Editing metadata

Most editing is done from an entity's detail page. Open it via search, the entity list, or by following a relation from another entity.

Anatomy of the detail page

A detail page is built from panels (the layout is defined by the GraphQL form definition, not hard-coded in the frontend). Typical panels for a media:

Panel	What it contains
Header	Title, type, primary thumbnail
Metadata	Title, description, dates, free-text fields
Relations	Keyword, language, marine region, partner, event, project, person — one row per relation type
Mediafiles	The file binaries attached to this media
History	Audit log of changes

Screenshot to add

Media detail page with metadata panel and relations panel side by side.

Editing a simple field

1. Click the field value (or the pencil icon next to it). The field becomes editable in place.
2. Type the new value.
3. Press Tab or click outside the field to confirm.
4. Click Save at the top of the panel — or Cancel to discard. Some panels auto-save on blur; in that case there's no Save button and changes are persisted immediately.

Screenshot to add

A text field in edit mode, with Save and Cancel buttons visible.

Editing a relation

Relations (keyword, partner, person, marine region, …) are shown as a list of chips inside the panel.

To add a relation:

1. Click the + at the end of the chip list (or in the empty list, the Add placeholder).
2. A picker dropdown appears. Start typing — matching entities appear.
3. Pick one. The chip is added to the list.
4. Click Save if the panel uses an explicit save button.

To remove a relation:

1. Click the × on the chip.
2. Save.

To replace a single-value relation (e.g. has_album on a media — maximum 1):

• Remove the existing chip first, then add the new one. Some pickers replace in-place if they know the field is single-value.

Screenshot to add

Relation chips in the Keyword row with a + button and an open picker dropdown.

Editing required relations

Required relations are marked with a *. The Save button is disabled until they're filled. Required-relation lists for the major entities are documented under Data model → Entity reference.

Don't try to clear has_context and Save

Every content entity needs a context. If you remove it the form refuses to save.

Editing dates

Dates use a calendar picker. The format on screen is dd/mm/yyyy. Type or click — both work.

For maps, the date fields (date_of_creation, date_of_publication, date_of_last_revision, content_date) are stored as structured objects, but the picker hides that complexity — just type the date.

For free-form date strings (e.g. "early 18th century") on a Map, use the date_description text field instead of the picker.

Bulk edits

You can apply a metadata change to several entities at once:

1. From a list view, tick the checkboxes of the entities you want to update.
2. The toolbar shows a Bulk edit action (or Add relation / Remove relation for relation-only changes).
3. Pick the field and the new value.
4. Confirm.

Screenshot to add

List view with three media selected and a Bulk edit toolbar visible at the top.

Bulk delete is final

Bulk delete removes entities and their mediafiles permanently. Confirm context filters first — it's easy to widen the selection unintentionally.

Versioning and history

Every change is logged. To see who changed what:

1. Open the entity.
2. Switch to the History panel (or Audit log, depending on naming).
3. Each entry shows: timestamp, user, field, old value → new value.

There's no built-in Undo — but the history makes it easy to manually restore a value.

Editing a mediafile vs. its parent media

Two distinct entities, two distinct edit flows. Make sure you're on the right one:

Want to change	Open
Title, description, keyword (the cataloguing-level metadata)	The Media entity
Filename, copyright, owner, embargo, license, confidentiality	The Mediafile entity (inside the Mediafiles panel of the parent media)

Common confusion: Person — owner exists on both Media (the conceptual owner of the asset) and Mediafile (the owner of this specific file). They can be different (e.g. media owned by VLIZ, but the high-res TIFF specifically owned by the photographer).

What you cannot edit

• The technical id (MED-... for mediafiles, UUIDs elsewhere). Auto-generated, immutable.
• belongs_to on a mediafile (the parent media). Set automatically by the upload flow.
• creation_date on Media / Album — system-generated.
• Virtual relations (e.g. has_media on an Album, has_mediafile on a Media) — these are reverse links, set the other side.