Classification Rules

Rules that apply to classifications are enforced by the system.

Rule

Classifications can become only more restrictive at each subsequent level of the hierarchy:

• Global classifications can have children that are global, customer specific, or a mix of both.

• Customer-specific classifications can only have children that are customer specific. Descendant classifications can only be associated with a customer if its customer-specific parent classification has also been associated with that customer.

A customer-specific classification cannot have a global classification below it in the classification hierarchy. Notice that the same set of customers becomes more and more restrictive in the example.

Example

IT \ HARDWARE \ DESKTOP COMPUTER \ VIDEOCARD

• IT is global

• IT \ HARDWARE is customer specific

• Customer 1

• Customer 2

• Customer 3

• IT \ HARDWARE \ DESKTOP COMPUTER is customer specific

• Customer 2

• Customer 3

• IT \ HARDWARE \ DESKTOP COMPUTER \ VIDEOCARD is customer specific

• Customer 2

Rule

You can only associate a classification with a customer if the same customer is associated with the parent classification, or if the parent is a global classification.

Example

IT \ HARDWARE \ DESKTOP COMPUTER

• IT is global

• IT \ HARDWARE is customer specific

• Customer 1

• Customer 2

• IT \ HARDWARE \ DESKTOP COMPUTER is customer specific

• Customer 1

• Customer 2

If you associate Customer 3 with IT \ HARDWARE \ DESKTOP COMPUTER, Customer 3 is automatically associated with the parent classification, IT \ HARDWARE.

Rule

When you remove a customer from a customer-specific classification, that customer is removed from all descendant classifications. In this example, you remove Customer 2 from IT \ HARDWARE, and Customer 2 is automatically removed from all descendents of IT \ HARDWARE.

Example

IT \ HARDWARE \ DESKTOP COMPUTER \ VIDEOCARD

• IT is global

• IT \ HARDWARE is customer specific

• Customer 1

• Customer 2 - You remove the association

• Customer 3

• IT \ HARDWARE \ DESKTOP COMPUTER is customer specific

• Customer 2 - The system removes the association

• Customer 3

• IT \ HARDWARE \ DESKTOP COMPUTER \ VIDEOCARD is customer specific

• Customer 2 - The system removes the association

In this example, the customer-specific classification IT \ HARDWARE \ DESKTOP COMPUTER \ VIDEOCARD has no customers associated with it. The classification did not automatically become a global classification. A user with a customer-based security profile and the ability to see all customer records cannot see this classification.

Rule

For customer-specific classifications only, if you associate a customer with an attribute, you must first associate the customer with the classification for that attribute. Customer 2 and customer 3 are associated with the classification and the attribute in the example.

Example

IT \ HARDWARE\ PRINTER is associated with Customer 1, Customer 2, and Customer 3.

If you want to associate another customer to the WEIGHT attribute, you can select only Customer 1, the remaining customer that is associated with the classification that is not associated with the customer-specific attribute.

Rule

When you remove a customer association from a customer-specific classification, that customer is removed from any customer-specific attributes of that classification. Using the previous example, you remove Customer 2 from the classification, and Customer 2 is automatically removed from the attribute.

Example

IT \ HARDWARE\ PRINTER is associated with Customer 1 and Customer 3. You remove Customer 2.

When you remove a customer from a classification, the customer is also removed from all descendant classifications and all customer-specific attributes on those classifications.

See also

Effects of changes to classification hierarchies

Classifications