Cumulus categories make it easier to organize, find and work with files:• Build efficient, hierarchical taxonomies that fit your needs perfectly. • Offer “virtual” category trees that use alternate category names suitable for different audiences. • Automate the creation of new categories based on metadata inside your files. • Add metadata values to categories for easier project and archive management.
LEARNING CUMULUS (EXPLORING SERIES): Tapping the True Power of Cumulus CategoriesMore flexible than folders, much smarter than keywords, use Cumulus categories to build and manage any taxonomy.
Cumulus categories make it easier to organize, find and work with files:
• Build efficient, hierarchical taxonomies that fit your needs perfectly.• Offer “virtual” category trees that use alternate category names suitable for different audiences.• Automate the creation of new categories based on metadata inside your files.• Add metadata values to categories for easier project and archive management.
Cumulus categories overview.Among all the features and capabilities offered inside Canto Cumulus, none is more popular with users than categories. Categories enable users to easily build virtually any organizational hierar-chies they need. Files can be assigned to any cat-egories needed through drag & drop, and finding files assigned to a category takes just a double click—easy.
But unlike keyword tagging, categories are not based on static text values; and unlike folders, categories are not storage locations for files. Cat-egories offer unique advantages not available in other systems:
Categories are “live” Unlike keyword tagging, Cumulus category assignments are live links. This means you can move or rename a category
at any time—all assignments are updated accordingly.
Categories are not folders When you assign a file to a category, a link is created, but the file isn’t moved. Therefore, you can delete categories you no longer need without concern that you’re also deleting files. Plus, a file can be assigned to as many categories as you need.
Categories contain metadata Each category can have its own metadata, which means information that applies to all assigned files, such as project dues dates or production status, is easy to man-age and track. Forget having to add shared meta-data values to each and every file assigned to a category. Add the value to the category itself, and all files assigned to the category are instantly associated with the value.
Categories are unique Even categories that have the same name remain separate. This means your “travel images” category hierarchy can con-tain categories for Berlin (in Germany) and Ber-lin (in New Jersey), without concern that a double-click on one will find assets assigned to the other.
Categories are controlled You can hide selected categories from certain users for security rea-sons, or just cleaner workspaces. Likewise, the ability to create and manage categories is gov-erned by standard Cumulus permissions, so it’s easy to restrict category editing to certain users.
NOTE: For basic category use, like creating, renaming and deleting, see the Cumulus User Guide.
Understanding category types.Cumulus offers four category types:
• Master categories (tabs)
• Normal categories
• Related categories
• Directory (Source categories)
For most purposes you’ll use normal categories, but the other category types offer additional ben-efits. (Each category type is explained below.)
NOTE: You can toggle the visibility of the cate-gory pane in the Cumulus Native Client via View > Workspace > Category Pane.
Figure 1 shows the Cumulus Native Client cate-gory pane, which displays a category hierarchy for each opened Cumulus catalog. At the top of the category list is an entry for the catalog itself. What appears below the catalog name depends on the categories created for the catalog.
FIGURE 1: Master categories appear as tabs (1), and are listed below each catalog name (2) with a ‘$’ pre-ceding their names (3). Categories that have subcate-gories include triangle icons (4). Square icons are used for categories that have no subcategories (5). The cat-egories found under $Keywords and $Categories are normal types. Those under $Sources are directory cate-gories (6).
Category assignmentsWe discuss categories in terms of a category “knowing” which files are assigned to it, but more accurately, category assignments are tracked by the Categories record field. In other words, each asset record tracks which categories have been assigned to the asset—categories themselves do not contain this information.
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LEARNING CUMULUS (EXPLORING SERIES): Tapping the True Power of Cumulus Categories
When a normal, related or source category is nested inside another category, it’s considered a subcategory or child of the parent category.
Master categoriesDisplayed in blue in the category pane are the catalog’s master categories. Master categories are indicated by a dollar sign ($) in their names. Master categories are unique in that they appear as tabs at the top of the category pane.
All newly created Cumulus catalogs include three master categories:
• Categories
• Keywords
• Sources
Cumulus Enterprise and Complete enable you to add as many additional master categories as you need. Cumulus Entry and Workgroup limit you to these three master categories unless the system has been upgraded with the “Extended Catego-ries” add-on.
