IDs, Tags, and Slugs
Each item recorded in an excavation usually has a unique tag. These tags are typically a combination of strings and numbers agreed upon at the onset of a dig as part of the registration system. For example, loci tags may include season, area, and locus number.
The software utilizes three different representations to identify records:
- Tag: a string corresponding to the excavation's field registration tag or name assigned to an item.
- ID: a unique identifier used by the database (primary key).
- Slug: a unique string used to identify an item as part of a url (avoiding reserved characters, white spaces, etc.)
For example, in the Jezreel Expedition, a locus record is identified by:
- Tag: 16/S/56 (Season: 2016, Area: S, Locus number: 56)
- Slug: 16.S.56
- ID: 6S056
The software supports two types of ids: human readable strings or surrogates (autoincrements).
Functions to convert between the different representations are a required part of each module's configuration files.