Why Sinopia doesn't allow repeated propertyURIs in a single Resource Template...

Sinopia doesn't allow repeated propertyURIs in a single Resource Template...unless the property URIs are all for fields of type nested resource, and the nested resources are each of a different class from each other.

What's the problem?

If you create a Resource Template with two different fields with the same property URI, then you end up with two statements like and , one statement from each field. When you save that as RDF and then try later to open that RDF in a Sinopia Resource Template, Sinopia has no way of knowing which statement came from which field. (See Examples below.)

If you try to open a Resource Template like this in Sinopia you'll get an error message: 'There was a problem retrieving [template ID]: Repeated property templates with same property URI ([propertyURI) are not allowed.'

Strategies for fixing

• Have a single repeatable field. The cataloger can then enter multiple values.
• Have a single repeatable field of type resource that refers to a Resource Template that itself contains multiple fields. For example, you might have a Note Resource Template that includes a field for the note text and another field for the note type. The cataloger can then add multiple repetitions of that "node".

Things to consider / disadvantages of not allowing repeated propertyURIs

Here are some things to consider when revising your template. Without the ability to have multiple fields for the same propertyURI, you cannot:

• Have one of the fields be mandatory and the others not
• Have different tooltips for each field
• Have different field names for each field

Examples

from the Library of Congress BIBFRAME Editor

Example 1

In the Monograph Work template, under Creator of Work / Person, there are two different fields both using the property http://www.loc.gov/mads/rdf/v1#email: personal email address and corporate email address. After filling in the email address fields and previewing the resulting RDF, both values are combined into one statement; there is no way to tell which is the Address of the Person and which is the Address of the Corporate Body.

Example 2

In the BluRay Instance template, the property http://id.loc.gov/ontologies/bibframe/note is used for both the Notes about the instance field and the Optional subtitles field. After adding a different note to each field: when you save the RDF description and then re-open it to view it in the same template, both note values are shown in the same field.