You can hide master categories (and their sub-categories) from certain users as a property of a category view set. (Figure 2) Using Cumulus Enterprise or Complete (or an upgraded Work-group/Entry system), you can also use individual per-category permissions to determine which users can see or edit each category.
Normal categoriesBelow all master categories (except $Sources) are normal categories. This is the type of category you create when you use the Metadata > New Category menu option.
Normal categories can be nested and moved anywhere in the category hierarchy. When you move a Cumulus category (of any type), all assignments remain intact. When you delete a normal category, all assignments are removed
automatically. This ensures your files won’t be assigned to categories that no longer exist.
Related CategoriesSay you manage photos of cars. You build a core category hierarchy (of normal categories) named for each auto maker. Then you realize you’d also like hierarchies for region, class and production status. You could create and manage multiple separate hierarchies, but related categories offer a much better solution. Figure 3 shows this example.
A related category can be thought of as a clone of another category. It can be renamed and moved independently from the original category. File assignments between an original category and its related “clones” remain in perfect in sync—anything assigned to one is auto-assigned to the other. (Un-assignments are handled too.)
Related categories appear in an italic font in the category pane. When created, “(related)” is appended to their names. You can remove “(related)” or otherwise rename related catego-ries at any time.
You can create as many related categories as you need. When you delete one, it has no effect on the original category itself, or the file assign-ments made to the category. When you delete an original category, all related categories are deleted automatically.
Related categories are also useful when you serve two or more audiences, such as employees and customers. Figure 4 offers an example of offering product numbers for employees and product names to customers. Using Cumulus permissions, you’d determine who saw which.
NOTE: To create a related category, select the original category and choose Metadata > New Related Category.
FIGURE 2: Category view sets can limit the master categories visi-ble when that category view set is chosen. By restricting users to cer-tain category view sets only, you restrict their access to the various master category hierar-chies.
The inset image shows how the category pane appears when a category view that permits access to only a single mas-ter category is chosen.
FIGURE 3: Under the Manufacturers category are three original catego-ries: BMW, Toyota and Yugo. Related categories of those originals have been placed elsewhere in the category hierarchy. A double-click on any related category shows the same asset records as a double-click on the original cate-gory. (Preferences set-tings affect this behavior.) File assignments can be made to the related or original categories—they are always in sync.
FIGURE 4: The category tree on the right contains categories related to those on the left. The related cat-egories were renamed to offer familiar names to cus-tomers.
More Cumulus EducationDon’t miss the following resources, each all available fro free from Canto’s website:
Cumulus Documentation Cumulus docs, install guides, release notes and more.(http://www.canto.com/docs)
Enhanced Metadata Support A list of the files for which Cumulus offers enhanced metadata support.(http://www.canto.com/filters)
RAW Formats Support See a list of the digi-tal camera RAW formats Cumulus supports.(http://www.canto.com/raw)
Canto Community Blog Tips, news and other information of use to Cumulus users.(http://blog.canto.com)
Exploring Cumulus Series More Exploring documents like this one are also available.(http://www.canto.com/exploring)
Canto User Forums Exchange ideas with users from all around the world.(http://forum.canto.com)
Canto, the Canto logo and Cumulus are registered trademarks of Canto. Other company and product names might be trademarks of their respective owners.
LEARNING CUMULUS (EXPLORING SERIES): Tapping the True Power of Cumulus Categories
Source CategoriesWhen files are cataloged, Cumulus (by default) creates a source category to represent the stor-age locations of the cataloged files. The result is a hierarchy of source categories that mirrors your storage media’s folder structure. (Figure 5)
The benefits source categories offer include:
User orientation Users familiar with folder struc-tures on your file servers or other storage media might prefer to find files based on the physical locations they already know.
Default organizational structure Source catego-ries provide you with a default organizational structure for all newly cataloged files. So even if you don’t have time to make other category or metadata assignments right away, you’ll still have an organizational structure for the files.
Autocataloging sources Source categories can periodically check their corresponding file sys-tem folders and catalog any assets found there. (Figure 6)
NOTE: Auto-cataloging via source categories is a handy option available with all Cumulus systems, but for more powerful and flexibility, consider Canto’s Email Cataloger add-on, or a number of Canto partner products specifically designed for auto-cataloging.
Unlike normal and related categories, source cat-egories cannot be created manually. This is due to their unique association with a storage media location. If you create a category under the Sources tab, it will be a normal category.
