Getting your works into the collection

WHO THIS MODULE IS FOR, AND HOW IT OPENS

The collection and the registrar are tools for GALLERIES. Another kind of house does not see them in its dock, and their addresses answer « page not found » — this is not an option to switch on, the trade decides it.

The very first work you create here opens the module and freezes your knowledge notebook's catalogue as read-only. From then on, your inventory lives here, and it is from here that your website and your assistant are fed.

If your notebook still holds works, that first creation is REFUSED, with the number of pieces left: two catalogues cannot coexist. Write to us for the migration — it is done in one pass, with nothing to retype.

ONE WORK: A TITLE IS ENOUGH

The « Quick add » button asks for two things, and only one is required: the title. The photograph is optional. Everything else — artist, medium, dimensions, inventory number — is filled in afterwards, on the record.

That is deliberate: a collection gets typed in on a rainy afternoon, not one long form at a time.

A WHOLE SPREADSHEET: SIMULATE FIRST

The « Import a spreadsheet » screen expects a CSV file. The separator is detected on its own — comma, semicolon, tab or pipe — and so are the usual encodings, including the ones a French Excel produces.

Only one column is required: the title. It may be named « title » or « titre ». Without it the whole file is refused, and the screen tells you so before anything is written.

The default gesture is « Simulate ». Nothing is written: you get the count of what would be created, of what would be updated, and the list of refused rows with their line number and the reason. The « Apply to the catalogue » button only appears once a simulation has found something to do.

THE COLUMNS WE UNDERSTAND

The simplest route is to start from the export: the columns of « Export (CSV) » are exactly the ones the import understands. French names are accepted on top of them — titre, artiste, technique, dimensions, numéro d'inventaire, tirage, emplacement.

• An unknown column is never swallowed in silence: it is named in the report.
• Four columns are read but never written: the public code, the creation and update dates, and the published state.
• The inventory number decides: if it already exists, the row updates that record; otherwise it creates one.
• An update only touches descriptive fields. A spreadsheet never flips a work to « sold », and never moves it.

A FAULTY ROW DOES NOT STOP THE FILE

The row is refused, the import carries on. It reappears in the report under « Refused rows », with its line number and its reason.

And nothing is published: an imported work stays invisible on your public website until you publish it yourself.