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doc/4.0.0/Working With Finder/Organize/Categories/Managing Categories

1. Managing Categories

This section explains how to manage and use categories.

1.1. Category management user's rights.

Only one unique Finder user account can be assigned to manage categories. By default, the Admin account is allocated this responsibility, but it can be delegated to another user by the Finder administrator. To give another Finder user the rights to manage categories, select the Accounts section in the left frame of Finder.

  • Accessing the Accounts section of Finder to delegate Category Management

  • Open the Accounts section of Finder and locate the user who will be delegated with Category Management

Under Accounts, chose Edit on the account to which you will be delegating Category Mangement rights. The account details open up in the right frame of Finder. In the Privileges section chose “Allow edition of applications and object tags” and/or “Allow edition of categories and services” as shown in the screenshot below, then "Save and close" the account.

  • Delegating Category Management to a non-admin Finder user

  • Delegating the edition of application and object tags plus categories and services

1.2. Connecting Engine with Category Editor user's rights

Launch NEXThink Finder, and log in with the category editor user.

A Category section is available for managing the configuration.

  • Logging in with Category Editor user's rights

The Engine contains System categories which are neither configurable nor editable:

  • Account type shows the type of windows user account. The possible keywords are local, domain and system.

1.3. Creating a Category

Using a right click over the Categories section or a selected folder, the user can create a new category item using a contextual menu. A Category is assigned to an object family.

  • Create a new category

Note: categories can also be created directly within the object edition dialog, see Tagging Objects section.

1.4. Naming a Category

A new Untitled Category category is created.

  • Naming a Category item should be done carefully as this new object property will be then used in investigations and widgets. Renaming or deleting, later on, a given Category will render all investigations and widgets using the old name useless.

To set a name for a Category , as for Investigation names, either click on the Untitled Category name and enter a new name or in the category tree, use a right click over the created category and use the rename function.

A short description for the category can be set.

  • Enter the Category name (i.e. Location) and a short description for the category

1.5. Category privilege Information level

A privilege for the information level is available for each category.

This will allow users having same or above privilege level to see and use a given category. For example, if a category is created with an Information level set to "personal", only Finder user accounts having a "personal" level will be able to see and use this category.

  • Setting the information level

1.6. Adding Keywords

To manage keywords for a category, the keyword panel can be found in the bottom left of the Category Management screen.

  • Keyword panel in Category Management screen

A single click on the + icon will create a new keyword for the edited Category.

  • Click on the + icon to add new keyword

Note: keywords can also be created directly within the object edition dialog; see Tagging Objects section for more information.

Type in the location keyword and press the Enter key or OK to enter the keyword. Click on the + icon and repeat the process to add additional keywords.

1.7. Auto-tagging rules

Once created, the Category editing right panel allows the user to set Auto-tagging rules for the selected keyword.

Select Click here to add a new condition for new auto-tagging rule.

  • Select the appropriate auto-tagging condition

If the matching rule is not acceptable, an exclamation mark appears in a red circle to the left of the trash can. Adjust the matching rule as required or click on the trash can icon to delete the condition and start again.

  • Use wildcards to aid matching

Select each other Keyword to add auto-tagging rules.

Notes: With the operator matches, the character "*" stands for any number of arbitrary characters.

1.8. Auto-tagging ordering

If more than one keyword is auto-tagged, the tagging operation will be executed keyword by keyword. The keyword display is presented in alphabetic order. If complex consecutive rules have to be applied for a given category, the user is allowed to review and tune the tagging process order using the "Set auto-tagging order.. " button.

  • Set the keyword order to make certain that auto-tagging works correctly

1.9. Default auto-tagging rule

To set a default keyword, you can add it as the last one in the auto-tagging order and matching any condition as the tagging rule.

  • Create a default keyword (e.g. Others) to match any locations unmatched by earlier rules

  • Set Others to match any condition by using a wildcard

  • Make sure you place the tags in the right order, with Others last

Move Others to the last entry in the auto-tagging list so earlier entries will match if a match is possible

Click Save to only save the category configuration. Apply the configuration to the objects with Save and close or Close if a previous Save has already been done. Displaying results for a given category can be obtained after the close or by using contextual menu " Display..." on the category tree.

2. Example

2.1. Using LDAP Organisation Units for Auto-tagging

  • Step 1 List Distinguished Name of Active Directory users.

    • Create an investigation to list the Distinguished Names of AD users

  • Step 2 Discover the OU structure and design the category.

    • Save and run the investigation

    • In this example, we will create a category Department with the keywords IT, Services, QA and R&D and matching the second OU level of the full distinguished name. For the other users, the keyword RoU (Rest of Users) will be used.

  • Step 3 Create the category "department" and set each keyword with the auto-tagging rule.

    • For the IT department:
      • Set auto-tagging conditions for the IT department

      For the QA department:
      • Set auto-tagging conditions for the QA department

      For the R&D department:

      • Set auto-tagging conditions for the R&D department

      For the Services department:
      • Set auto-tagging conditions for the Services department

      For the rest of users (last keyword in the auto-tagging order) :
      • Set auto-tagging conditions for the rest of the users

      Note: use one part of the DN to differentiate local or system users than domain users.

  • Step 4 Save and close to apply the configuration and see the result

    • Check the result by running another investigation

  • Step 5 Use the category in an Investigation

    • For example, retrieve the applications used by the IT department

      Use IT as a category in an investigation into applications used by the IT department