You can delete source categories at any time, and you can also prevent them from being automati-cally created, which is explained next.
Creating categories automatically.In addition to source categories, Cumulus can automatically generate normal categories too.
It works like this: Cumulus reads a metadata value embedded inside a newly cataloged asset (or updated asset record). If a category of the same name exists, the asset is assigned to that category. If not, the category is created and the file is assigned to it.
You’ve might have noticed categories appearing automatically when you’ve cataloged PDF, Pow-erPoint or Zip files, because Cumulus defaults to creating new categories for the pages, slides, archived files etc. of these file types.
Automatic categories are configured from the Preferences window of any Cumulus catalog, as shown in figure 7.
1. Open the Preferences window. Click on Cata-log Settings, and then the Record Fields tab.
2. Select the Categories field in the list and click Properties. When the properties window appears (figure 8), click the Field Linking tab.
Figure 8 provides an overview of properties used to create (and disable) automatic categories.
NOTE: To prevent source categories from being created, deactivate all modules targeted at $Sources.
If the assets you catalog (or update) have meta-data in the chosen field, a new category is cre-ated under the target master category. If the category exists, the asset is assigned to it. (Figure 8 offers some usage ideas for this fea-ture.)
Choose when automatic categories are created or assignedOptions at the top of Field Linking tab of the Field Properties window (figure 8) determine when categories should be created or assigned:
When Cataloging Assets Create/assign the cat- egories when cataloging assets.
FIGURE 5: Source cat-egories are automati-cally created to reflect the cataloged files’ storage locations. The directory path seen in the operating system window here is reflected by source category tree show in the Cumulus window on the left.
FIGURE 6: Right-click on a source category to set up autocataloging. So long as the Cumulus Native Client is running, autocataloging of the source folder will occur at the interval defined.
FIGURE 7: Inside the Categories record field’s proper-ties are options for creating automatic categories.
Canto, the Canto logo and Cumulus are registered trademarks of Canto. Other company and product names might be trademarks of their respective owners.
LEARNING CUMULUS (EXPLORING SERIES): Tapping the True Power of Cumulus Categories
When Updating Records Create/assign the cate-gories when updating asset records.
The other options aren’t applicable when work-ing with automatically created categories.
Source categories and the Cumulus VaultSource categories are not created for files cata-loged into the Cumulus Vault, because the Vault is the “source” location of these files. If you want Cumulus to create source categories for the for-mer file system locations of Vault files, first cata-log the files “in place.” Move them into the Cumulus Vault afterward. The source category assignments will remain intact.
Giving categories their own metadata.As mentioned, Cumulus categories can contain their own metadata values. These metadata val-ues should not be confused with the metadata of the files assigned to the category—category and asset record metadata always remain indepen-dent inside Cumulus. Asset record metadata are values that apply to a single file or asset. Category metadata are values associated with all files assigned to the category.
To provide a real world analogy of the benefit this offers, think of a category as a project organizer. Each project you work on has attributes (or metadata) that help you manage and track it—due date, manager, etc.
Say, for example, you create a category for a new press release. You’ll assign all files used in the press release to this category, but the metadata values that apply to the press release as a whole you’d assign to the press release’s category, as shown in figure 9.
NOTE: All editions of Cumulus enable you to create and edit category metadata, but only Enterprise, Complete and upgraded Work-group and Entry systems permit you to find categories based on their metadata.
Adding category metadataCategory metadata fields are added to catalogs in virtually the same way as asset record meta-data fields. Likewise, once added, a category
metadata field must be added to a category view set in order to make it available to users.
Open the Preferences window for your catalog and open the Catalog Settings section. From this location, add the metadata fields you need, as shown in figure 10.
Once the new fields are added to the catalog, click the Apply button and then add the fields to a category view set, using the Category View Set section of Preferences. (Figure 11)
NOTE: Consult the Cumulus Admin Guide for information on how to create new metadata fields and add them to category view sets. (Make sure to make the field user editable after you create it.)
Using category metadataOnce category metadata fields have been added to a catalog and at least one category view set, they may be accessed by permitted users.
FIGURE 8: (Left) In the Link Matching Fields (upper) list of the properties window are modules that are “hardwired” to create categories automatically. Use the Deactivate but-ton to disable the creation of any categories you don’t want. The drop-down menu in the Category Target column shows a list of all master categories found in the catalog. The new categories will appear under the chosen master category.
