Item Types: the building blocks of a Trove
A Trove is a collection of items. An item type describes what kind of thing an item represents and which fields are available to describe it. For example, a family-history Trove might use Memories for stories, Documents for records, and People to connect both.
Every type has a required Name field. Other fields can hold text, dates, categories, images, attachments, ratings, or links to other items. A Trove starts with four built-in types: Treasure, Memory, Document, and Person. Person is also the system type used by several built-in relationship fields.
Use the built-ins or shape them to your Trove
Built-in types provide useful starting points. Owners and administrators can add fields, change field labels and types, remove optional fields, and reorder fields. The Person type cannot be removed or have its technical name changed. The required Name field cannot be removed, retyped, or reordered. Person also requires its Authorized Representative(s) user-list field.
You can also create a new type with a technical name and singular/plural display names. For example, create “Recipe” / “Recipes” for a cooking Trove or “Artwork” / “Artworks” for a collection. The technical name identifies the type; display names control how it is presented to users.
Fields and categories
A field has a label and a field type, which determines its editor and the kind of value it stores. Some types need extra setup: category fields point to a category set, item-reference fields point to another item type, and custom fields can identify a custom type. Category sets contain the choices shown in single- and multiple-category fields. The built-in Treasure fields use the default Category, Condition, and Item Status sets.
Field order controls the order shown while editing an item. The type editor also lets you enable AI suggestions for supported fields and add an optional instruction describing what to look for.
Customize an item type
- Open the Trove's item type editor. Owners and administrators can manage types.
- Add a type or select an existing one. Set its technical name and singular/plural display names. Built-in technical names are fixed; their display names remain usable as presentation labels.
- Add fields, choose a field type, set category/reference/custom options where applicable, and adjust the field label and order.
- Save the Trove. Think through field type changes before applying them: changing a field's type changes how its stored values are interpreted, and existing values may not fit the new type.
See basic field types, structured fields, and media, references, and ratings.
Choosing fields
- Use String for a short value such as a title or location, and Text or RichText for longer notes.
- Use VagueDate when a date is approximate or known only to a year/month; use VagueDateRange for spans such as “early 1900s” or a date interval.
- Use categories when you want consistent choices and filtering. Use item references when you want to connect records, such as a Memory to People.
- Use ImageList and AttachmentList for photos and files. These are ordered collections.
See the individual built-in pages and field-type guides for examples and details.