diff --git a/src/caosdb/apiutils.py b/src/caosdb/apiutils.py
index 980b76e9f02ac51e1ef6cd8e126ea59c5c21291b..a954535b3dc7c18087f3bcec3abbce2242cc9b76 100644
--- a/src/caosdb/apiutils.py
+++ b/src/caosdb/apiutils.py
@@ -742,13 +742,13 @@ def merge_entities(entity_a: Entity, entity_b: Entity):
else:
raise RuntimeError("Merge conflict.")
else:
- # TODO: This is a temporary FIX for
- # https://gitlab.indiscale.com/caosdb/src/caosdb-pylib/-/issues/105
- entity_a.add_property(id=entity_b.get_property(key).id,
- name=entity_b.get_property(key).name,
- datatype=entity_b.get_property(key).datatype,
- value=entity_b.get_property(key).value,
- importance=entity_b.get_importance(key))
+ # TODO: This is a temporary FIX for
+ # https://gitlab.indiscale.com/caosdb/src/caosdb-pylib/-/issues/105
+ entity_a.add_property(id=entity_b.get_property(key).id,
+ name=entity_b.get_property(key).name,
+ datatype=entity_b.get_property(key).datatype,
+ value=entity_b.get_property(key).value,
+ importance=entity_b.get_importance(key))
# entity_a.add_property(
# entity_b.get_property(key),
# importance=entity_b.get_importance(key))
diff --git a/src/doc/high_level_api.org b/src/doc/high_level_api.org
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..c24bc7bafdea45aa9f4f3a4d8079f4abeff3c10c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/doc/high_level_api.org
@@ -0,0 +1,121 @@
+* High Level API
+
+In addition to the old standard pylib API, new versions of pylib ship with a high level API
+that facilitates usage of CaosDB entities within data analysis scripts. In a nutshell that
+API exposes all properties of CaosDB Records as standard python attributes making their
+access easier.
+
+Or to spell it out directly in Python:
+#+BEGIN_SRC python
+
+ import caosdb as db
+ # Old API:
+ r = db.Record()
+ r.add_parent("Experiment")
+ r.add_property(name="alpha", value=5)
+ r.get_property("alpha").value = 25 # setting properties (old api)
+ print(r.get_property("alpha").value + 25) # getting properties (old api)
+
+ from caosdb.high_level_api import convert_to_python_entity
+ obj = convert_to_python_object(r) # create a high level entity
+ obj.r = 25 # setting properties (new api)
+ print(obj.r + 25) # getting properties (new api)
+
+#+END_SRC
+
+
+** Quickstart
+
+The module, needed for the high level API is called:
+~caosdb.high_level_api~
+
+There are two functions converting entities between the two representation (old API and new API):
+- ~convert_to_python_object~: Convert entities from **old** into **new** representation.
+- ~convert_to_entity~: Convert entities from **new** into **old** representation.
+
+Furthermore there are a few utility functions which expose very practical shorthands:
+- ~new_high_level_entity~: Retrieve a record type and create a new high level entity which contains properties of a certain importance level preset.
+- ~create_record~: Create a new high level entity using the name of a record type and a list of key value pairs as properties.
+- ~load_external_record~: Retrieve a record with a specific name and return it as high level entity.
+- ~create_entity_container~: Convert a high level entity into a standard entity including all sub entities.
+- ~query~: Do a CaosDB query and return the result as a container of high level objects.
+
+So as a first example, you could retrieve any record from CaosDB and use it using its high level representation:
+#+BEGIN_SRC python
+ from caosdb.high_level_api import query
+
+ res = query("FIND Record Experiment")
+ experiment = res[0]
+ # Use a property:
+ print(experiment.date)
+
+ # Use sub properties:
+ print(experiment.output[0].path)
+#+END_SRC
+
+The latter example demonstrates, that the function query is very powerful. For its default parameter
+values it automatically resolves and retrieves references recursively, so that sub properties,
+like the list of output files "output", become immediately available.
+
+**Note** that for the old API you were supposed to run the following series of commands
+to achieve the same result:
+#+BEGIN_SRC python
+ import caosdb as db
+
+ res = db.execute_query("FIND Record Experiment")
+ output = res.get_property("output")
+ output_file = db.File(id=output.value[0].id).retrieve()
+ print(output_file.path)
+#+END_SRC
+
+Resolving subproperties makes use of the "resolve_reference" function provided by the high level
+entity class (~CaosDBPythonEntity~), with the following parameters:
+- ~deep~: Whether to use recursive retrieval
+- ~references~: Whether to use the supplied db.Container to resolve references. This allows offline usage. Set it to None if you want to automatically retrieve entities from the current CaosDB connection.
+- ~visited~: Needed for recursion, set this to None.
+
+Objects in the high level representation can be serialized to a simple yaml form using the function
+~serialize~ with the following parameters:
+- ~without_metadata~: Set this to True if you don't want to see property metadata like "unit" or "importance".
+- ~visited~: Needed for recursion, set this to None.
