Skip to main content

Link related items

Items are often part of a larger thing, depend on another, or succeed an older version. OpenCatalogi stores these connections as typed relations between items — bidirectional, audit-logged, queryable from the search facets.

Goal​

By the end you will have added one typed relation between two items and confirmed it shows on both the source and the target item's Related tab.

Prerequisites​

  • Two items in catalogues you can write to (see Publish an item).
  • A rough idea of what relation type to use — the publication schema decides which types are allowed. Defaults are part-of, depends-on, implements, succeeds, related-to.

Steps​

  1. Open the source item's detail page and switch to the Related tab. The tab shows the existing relations grouped by type; on a new item the list is empty. Click Add relation.

    Related tab with Add relation button

  2. The dialog asks for relation type (a dropdown of the schema-allowed types), the target item (a typeahead search across every item you can read — local + federated), and an optional note. Pick depends-on and start typing the target item's title.

    Add relation dialog

  3. Select the target from the typeahead dropdown. The dialog confirms the relation summary — this item depends-on target item — with a Save button. Click it.

    Relation summary, ready to save

  4. The dialog closes and the relation appears in the source's Related tab under the depends-on heading. Click the target item link to jump to its detail page. Its Related tab carries the inverse relation — this item is depended on by source item — automatically.

    Inverse relation on target

  5. Both items' Audit tabs log a relation_added entry. Removing the relation (the × next to the row on either side) writes a relation_removed entry and clears the inverse.

    Audit entries on both items

Verification​

The source item's Related tab lists the new relation under the right heading, the target item's Related tab lists the inverse relation, both items' Audit tabs log a relation_added entry within a second of the save, and Search finds the connection — filter by related-to facet.

Common issues​

SymptomFix
Typeahead finds nothing for a target you know existsThe target is in a catalogue you can't read (private), or in a federated catalogue that isn't yet synced — see Subscribe to a federated catalogue.
Relation type dropdown is emptyThe publication schema doesn't define any relation types — open the schema in OpenRegister and add at least one relations property.
Inverse relation doesn't show on the targetThe inverse indexer is asynchronous; refresh after 30 s. Persistent absence means the indexer is stalled (admin runs occ opencatalogi:reindex-relations).

Reference​