Editable artwork ID formats
Valise has always autogenerated IDs for new artworks. By default, we would look at your most recent ID and bump the number from there. That works well in most cases, but for established artists coming to Valise with an existing ID system, it could be frustrating:
- IDs with years, like
AB.2026.17, would keep counting in 2026 after the new year, instead of starting atAB.2027.01 - IDs without separators like
202699would get treated as a whole number, incrementing to202700 - IDs with text after the number, like
AB-005-PwherePmight mean “painting”, would lose that text, incrementing toAB-006instead ofAB-006-P
Every wrong guess meant having to go into the individual artwork page to fix the ID.
Now, Valise supports defining an artwork ID format, so artists with existing IDs can have Valise match their existing format.
When you first add works to Valise, we’ll attempt to read the format out of the IDs you use from manually entered artworks or imported works. Vault owners can customize this format at any time from the vault settings, or directly from the new artwork form with the settings button beside the ID.
When defining a format, you can choose text, year, and number blocks to build IDs like VD-0043, 2026-82, or EK.26.05. This new structure means:
- Years start over. If your IDs include a year, numbering starts again at 1 on January 1, so the first artwork of 2027 gets
2027-01without you typing it. - Older works use their year. The year comes from the artwork’s Year field, so a work from 2019 gets the next 2019 number rather than the next 2026 number.
- Other IDs won’t change the count. Typing an ID in a different style, like a gallery’s stock number, no longer switches what your next artworks use.
We hope this change makes it simpler and easier to maintain your archive.