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      Inheritance of Category Settings

      The category tree where your documents are published often consists of a main category with multiple subcategories, where settings can be inherited from the parent category. This article explains how inheritance works.

      Category Tree

      mainCat

      What does main category mean?

      In the accompanying image, you can see an example featuring four main categories. To the left of the top three main categories, there are small arrows (>) used to indicate the underlying categories, known as subcategories. Main categories may represent entities such as Companies or Units on a site, while subcategories can represent their respective departments.
      subCat

      What does subcategory mean?

      When we expand the main category of the Company Inc by clicking on the arrow (>), we reveal the subcategories that belong to Company Inc. In the accompanying image, you can see that Company Inc has nine subcategories, while the HSE category has two subcategories. Furthermore, the subcategory Environment has additional categories of its own, although these are not visible in the example since the arrow for expansion has not been opened.

      Category Settings and Inheritance

      Each category serves as a designated space where your documents are stored once published. Additionally, every category has its own settings that determine various aspects, such as:

      • who can approve and publish documents,
      • who is responsible for revising documents and when revisions occur,
      • and who has access to the documents. 

      These settings can be configured for the specific category, but they can also be inherited from a parent category.

      ❗It's important to note that
      • a main category cannot inherit any settings because it is a primary category without a hierarchy.
      • Inheritance of category settings can only occur from a category to its subcategories (think funnel). For instance, in the example above, the Environment category can inherit settings from the HSE category since Environment is a subcategory of HSE.
      • If no specific settings are applied to a category, it will inherit access from its nearest parent category.
      • Furthermore, a category cannot have higher access levels than its parent category.ögre åtkomst än sin överliggande kategori.

      💬 Example

      In the category settings, you can quickly gain an overview of whether a specific setting has been applied or if the category inherits the setting from a parent category. Below, we will explain the configuration of the example site and its relationship with the parent categories.

      CategorySet

        1. Placed under: This indicates the parent category. For example, the Environment category is placed under the HSE category.
        2. Approve and publish documents: Specific individuals, such as Henrik from HSE, Kim S, and Kim E, have been designated to approve and publish documents within the Environment category.
        3. Revise documents:The responsibility for document revisions is inherited from the parent category, HSE, which specifies that revisions should occur one year after publication and be conducted by the HSE revision group (C).
        4. Access: Access rights are inherited from Company Inc (D), which indicates that ALL users with access to Documents have access to this category.
        5. Concerned and reading receipt: These settings are inherited from the parent category, HSE (E), stating that ALL users with access are affected by the documents and that a read receipt is required.
        6. Company information: This is inherited from the Company Inc Workspace (F), where you can find information linked to the Workspace associated with the user.
        7. Header and footer in text documents:These elements are inherited from the Company Inc Workspace (G), ensuring that the default header is always displayed on any text document published in this category.

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      Last updated: 1 April, 2025