	What It Does
Multiple	When enabled, allows linking to more than one related record.
Allow linking to existing records	When enabled, collectors can link to records that already exist rather than only creating new ones.
Hide the ‘Create Another’ Button	When unchecked (default), displays a button allowing users to quickly create another related record after saving one. Check this to hide that button.
Select Relation Type	Choose Child for hierarchical parent-child relationships or Linked for peer-to-peer associations.
Select Related Form	Selects which form type this field links to (e.g., “Context”, “Find”, “Sample”).
Related Type Label	A human-readable label for the related form type, displayed in the UI (e.g., “Context Record”).

Shared Field Options

Configure any of the shared field options as needed.

For settings shared across all field types — including Required, Annotation, Uncertainty, Conditions, Copy value to new records, and Display in child records — see Field Options.

Tips

• Think carefully about relationship direction and semantics. “Context 5 cuts Context 8” is different from “Context 8 is cut by Context 5”. For linked relationships, vocabulary pairs (configured via JSON) capture both directions automatically.

• Performance degrades above ~50 relationships per record. Design the data model to keep relationship counts manageable — split dense networks across multiple Related Records fields if needed.

• Child relationships create a “Finish and New” workflow — after saving a child record, collectors can immediately create another child of the same type. This streamlines bulk data entry (e.g., recording multiple finds from one context).