Modelling with the wizard
The modelling wizard walks a real cataloguing decision step by step, explains why each entity fits, and creates the entities live - guided, or AI-assisted from your own description.
The modelling wizard is the fastest way to learn RiC modelling: it turns “how do I model this?” into a guided, branching walkthrough that creates the entities as you go.
How it works
For each step the wizard gives you:
- A prompt - a real decision (“How do you represent the tape as a whole?”).
- Choices - the candidate entities, each with why it fits / why it doesn’t.
- A capture - the exact API call it produces, every field editable, run live.
- Branching - your answer can change the path (a single letter → Record; a whole exchange → Record Set).
It ends in an assembled, citable model.
Worked example: a magnetic tape
The flagship scenario models an ethnographic tape with mixed-provenance tracks:
- The tape’s content → Record (
POST /records) - Each track → Record Part belonging to the tape (
POST /record-parts,parent_id= the tape) - Each track’s own creator → Agent +
has_creatorrelation - The physical reel → Instantiation
Because per-track creators are relations on each Record Part, the tape carries genuinely mixed provenance.
Describe your own material (AI-assisted)
The wizard has a “describe your material” box. Type something like “a parish baptism register, 1881-1899, with hundreds of entries” and it proposes a RiC model - every entity code and relation validated against RiC-CM 1.0 before it’s shown, so it never suggests an invalid model. It proposes; you review and create. (Expect ~30s while the model thinks.)
Sample capture (what a step sends)
POST /api/ric/v1/record-parts
Content-Type: application/json
{ "title": "Track A - wedding songs, Epirus", "parent_id": 914120 }
The library
There are 18 scenarios - magnetic tape, photographs, maps, oral history, registers, newspapers, family papers, email, web archives, and more. Pick one from the scenario dropdown.
Next
- The RiC entities & relations
- Creating data - the API behind the wizard’s captures
Something missing or unclear? Tell us in Discussions or email johan@theahg.co.za.