# Differentiating Between Associations

**URL:** https://forums.concretecms.org/t/differentiating-between-associations/10046
**Category:** Using Concrete / Help
**Created:** [September 16, 2026, 2:30pm UTC](https://forums.concretecms.org/t/differentiating-between-associations/10046 "2026-09-16T14:30:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Chrouglas](https://forums.concretecms.org/user_avatar/forums.concretecms.org/chrouglas/32/4951_2.png) [@Chrouglas](https://forums.concretecms.org/u/Chrouglas)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2026, 2:30pm UTC](https://forums.concretecms.org/t/differentiating-between-associations/10046/1 "2026-09-16T14:30:50Z")

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Hi all. I have a small and probably rarely needed suggestion.

I built a block for creating a schedule of events for a conference. Each event is an express entity and it uses associations to grab Speakers from a second express object. There is also an option to add Moderators, Judges, and Featured Speakers. Since a speaker can also be a moderator or a judge, these four distinctions are all within the same Speakers express object but with four different associations each with a different target name. The problem is when adding the associations to the Form for the Events Express Object, they all look the same. You need to open each association and memorize the order.

Can there be a way of adding a custom title to the association or display the target name?

 ![label-targets](https://forums.concretecms.org/uploads/default/original/2X/2/2f010149b686c495b8c581b75594cfde648c7996.jpeg)

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### Author: ![PineCreativeLabs](https://forums.concretecms.org/user_avatar/forums.concretecms.org/pinecreativelabs/32/4209_2.png) [@PineCreativeLabs](https://forums.concretecms.org/u/PineCreativeLabs)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2026, 8:32pm UTC](https://forums.concretecms.org/t/differentiating-between-associations/10046/2 "2026-09-17T20:32:01Z")

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I agree that this would be a useful option to have when creating associations (especially when dealing with multiple similar ones). I am using Express more heavily these days for my projects, and have been utilizing associations more frequently. Having the option to assign a custom name for this purpose would be ideal.

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### Author: ![mlocati](https://forums.concretecms.org/user_avatar/forums.concretecms.org/mlocati/32/6208_2.png) [@mlocati](https://forums.concretecms.org/u/mlocati)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2026, 12:14pm UTC](https://forums.concretecms.org/t/differentiating-between-associations/10046/3 "2026-09-18T12:14:32Z")

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I’ve just submitted a fix for this issue:

> <https://github.com/concretecms/concretecms/pull/13161>
>
> When an Express entity has more than one association to the same target entity, …their display names were identical.
> In that case, append the target property name to disambiguate them.
> 
> PS: reported on the forums: https://forums.concretecms.org/t/differentiating-between-associations/10046

Let’s see what the core team thinks about it.

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### Author: ![Chrouglas](https://forums.concretecms.org/user_avatar/forums.concretecms.org/chrouglas/32/4951_2.png) [@Chrouglas](https://forums.concretecms.org/u/Chrouglas)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2026, 2:48pm UTC](https://forums.concretecms.org/t/differentiating-between-associations/10046/4 "2026-09-28T14:48:08Z")

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there are also these two locations on the Custom Search/Listing panel.

 ![label-targets2](https://forums.concretecms.org/uploads/default/original/2X/9/9a018cc0f12e9dbd201ae322cc819b98c3244560.jpeg)

 ![label-targets3](https://forums.concretecms.org/uploads/default/original/2X/6/678c05dc6b28a09f1019f420c89e83e0005cba6b.jpeg)

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![mlocati](https://forums.concretecms.org/user_avatar/forums.concretecms.org/mlocati/32/6208_2.png) [@mlocati](https://forums.concretecms.org/u/mlocati)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2026, 8:06am UTC](https://forums.concretecms.org/t/differentiating-between-associations/10046/5 "2026-10-01T08:06:35Z")

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I suggested a better alternative to the core team than my initial solution (adding a customizable name to the associations):

> <https://github.com/concretecms/concretecms/pull/13221>
>
> When an entity has more than one association to the same target entity, they wer…e all displayed with the name of the target entity. Associations now have an optional name, used in place of it.
> 
> See https://forums.concretecms.org/t/differentiating-between-associations/10046
> 
> Supersedes #13161
