Defining asset types

Repository administrators can create asset types, which include the asset type name and description. When creating an asset type, repository administrators should consider who uses the asset, in what context the asset is used, what artifacts the asset must include, what other assets are related and how, and what descriptive information users need to find and use the asset efficiently. Administrators can define other levels of constraints such as those on artifacts, categories, or attributes.

Before you begin

To create an asset type, you must be a repository administrator. If you are a community administrator, to create an asset type for your community, see Creating community asset types.

About this task

Users and administrators use asset types for many purposes, including the following:
  • To align with the internal structure of an organization.
  • To allow users to filter a search by asset type.
  • To place a constraint on an asset. For example, you can require that an asset have a specific file type as an artifact or be related to another asset in a certain way.
  • To automatically assign categories to the asset based on the content of XML artifacts.
  • To create rules that allow XML artifacts to be indexed and found by keyword searches.
  • To view metrics of the number of assets that exist by type in the repository.
  • To trigger a custom review process that is assigned to specific asset types in a community.
  • To assign community roles to apply to assets of a specific type.
When creating an asset type, consider the following questions:
  • Who will use the asset?
  • How will the asset be used?
  • What artifacts must the asset include?
  • What descriptive information must the asset include?
  • What information will users need to find and use the asset?
  • What assets are related to the asset, and what are the relationships?
  • Will the asset artifacts include XML content? If yes, do you want to automatically assign categories based on that XML content?

To create an asset type that is similar to that of an existing asset type, click Duplicate. This action duplicates the existing asset type and then you can modify the existing name and details of the asset type by clicking the asset type name and editing the details.

Important: Asset types in the repository are displayed alphabetically. When you create asset types that correspond to a particular business need or department, name similar asset types with the same prefixes so that users can find the asset types in the list easily. For example, for service asset types you can create the following asset type names:
  • Service
  • Service Design
  • Service Model
  • Service Implementation
  • Service Test
  • Service Test Results

