diff --git a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/utils/FrontEndEditingUtils.java b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/utils/FrontEndEditingUtils.java
index f8e01c112..c4ec9d8bd 100644
--- a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/utils/FrontEndEditingUtils.java
+++ b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/utils/FrontEndEditingUtils.java
@@ -5,6 +5,11 @@ package edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.utils;
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.List;
 
+import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
+
+import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
+import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
+
 import com.hp.hpl.jena.rdf.model.Literal;
 import com.hp.hpl.jena.rdf.model.Model;
 import com.hp.hpl.jena.rdf.model.RDFNode;
@@ -13,10 +18,14 @@ import com.hp.hpl.jena.rdf.model.StmtIterator;
 import com.hp.hpl.jena.vocabulary.XSD;
 
 import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.beans.Individual;
+import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.beans.ObjectPropertyStatement;
 import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.dao.VitroVocabulary;
+import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.dao.jena.ObjectPropertyDaoJena;
 
 public class FrontEndEditingUtils {
  
+    private static final Log log = LogFactory.getLog(FrontEndEditingUtils.class);
+    
     // NB List includes only those properties currently editable from the front end.
     private static final List<String> VITRO_NS_DATA_PROPS = Arrays.asList(VitroVocabulary.BLURB,                                                                         
                                                                         VitroVocabulary.CITATION, 
@@ -32,7 +41,9 @@ public class FrontEndEditingUtils {
                                                                            VitroVocabulary.PRIMARY_LINK
                                                                            );
             
-
+    public static enum EditMode {
+        ADD, EDIT, REPAIR, ERROR;
+    }
     public static String getVitroNsPropDatatypeUri(String propName) {
         //Resource datatype = propName == TIMEKEY ? XSD.dateTime : XSD.xstring;
         //return datatype.getURI();
@@ -94,5 +105,31 @@ public class FrontEndEditingUtils {
         return value;
             
     }
+    
+    /* Determine whether a property editing form is in add, edit, or repair mode. */
+    public static EditMode getEditMode(HttpServletRequest request, String relatedPropertyUri) {
+        EditMode mode = EditMode.ADD;
+        Individual obj = (Individual)request.getAttribute("object");
+        if( obj != null){
+            List<ObjectPropertyStatement> stmts = obj.getObjectPropertyStatements(relatedPropertyUri);
+            if( stmts != null){
+                if( stmts.size() > 1 ){
+                    mode = EditMode.ERROR; // Multiple roleIn statements, yuck.
+                    log.debug("Multiple statements found for property " + relatedPropertyUri + ". Setting edit mode to ERROR.");
+                }else if( stmts.size() == 0 ){
+                    mode = EditMode.REPAIR; // need to repair the role node
+                    log.debug("No statements found for property " + relatedPropertyUri + ". Setting edit mode to REPAIR.");
+                }else if(stmts.size() == 1 ){
+                    mode = EditMode.EDIT; // editing single statement
+                    log.debug("Single statement found for property " + relatedPropertyUri + ". Setting edit mode to EDIT.");
+                } 
+            } else {
+                log.debug("Statements null for property " + relatedPropertyUri + " . Setting edit mode to ADD.");
+            }
+        } else {
+            log.debug("No object. Setting edit mode to ADD.");        
+        }
+        return mode;
+    }
    
 }