Categorizing assets and managing permissions

The category structure of your installation might be one of the more challenging items to prepare. The structure helps you to structure and find assets, but it also has an impact on the permissions you want to set and how users can access categories.

The category structure is essential in your setup, so it is important to have a good understanding of your ideal use-case, and what you can achieve with categories in Kadanza.

Structuring your entire media library is done with categories and entry points.

• A category can be compared to a virtual folder in which files are stored. Categories are not real folders in which physical files are stored, but references used throughout Kadanza. Because of that, you can add assets to multiple categories without having to upload multiple copies of the file.
• An entry point is a group of categories that you want to show on a page in Kadanza. This means that you are able to divide your complete category structure over multiple pages spread throughout your Kadanza installation, all accessible using Kadanza’s page navigation or shortlinks.

Via entry points, it is possible to show a limited set of categories on any specific page: categories are grouped in entry points and these entry points are shown on a page.

Category permissions

The category permissions have an impact on the visualization of the category tree. If a user does not have access to a parent category, he can not see the child categories. So if a user needs specific access to a child category, make sure he can access the parent as well. More details on category permissions can be found here.

Combining categories and their permissions in entry points and pages offers a lot of flexibility on how you can present the categories

The Category chooser

When you use the category chooser in the media library, you will see all categories added in the entry point used on the page and that you are allowed to see.

When you browse the categories, you will see all assets of the selected category and its child categories.

The category chooser can be displayed as a dropdown menu or as a folder structure next to the assets.

Depending on the selected category, a different set of assets will be displayed. When you are in the home folder (the first available category in the entry point), you have access to all categories and you can browse or search through all assets.

Navigating deeper in the category tree narrows down the number of visible assets to the selected category (and its child categories).

Dividing the categories across pages

In the Admin console, you will see your entire category tree. For each space, a main category is created in which you can add child categories. And with the entry points, you can show each set of categories in their individual spaces. But that is not all! By creating entry points, you can combine categories from different spaces, create custom overviews across all spaces, and more…

How the entire category tree is presented depends on your use case. In most cases, a combination of pages with specific entry points and a general overview page is the best way forward. You can create individual media library pages for each parent category (like Photography) and add all child categories (like color images and black & white images) to the selected entry point.

By using landing pages, you can link to these pages, or you can create a link to a specific category on a media library page.

To shortlink or not to shortlink, that is the question!

Deciding on the best structure for your organization depends on your use case(s), users, the complexity of your category structure, desired permission schemes, … There is no “one approach fits all” answer for this topic. There are different ways to achieve a clear structure, each with its own pros and cons, but by combining pages, landing pages with shortlinks, entry points with categories and permissions, you can create a complete and optimized flow for your users.

Keep in mind that your users are unique. Every one of them is looking for specific assets and has his own way of searching. Some prefer an overview page with all assets so they can use the search bar, others prefer to be guided to a specific category in which they browse for the asset they need. Again: combining both options will cover most needs.

Setting up shortlinks for every subcategory is more complex to manage, especially when new categories are created regularly. We usually recommend setting up shortlinks for the (most important) parent categories and use the category chooser to navigate to the available subcategories.

Tips for categorizing

• When you upload an asset, only add it to the child category and not to the parent category. Browsing through the categories will narrow down the results.
• You can add assets to as many categories as you like without uploading them multiple times.
• If you want to remove an asset from a category, edit the asset and remove the category. If you delete the asset, it will be deleted from every category.