The Pre-Association Pattern should be used where a logical relationship exists between two records and to facilitate a caseworker in easily establishing this relationship. Before a caseworker can enter data about the main evidence type they will be prompted to select evidence as defined by this pre-association pattern and this therefore establishes a relationship between the two evidences.
For example, a client is a member of a household. The member details are captured in a Household Member evidence record. Over time, a new child is born to the household member. Again this is captured in a Household Member evidence record, however the mother-child relationship must also be captured using a Household Relationship evidence record. By specifying a pre-association pattern for household relationship evidence to household member evidence, when a caseworker creates a new household relationship record to capture the mother-child relationship, they are prompted to first select the household member before going on to enter the household relationship details. This shows that there is a logical relationship between the member and the household relationship; the member must be selected before a relationship and related member can be created.