The lower list of the window contains mod-ules (filters) you’ve added via the Add button to create the categories you need. In this image, the EXIF filter has been chosen, which can extract the EXIF metadata value for Cam-era Model. As a target master category, $Cameras was chosen. (This is a custom mas-ter category, like those you can create using Cumulus Enterprise, Complete or an upgraded Entry or Workgroup system.) When a file is cataloged, Cumulus checks for a Camera Model metadata value. If the value is found in the file, Cumulus creates a category named for the camera model, or the category already exists, it assigns the asset to it.
(Right) When you click the Add button to add your own modules, choose only [String] type fields. Other types won’t work.
FIGURE 9: Category metadata fields appear and are edited just like asset record metadata fields. This image shows a set of category metadata fields that are used for project management.
FIGURE 10: Category metadata fields can be added to a catalog at any time. All standard Cumulus metadata field types are supported.
Canto, the Canto logo and Cumulus are registered trademarks of Canto. Other company and product names might be trademarks of their respective owners.
LEARNING CUMULUS (EXPLORING SERIES): Tapping the True Power of Cumulus Categories
More about the Categories record fieldThe Categories asset record field is useful for several operations that are category related:
• Email notifications when assets are assigned to a certain category. (This would be a Record Event catalog trigger for the Categories field.)
• Live filtering that restricts access to cer-tain files based on their category assign-ments. (This would be a record live filter that searches for Categories field values.)
To see a category’s metadata, select the category and choose Metadata > Information. A window appears that contains the category’s metadata.
Users can then access the category view set you’ve created or edited using the Category View Set drop-down menu, shown in figure 12.
Category metadata values can be edited and saved just like asset record metadata.
If you want to restrict certain category metadata fields from certain users, put those fields on a new category view set and use Cumulus permis-sions to determine which users can access that view set. (Figure 13)
NOTE: Using Cumulus Enterprise, Complete or upgraded Workgroup and Entry systems, you can also restrict the editing of specific fields to certain users.
In addition to browsing and editing category metadata field values, users of Cumulus Enter-
prise, Complete and upgraded Workgroup and Entry systems can search for categories based on their metadata values. (Figure 14)
Purposes for searches like these include:
• Show me projects (categories) due this week.
• Show me projects (categories) marked final.
When you perform the search, Cumulus shows you a list of categories that match your criteria. (Figure 15)
Taking category metadata furtherCategory metadata can be used in conjunction with other Cumulus features too:
Email notifications Use Category Event triggers to generate email notifications based on category metadata field value changes. Example: Get email when a project status is changed to Delayed.
Field formulas Set a category metadata value based on the values in other category metadata fields. Example: Check a “Ready for Release” box the moment all required approvals have been granted.
Category Live Filtering On Cumulus systems that offer Live Filtering, restrict which categories are visible to certain users based on real-time rules. Example: Hide project categories from guests until the project has been marked Approved.
FIGURE 11: Newly created category metadata fields must be added to at least one category view set in order for users to be able to see and edit the values.
FIGURE 12: Users select among the category view sets available them via permissions using the drop-down menu shown.
FIGURE 13: Permissions configured via the Cumulus Server Console can be used to restrict access to cer-tain category view sets. Here, the Project Manager user has access to the Project Management category view set. Regular users wouldn’t see this view set unless the permission was also granted to them.
FIGURE 14: The Find Categories window looks and behaves exactly like the Find Records window, so users need no additional training.
FIGURE 15: The cat-egory tree is updated after a category metadata search to show matching cate-gories. Double-click a category to see its files.
Canto, the Canto logo and Cumulus are registered trademarks of Canto. Other company and product names might be trademarks of their respective owners. Some product claims and features are not included in all versions of the software and/or might require additional Cumulus Add-ons or Plug-ins.
About Canto, Cumulus and Canto Professional ServicesCanto has been dedicated to helping customers fully utilize their digital assets since 1990. Canto Cumu-lus is a cross-platform solution that enables companies to easily organize, find, share and track their ever-increasing numbers of digital files, in any format. Canto’s worldwide network of certified developers offers an impressive assortment of plug-ins that enhance the Cumulus product line further.
Canto Professional Services offers Cumulus consulting, training, installation, configuration and customi-zation services. Take what you learn in Exploring Documents further with Canto Professional Services.
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