Folder Path Property

[Neil_Cross]

Does anyone know of a way to utilise the 'folder path' system property to build a category rule?

For example, rule criteria:

Property: Folder Path

Condition: contains

Value: HYDRO

The folder path property isn't usable within rules for some reason, but is usable in other areas of Vault.  Does anyone know of a workaround to this?

Cheers.

[Olaf.Górski]

Hello Neil,

The concept here in Vault is that Folder and File belong to different object, yso ou can't create a rule to assign a file to a category based on the "Folder" related property.

Hope it helps.

[hans.martin.haga]

...we think it is a bad concept

For 2014, can you please give us the folder as a property? This must have been on you wishlist for years...

[Neil_Cross]

Well said!

Where a file/object is stored is or can be a major factor in determining what it is.  There also needs to be more control over what can or can't be put into the Vault, file and folder naming restrictions etc.  But that's a different topic I guess.

[minkd]

Are you looking to assign a category to a folder via its path, or to the file via it's folder's path?

If it's the latter, here is some history and where we are today ...

In the past we couldn't have a "path" property on a file because a file could have many paths due to "shares". In 2012, we eliminated shares in favor of "links" so we got rid of our first barrier.

This left two remaining issues that we are aware of:

The first is a searching issue.  If you rename a high level folder, all versions of all files underneath that folder will need to be updated. This will result in all searches showing the "incomplete results" status until the updates complete. This could take a while for a large vault.

The second is a side-effect of the first. If you are using workgroup replication all those property updates and search index updates cause a tidal wave of replication. When combined with high-latency, low-bandwidth or packet loss over wide area networks, this tidal wave can cause significant issues.

I don't think we can deliver this highly desirable and frequently asked-for property until we address these two remaining issues.  We are making progress on them, but I cannot speak to any time frame.

-Dave

[xavier_dumont1]

Hi Dave,

Any news regarding the ability to create a rule for a file based on the folderpath?

In my opinion, the folder path must be a calculated value only, not a stored value on the file (because of the first side-effect you describe).

But, if you can calculate this kind of property when adding a file or applying a category based on rules, it will be a very good improvement.

We have many customer who want this kind of behavior by example to manage multiple site or department with different workflow.

$\Designs\Factory A\Dep 1

$\Designs\Factory A\Dep 2

$\Designs\Factory B\Dep 1 

$\Designs\Factory B\Dep 2

Thanks in advance for any news.

[minkd]

Sorry, but I don't think that Vault 2014 has any changes with respect to category assignment rules on files using the path of the folder containing the file.

-Dave

[dan.faux]

I don't know if you are still looking for an answer to this, but I ran into the same issue...we had a folder that I wanted all drawings to be of a particular lifecycle (in our case a drawing any drawing that is put in there to follow a Shop Drawing release process, whereas drawings put elsewhere in the Vault follow and Engineering Release Process). We accomplished this by assigning a category "Manufacturing" to the folder in the Vault, and thereafter any drawings checked into that folder were assigned to the same Category and therefore the desired release process.

[mikel_martin]

A workaround;

write a script in Inventor to put a value in an iproperty based on location on disk.

have the script run right before save.

map the iproperty to a udp in Vault.

create category rule based on value.

I think in AutoCAD you could create field in an attribute to acheive the same goal.

[Ezekiel12]

Hello,

I have similiar question and I don't know if this was answered or not so i'll try to ask here again.

I have folder category and i want create rule that will assign this category to folder if i'll create on some path:

For example I have path $/01 - PROJECTS/  and in this folderi have 0 - PROJECTNAME , 1 - PROJECTNAME, 2 - PROJECTNAME ...

And if i'll create 3 - PROJECTNAME, then i want to assign to this folder categry "PROJECTS" 

So i tried to do this by rules like this: Folder Path contains 01 - PROJECTS

But this is not working. How can i do that ssuming that it can be done. 🙂

Thank you

[mikel_martin]

Category rules for folders are a little awkward.

This is because at the time of creation of the folder there are no properties on the folder.

Therefore all rules will fail. This is why we have the user select a category on folder creation.

The category rules for folders are really only meant for using as a secondary step.

[dan.faux]

Ezekiel, what I have found works well for us is to override any rules by
designation a folder and therefore any files within the folder to be a
particular category. This is done under the configure Categories option. I
set up folder categories that are the same as the file categories
(Engineering, Manufacturing, Purchased, etc) and give each folder the same
lifecycle as the equivalent file category. I then go and manually assign a
category to a particular folder. From that point forward, any files that are
checked into that directory or any sub directories are given the
corresponding category. Interestingly, the sub folder takes on the default
category, but I have not worried about this because the files within the
folder have the correct category and therefore lifecycle.



We do it this way because we have some drawings that are engineering
drawings and some that are manufacturing drawings, but no way to
differentiate between them based on a rule. By putting them in this
directory, however, we get the lifecycle we need.



As typical with Autodesk products, it's not that straightforward but it is
possible 😉



Dan Faux, MASc, P. Eng.

Senior Design Engineer

Ker-Train Research Inc.

497 Discovery Avenue

Kingston, Ontario

K7K 7E8



Tel. 613-531-3155 x103

Cell 613-929-0357

Fax. 613-531-0955

[masureb]

Hello,

Post your kudo Here in the Vault Idea Station.

Cheers,

-Bertrand

[masureb]

Hello Dan,

I did not succeed in doing this set up myself. How do you apply the rules?

Cheers,

-Bertrand

[minkd]

Your rule says:  set the category to Engineering if the file-extension is txt and the category-name is Engineering.

But at the point in time when this rule is being evaluated the file has no category. So the "category is Engineering" portion of the criteria will ensure that this rule never executes.

-Dave

[masureb]

so two questions:

1) When can we apply the rule with a category name? Item?

2) My objective was to get the same category than my folder to workaround the limitation with the path... Could I?

Thanks for your support.

-Bertrand

[minkd]

1) There is no category already assigned during object creation (the rule is to assign a category), so any rule that uses category as a criteria will never match during object creation.

2) The rules engine currently only can see properties of the object to which the rules are being applied, not related objects such as the parent folder.

All I can suggest is to submit an enhancement request via the idea station.

-Dave

[plembourg]

Any news or workaround about this customer need?

[minkd]

Nothing that I'm aware of.

I recommend submitting the request to the Idea Station (if its not there already).  If its already there, vote it up.

-Dave

[pvcosta]

There is a little workaround the the fellow Ryan Small has proposed on this topic: 
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/vault-general-discussion/file-category-rule-that-sorts-by-what-folder...

---

Ryan Small wrote:

Workarounds you have;

• Leverage properties to get the rules you need.  In many implementations I will setup custom templates for each type of file where the property value is different (e.g. if you are creating a library file, start from the template where property is VAULT TYPE = LIBRARY and in vault you would have a categorization rule around this).
• Implementing Data Standard may help in some respects but not nearly a complete solution.
• Have things go on the Base category, assign category manually as needed.

---