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Jun 25, 2026

Heratio Help Center article. Category: User Guide.

ahgRepositoryManagePlugin - Archival Institutions (ISDIAH)

The ahgRepositoryManagePlugin manages archival institutions - the museums, archives, libraries, galleries, or DAM operations that hold the material described in Heratio. Each institution is described per ISDIAH (International Standard for Describing Institutions with Archival Holdings) and acts as the parent for the records it custodies.

What a repository is in Heratio

A repository row is a specialised actor row (class-table inheritance - see ahgActorManagePlugin). It carries the ISAAR(CPF) authority fields plus an additional ISDIAH-specific field set: location, contact details, opening hours, accessibility, services, etc.

Every information_object can be tagged with a repository_id indicating which institution owns it. This drives:

  • the Repository facet on /glam/browse
  • the isPartOf relationship in OAI-PMH harvests and RiC-O exports
  • per-repository CSV bulk operations
  • per-repository themed sub-sites (when ahgMultiTenantPlugin is enabled)

Where it lives

Surface URL
Browse /repository/browse
Show /repository/<slug>
Add /repository/add
Edit /repository/<slug>/edit
Delete /repository/<slug>/delete
Holdings (records owned by this repo) /repository/<slug>/holdings

ISDIAH field set

The edit form covers all six ISDIAH areas:

  • 5.1 Identity - identifier, authorized form of name, parallel forms, other forms, type
  • 5.2 Contact - physical address(es), telephone, fax, email, web, contact person
  • 5.3 Description - history, geographical and cultural context, mandates/sources of authority, administrative structure, records management and collecting policies, building, archival and other holdings, finding aids/guides/publications
  • 5.4 Access - opening hours, conditions and requirements for access and use, accessibility (disabled access, public transport)
  • 5.5 Services - research services, reproduction services, public areas
  • 5.6 Control - description identifier, institution responsible, rules, status, level of detail, dates, language, sources, maintenance notes

Multilingual: every text field has per-culture rows in actor_i18n + repository_i18n.

Common workflows

Set up a new institution

  1. /repository/add - log in as admin (only admins create repositories).
  2. Fill the Identity area (authorized form of name, type - National / Regional / Private / Specialised).
  3. Fill Contact (street address, phone, web). The web field powers the Visit website link on the public show page.
  4. Save. The institution gets a slug like national-archive-of-bechuanaland.

Attribute records to the institution

Three ways:

a. At ingest: include a repository column in your CSV; the wizard resolves it by slug or by ISDIAH identifier. b. Per-record edit: open the IO edit page, set the Archival institution dropdown, save. Setting at the fonds level cascades to descendants (when "inherit to children" is enabled in repository settings). c. Bulk reassign: /admin/repository/bulk-reassign lets an admin move all of repository A's holdings to repository B in one operation (e.g. when two institutions merge).

Holdings page

/repository/<slug>/holdings shows every IO whose repository_id matches the current institution. It's the public browse surface scoped to that institution. Useful link from the institution's public website.

Per-institution branding

When ahgMultiTenantPlugin is enabled, a repository can carry its own theme/logo/footer. Configured at /admin/tenants (admin-only). Visiting /repository/<slug> then uses the institution's palette and logo, even if the rest of the site uses the platform-wide one.

Settings

The plugin has no top-level settings page of its own - it inherits from ahgActorManagePlugin (because repository extends actor). Authority-record settings (completeness, NER, merge thresholds) at /admin/settings/ahg/authority apply to repositories as well.

For the optional per-tenant branding, settings are at /admin/tenants/<id>/branding.

Permissions

Action Required role
Browse, view Anonymous
Add, edit Admin (acl:create, acl:update)
Delete Admin
Bulk reassign holdings Admin
Edit per-tenant branding Admin

By design, repositories are admin-managed - they're foundational records, and accidental edits cascade to thousands of descendants.

Common gotchas

  • Don't delete a repository that has holdings. The delete flow refuses if any IO has repository_id = <this>. Reassign first via /admin/repository/bulk-reassign.
  • Orphan holdings can happen if you mysql DELETE-d a repository directly. The faceted browse will show "Unknown repository" rows. Run php artisan ahg:fix-orphan-repository to surface them and assign to a placeholder institution.
  • Class-table inheritance: an actor row exists for every repository (same id). Don't try to insert a repository row without first creating its parent actor row - the FK will reject.
  • Authority-record archival institution identifier (ISDIAH 5.6.1) is not the same as actor.identifier. ISDIAH expects an ISAAR-style code like ZA-AHG-001; populate it on the edit form under "Description identifier" (it's stored separately from the ISAAR equivalent).
  • ahgActorManagePlugin - the parent class (people, families, corporate bodies). Repositories share its data model.
  • ahgDonorManagePlugin - donors are also actors; donors → repositories via accessions.
  • ahgInformationObjectManagePlugin - the records that belong to repositories.
  • ahgMultiTenantPlugin - if enabled, lets each repository carry its own branding.
  • Help articles: Multi-tenancy, AHG Authority Records - User Guide