+
+This function creates a simple dictionary containing a representation of the entity, which can be
+stored to disk and completely deserialized using the function ~deserialize~.
+
+Furthermore the "__str__" function is overloaded, so that you can use print to directly inspect
+high level objects using the following statement:
+#+BEGIN_SRC python
+print(str(obj))
+#+END_SRC
+
+
+** Concepts
+
+As described in the section [[Quickstart]] the two functions ~convert_to_python_object~ and ~convert_to_entity~ convert
+entities beetween the high level and the standard representation.
+
+The high level entities are represented using the following classes from the module ~caosdb.high_level_api~:
+- ~CaosDBPythonEntity~: Base class of the following entity classes.
+- ~CaosDBPythonRecord~
+- ~CaosDBPythonRecordType~
+- ~CaosDBPythonProperty~
+- ~CaosDBPythonMultiProperty~: **WARNING** Not implemented yet.
+- ~CaosDBPythonFile~: Used for file entities and provides an additional ~download~ function for being able to directly retrieve files from CaosDB.
+
+In addition, there are the following helper structures which are realized as Python data classes:
+- ~CaosDBPropertyMetaData~: For storing meta data about properties.
+- ~CaosDBPythonUnresolved~: The base class of unresolved "things".
+- ~CaosDBPythonUnresolvedParent~: Parents of entities are stored as unresolved parents by default, storing an id or a name of a parent (or both).
+- ~CaosDBPythonUnresolvedReference~: An unresolved reference is a reference property with an id which has not (yet) been resolved to an Entity.
+
+The function "resolve_references" can be used to recursively replace ~CaosDBPythonUnresolvedReferences~ into members of type ~CaosDBPythonRecords~
+or ~CaosDBPythonFile~.
+
+Each property stored in a CaosDB record corresponds to:
+- a member attribute of ~CaosDBPythonRecord~ **and**
+- an entry in a dict called "metadata" storing a CaosDBPropertyMetadata object with the following information about proeprties:
+ - ~unit~
+ - ~datatype~
+ - ~description~
+ - ~id~
+ - ~importance~
diff --git a/unittests/test_apiutils.py b/unittests/test_apiutils.py
index 9e13b74893824474fca4425ea40f51b780ec0eab..daa1e1c390ec81cc90c5834b61733b5c9e26925c 100644
--- a/unittests/test_apiutils.py
+++ b/unittests/test_apiutils.py
@@ -35,6 +35,8 @@ from caosdb.apiutils import (apply_to_ids, compare_entities, create_id_query,
from .test_property import testrecord
+import pytest
+
def test_convert_object():
r2 = db.apiutils.convert_to_python_object(testrecord)
@@ -271,3 +273,49 @@ def test_merge_entities():
assert r2.get_property("F").name == "F"
assert r2.get_property("F").value == "text"
+
+
+def test_merge_bug_109():
+ rt = db.RecordType(name="TestBug")
+ p = db.Property(name="test_bug_property", datatype=db.LIST(db.INTEGER))
+
+ r_b = db.Record(name="TestRecord")
+ r_b.add_parent(rt)
+ r_b.add_property(p, value=[18, 19])
+
+ r_a = db.Record(name="TestRecord")
+ r_a.add_parent(rt)
+
+ merge_entities(r_a, r_b)
+
+ assert r_b.get_property("test_bug_property").value == [18, 19]
+ assert r_a.get_property("test_bug_property").value == [18, 19]
+
+ assert "<Value>18</Value>\n <Value>19</Value>" in str(r_b)
+ assert "<Value>18</Value>\n <Value>19</Value>\n <Value>18</Value>\n <Value>19</Value>" not in str(r_b)
+
+ assert "<Value>18</Value>\n <Value>19</Value>" in str(r_a)
+ assert "<Value>18</Value>\n <Value>19</Value>\n <Value>18</Value>\n <Value>19</Value>" not in str(r_a)
+
+
+@pytest.mark.xfail
+def test_bug_109():
+ rt = db.RecordType(name="TestBug")
+ p = db.Property(name="test_bug_property", datatype=db.LIST(db.INTEGER))
+
+ r_b = db.Record(name="TestRecord")
+ r_b.add_parent(rt)
+ r_b.add_property(p, value=[18, 19])
+
+ r_a = db.Record(name="TestRecord")
+ r_a.add_parent(rt)
+ r_a.add_property(r_b.get_property("test_bug_property"))
+
+ assert r_b.get_property("test_bug_property").value == [18, 19]
+ assert r_a.get_property("test_bug_property").value == [18, 19]
+
+ assert "<Value>18</Value>\n <Value>19</Value>" in str(r_b)
+ assert "<Value>18</Value>\n <Value>19</Value>\n <Value>18</Value>\n <Value>19</Value>" not in str(r_b)
+
+ assert "<Value>18</Value>\n <Value>19</Value>" in str(r_a)
+ assert "<Value>18</Value>\n <Value>19</Value>\n <Value>18</Value>\n <Value>19</Value>" not in str(r_a)