Adding a property to a dialog box in Enterprise 9

The dialog boxes that appear in the client applications such as Smart Connection and Content Station contain a default set of metadata properties.

Figure: The Create Dossier dialog box in Content Station, showing the default set of properties such as those for saving the Dossier to a Brand, assigning it to a Category, adding a Status, and more.

Many more metadata properties are available in Enterprise Server and when needed, custom properties can be added to Enterprise as well.

The dialog boxes can be customized by adding or removing properties, depending on which ones are needed in a particular workflow.

Step 1. In Enterprise Server, access the Dialogs Setup Maintenance page.

Step 2. Use the filter at the top of the page to specify to which Brand, for which object type and for which action the properties should be made available.

Example: To make the properties available to the Check In dialog box of images for all Brands, choose Brand '<All>', Object Type 'Image' and action 'Check In'.

Action list options

By choosing an action from the Action list, you control in which workflow dialog box each property appears. The following table lists each action that can be chosen, the dialog box the property will appear in and the menu action required for displaying that dialog box in the client application:

Dialog action	Workflow dialog box	Menu action
Create	Save As Create Article	Save As... Create Article... Create Article from Layer... Create Article from Document...
Check In	Check In	Check In... Save Version...
Send To 1	Send To	Send To...
Copy To	Copy To	Copy To...
Set Properties	Properties	Properties...

¹ Only a limited number of properties can be added to the Send To dialog; these include dynamic properties and XMP properties but no static properties or custom properties.

Note: The action named 'Preview' and the actions that contain the word 'Query' are used for adding properties to areas other than dialog boxes. For the purpose of this article they can be ignored.

Step 3. At the bottom of the page, click Add Action Property.

Options appear for adding the property.

Step 4. Set the options as needed.

• Group. Not editable. Shows the name of the Group as set on the Metadata Maintenance page for the property. This allows you to group together properties.

• Order. (Optional) Enter a number that specifies the order in which the property should appear in the dialog box.

Note: The higher the number, the lower the property will appear.

• Property. Shows all static, dynamic and custom properties that are not yet added to the dialog box.

Note: Custom properties are listed first and are preceded by an asterisk character (*).

• Editable. Select if metadata should be editable by the user. (See About restricted metadata below.)
• When selected, the user will be able to edit the content of the item, for instance by editing the default value or by entering a new value.
• When not selected, the item appears unavailable (grayed out) and will not be editable by the user. This can be used for instance when a default value is given for a property that should not be changed, such as copyright information.

• Mandatory. Select if metadata should be mandatory. (See About restricted metadata below.)
• When selected, the user is required to enter a value for that item. If no value is entered and the user attempts to go to the next step of the process (for instance by clicking OK button), a message appears informing that a value is required for that item.
• When not selected, the item can be left blank by the user.

• Restricted. Select if user is not allowed to modify metadata. (See About restricted metadata below.)
• When selected, only users that have the option 'Change Restricted Properties' selected in their Access Profile are allowed to edit the item. For all other users, the item appears unavailable (grayed out).
• When not selected, the setting of the 'Change Restricted Properties' option in the user's Access Profile is not taken into account.

• Multiple Objects. (Since Enterprise 9.2.0. Only when 'Send To' or 'Set Properties' has been selected from the Action list) Select if the property should be available when a Content Station user wants to change the properties for multiple objects or files.

Note: This option is not supported by Smart Connection.

About restricted metadata

Not all combinations of Editable, Mandatory and Restricted can be used together.

Example: Making a field Mandatory but not Editable is not logical if no default value is provided.

The table below shows an overview of the combinations that can be used.

Scenario				Comments
#	Editable	Mandatory	Restricted
1	Selected	Selected	Selected	Logical, but only if a Default is set. Users without ‘Restricted’ rights will not be able to edit the mandatory property.
2	Selected	Selected	Not selected	Correct. It is good practice to make an item editable when also making it mandatory.
3	Selected	Not selected	Selected	Correct. By setting Restricted, all users who do not have the option Change Restricted Properties set in their Access Profile won’t be able to edit the item, even when Editable is selected.
4	Selected	Not selected	Not selected	Correct. Typically a common, optional property.
5	Not selected	Selected	Selected	Not logical. The property will not be editable, not even for users with restricted rights. Use #1 instead.
6	Not selected	Selected	Not selected	Rare. Only makes sense if a Default is set. Users will not be able to edit the default.
7	Not selected	Not selected	Selected	Not logical. The property will not be editable, not even for users with restricted rights. Use #3 or #8 instead.
8	Not selected	Not selected	Not selected	Correct. Typically used for read-only properties.

Step 5. Do one of the following:

• To add the property without adding another one, click Update.
• To add the property and display a new set of property settings for adding another property, click Add Action Property.

The created action property is displayed in the section above the Add Action Property button.

Note: Review the settings that are shown for that action, since they may hold additional information.

Example: When adding the Character Count property, the editable setting is automatically selected and a lock icon () is displayed to indicate that this option cannot be edited (this is because the character count value is provided by the system and should not be entered manually).

In the Custom section of the page, a Brand/Object Type/Action group is displayed to indicate that at least one action property has been added to that combination. Clicking the link displays all properties at the bottom of the page that have been configured for that combination.