Allow configuring synonyms during initial imports

[grantfitzsimmons]

Is there a way to configure synonyms through batch import of taxons to the tree (either through code or through formatting a table a certain way?). Dragging and dropping after a taxonomy tree is setup is doable, but would be a lot easier to just configure the synonym relationships from the get go if possible.

Requested By: Mark Pitblado on the Speciforum (on behalf of the University of British Columbia - Beaty Biodiversity Museum)

[grantfitzsimmons]

This is something that people have requested a number of times.

[specifysoftware]

This issue has been mentioned on Specify Community Forum. There might be relevant details there:

https://discourse.specifysoftware.org/t/trees-in-specify-7/534/4

[specifysoftware]

This issue has been mentioned on Specify Community Forum. There might be relevant details there:

https://discourse.specifysoftware.org/t/sp7-workbench-import-taxa-as-synonyms/1425/2

[grantfitzsimmons]

Mentioned as a major drawback by Greg Pohl during our meet with the Canadian Forestry Service

[bronwyncombs]

Requested by Ashley Ferguson at the College of Idaho

[grantfitzsimmons]

We need to upload a (long and fairly clean) list of new taxa prior to uploading the actual specimens/records that bear those names. I know many of those binomials are synonyms of others (specific ones) in that same list, where each synonym is unequivocally linked to its accepted/preferred name.
However, I can’t figure out how to map that relationship in the WorkBench. Fields like Taxon.acceptedTaxon and Taxon.isAccepted (populating it would help down the line) are not available in the WB. But neither is Determination.preferredTaxon if one is to try an alternative route.
Again, it’s a long list and synonymizing binomials one by one on the taxon tree would be painful.
I must be missing something. Thanks.

Requested by: Iñigo from CSIC (Discourse)

[specifysoftware]

This issue has been mentioned on Specify Community Forum. There might be relevant details there:

https://discourse.specifysoftware.org/t/establishing-relationship-between-synonym-and-preferred-accepted-taxon-en-masse/1663/2

[philippeverley]

+1 for migrating CAY (French Guiana) collections to Specify.
We have thousands of taxon to import. Taxon synonymy is perfectly identified in the source database, but we are going to loose this information in the initial taxon import, prior to the collection objects import.
We'll have to think of a SQL based solution to automatized the process, while this feature is not available directly in WB7.