On this page
- Asset types, then a tree inside each one
- What a category carries
- Configure mode
- Importing categories from a CSV
- One authority, on purpose
Asset types, then a tree inside each one
Team Settings › Asset Categories is the single place the team's asset taxonomy is defined. The left column lists Asset Types, searchable, each with a count. Selecting one opens its category tree on the right: categories, subcategories beneath them, and a count on each node.
The header of the selected type names who owns it and when it was last updated, with edit, duplicate, delete and Configure beside it.
Editing needs Team Admin, the same as Standards and Templates.
A new asset type
+ beside the list opens New Asset Type: a name and an optional description. It opens empty; Configure then offers Add Root Category to start the tree.
What a category carries
Selecting a category opens Category Properties:
| Field | What it is |
|---|---|
| Name, Description | The category itself |
| Icon | Its mark in lists |
| Form Template | The form an asset in this category gets, from Templates › Forms |
| Effective Status Set | The workflow that form resolves to, from Templates › Status Sets |
| Subcategories | How many direct subcategories it has |
The last two are why this page matters beyond naming things: the fields and the workflow an asset gets are decided here, by which category it is in. In the tree, a category that has a form shows that form's name beside it.
Where a value is not set on the category itself, the panel shows inherited from Template. On a category with no form template at all, the panel shows Form Template (None) and no Effective Status Set line; the line appears once a template resolves.
Two inheritance rules, not one
| Form Template | Effective Status Set | |
|---|---|---|
| How it resolves | Cumulative. Every ancestor's template plus the category's own, up to the root, with duplicates removed | One template only. The category's own if it has one, otherwise the root's |
| Does it use the parent? | Yes, and the grandparent, and so on | No. It skips past the middle of the tree to the root |
| Worked example | 1(A) › 1-1(B) › 1-1-1(none) gives 1-1-1 the set {A, B} | 1-1-1 with no template of its own resolves to A, the root's, not B |
Form templates accumulate down the tree; the status set resolves to exactly one and reaches past the parent to the root.
- There is no inheritance blocking in either direction.
- A root category must always carry a template of its own. That is what makes the status-set rule always resolvable.
- That is also why the panel names the template a status set came from: for a category with no template of its own the answer is the root's, and you cannot work that out by looking at the tree.
Configure mode
Configure turns the tree editable and adds:
- Add Root Category
- a control on each row to add a subcategory beneath it
- drag handles for reordering
- Import CSV and Export CSV: a taxonomy of any size is faster to build in a spreadsheet than in a tree
Inside Configure, a delete needs no confirmation, because Discard reverts the whole session. Outside it, a delete asks, because nothing reverts it. The test is whether the change can be taken back, not how large it looks.
Importing categories from a CSV
- No required column names. Give the file one column per category level.
- Step 2 of the Update via CSV wizard is where you say which column is which Asset Category level.
- Each row is one path, and the rows merge into a tree: three rows sharing their first two columns make one branch with three leaves, not three branches.
Two things to know before you apply:
- Apply adds. It does not replace. A category already in the tree and absent from your file stays where it is. Importing is not a way to prune.
- A name that already exists is added again, as a duplicate. The import appends rather than matching on name and merging, and clearing duplicates afterwards is manual. Check your file against the tree first.
One authority, on purpose
Everywhere an asset category is chosen reads this list, which is why a category cannot be invented while working on a project. If a category you need is not offered, it has not been defined here: the same shape as Team Settings: Standards.