These steps must be performed by a user with administration permissions.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the web application.
  2. Click Administration.
  3. In the Repository Administration sidebar, click Asset Types.
  4. Click New Asset Type.
  5. Describe the asset type:
    1. In the Name field, type a name.
    2. In the Description field, type a meaningful description. When a user is submitting a new asset using the Submit an Asset wizard, this description displays when the user selects this asset type and clicks the help icon for the Type field on the Describe page.
  6. Optional: Select the communities to contain this asset type. If the asset type is not restricted to certain communities, the asset type is available to all communities in the repository.
    1. Click the Scoping tab.
    2. To limit the communities that can hold this asset type, in the Communities Scoping section select Restrict to selected communities, and then select one or more communities.
  7. Optional: Define the available category schema for the asset type. You can allow either all or a limited selection of the categories that are available in the repository.
    1. Click the Scoping tab.
    2. To allow all categories to be applied to the asset, in the Category Scoping section select Use all category schema.
    3. To allow only a subsection of category schemas, select Use only the selected category schemas, and then select one or more category schemas.
  8. Optional: Define an artifact constraint by specifying a quantifiable range of required artifacts that conform to an extension, format, or label.
    1. Click the Constraints tab.
    2. In the Artifact Constraints section, click New Artifact Constraint.
    3. Select the range of artifacts to be required, choose the restriction type, and then type a value for the type of artifact to require. For example, if creating an asset with an asset type named "Presentation," you can specify that the asset contain at least one artifact with a file extension of .ppt. Format is the context for the file, for example a presentation or a process model. File extension is the type of file, for example .txt, .xml, or .ppt. Format is defined automatically based on the MIME type of the file.
  9. Optional: Define relationship constraints.
    1. Click the Constraints tab.
    2. In the Relationship Constraints section, click New Relationship Constraint.
    3. Specify a quantifiable range, and then choose the asset type that must conform to the relationship that you choose.
    4. If you want to limit assets of this type to use only the relationship constraints defined here, select Allow only these relationships. When users submit or modify assets of this type, they are not able to select any other relationships.
  10. Optional: Add asset attributes to allow users to enter additional information or choose predefined values about the asset. These attributes are arranged into two columns that are visible on the general details page for an asset. Attributes that are moved into the Hidden Attributes section are not visible on the general details page for the asset.
    1. Click the Constraints tab.
    2. Add attribute constraints to each section. The sections are divided into Column 1, Column 2, and Hidden Attributes. You can organize the attributes into two columns to group the attributes in the general details page for an asset. Attributes contained in the Hidden Attributes section are not visible in the general details page for assets. To add an attribute constraint:
      1. Hover the cursor over the section name and click the Insert icon.
      2. Click Add Attribute Constraints.
      3. Enter a name in the filter and select the attribute, or hold down the CTRL key to select multiple attributes, and click Add and Close.
    3. Choose attribute constraints to require.
      1. Hover the cursor over the attribute name and click the Edit icon. If the Edit icon does not appear, the attribute is already required and cannot be edited.
      2. Select the Attribute is required check box.
      3. Click OK.
    4. Create groups within each section.
      1. Hover the cursor over each section and click the Insert icon.
      2. Click Add Attribute Group.
      3. Enter a name for the group and click Add and Close.
    5. Reorder the attributes into a logical order and groupings for asset users. To move an attribute to a different section or group, click and hold the attribute, move the cursor to the desired location, and release the attribute.
  11. Optional: Define an XPATH expression and rule that automatically applies categories to an asset based on the content of XML artifacts that you upload to the asset.
    1. Click the Automatic Categorization tab.
    2. Click New XML Artifact Categorization.
    3. To populate the Namespace Mappings section and test your XPATH expression, upload a sample XML document by browsing your local file system for a sample document and click Upload Sample. If you upload multiple documents, only the most recent can be used. The sample file can be reused for multiple assets until you log out.
    4. To add artifact file types that contain XML content, click Add File Type, type a file extension, and click OK.
    5. Click Add Namespace Mapping, and then type the prefix and URI of the XML namespaces. If you uploaded a file in the Sample XML File section, you can click Add from Sample to retrieve all namespace information from it. You can edit or delete any mappings from the list. The default namespace is listed with the prefix "default." You can edit this mapping to use the actual element name, or use "default" in place of the element name in your XPATH expression.
    6. To select one or more categories to apply automatically to assets of this type if they contain artifacts that match the XPATH expression you provide, click Add Category and select one or more categories from the Select Categorizations window. Click Delete to remove a category.
    7. In the XPATH Expression field, type an XPATH expression to use to search XML documents. For example: /wsdl:definitions/@targetNameSpace
    8. To evaluate the XPATH expression against your sample XML file, click Test Sample. You can view the results of the evaluation.
    9. In the Contains field, type the value that you want the XPATH expression to match. For example: example.com
    When submitting this asset type, if the results from the XPATH expression match the value of the Contains field, the categories you specified are applied to the asset.
  12. Optional: Define how the content of XML artifacts indexes and displays in search results.
    1. Click the Search Index Rules tab.
    2. Click New Rule.
    3. Select XML Artifact Rule and click OK. The XML Indexing Rule page opens.
    4. In the Name field, type a name for the rule.
    5. In the Description field, type a meaningful description for the rule.
    6. In the File extensions field, type a list of file extensions to index. Separate multiple extensions by space, For example: wsdl xml dita xsd
    7. To define XML elements to index, in the Rule Configuration section, click Add Element.
    8. In the Element field, type the XML element that you want to index. Select Index all attributes if you want to also index the content of all of the attributes for the element.
    9. Click OK.
    10. Optional: To define one or more specific element attributes to index, click Add attribute, type an attribute name, and then click OK. Repeat for all attributes that you want to index.
    11. Click OK. The Asset Type page reopens. Click the rule name to edit it, or click Delete to remove it.
  13. Click OK to save the asset type.

What to do next

To locate an existing asset type to modify, enter the name of the asset type in the Filter field for quick identification in long lists.

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