Collections¶

A collection is a reusable list of metadata elements. Assets and other referenceable metadata elements can be linked to a collection. The collection itself can then be added to another collection, or linked to, say a community or a personal profile.

Collections have classifications to indicate how they are being used. Below are some examples of collections deployed in different scenarios. The type definitions for collections are found in model 0021.

Asset catalog hierarchy¶

Some asset catalogs organize their catalogued resources in a hierarchical folder structure, where each folder represents a particular theme. This allows people to browse the entries in a systematic way. Since the folder structure organizes similar assets together, it is easier to compare entries and pick the best one for the use case.

Collections can be used to provide the folder structure. The top of the hierarchy is typically classified with the RootCollection classification. The nested collections linked underneath it are classified with the Folder classification. The relationships linking the hierarchy and the assets together are of type CollectionMembership.

Product catalog organization¶

Digital products offer data sets and services that have been developed for a particular purpose. They are typically versioned, and may offer the data/function in multiple formats.

Collections are used in two ways for digital products. Each digital product is represented using a collection with the DigitalProduct classification attached. The digital products are often organized in a folder hierarchy, like the asset catalog.

Home collections¶

Home collections are used to organize elements for a particular person, team, project or community. They are linked to the element representing the people they are supporting using the ResourceList relationship. An example of a home collection could be a favourites list.

Work Item List¶

ToDos describe actions for people to perform. They are attached to one or more chosen actors. Collections with the WorkItemList can be used to organize these ToDos to help prioritize the work.

Results Sets¶

Collections can be used by automated services, typically governance services, to gather the results of their processing together. Such a collection would have the ResultsSet classification attached to it.

For example, the results set collection shown below is from a governance service that is identifying assets that should be archived (for example, by reviewing their Retention classification).

This next example is from a governance service that is periodically processing a saved query, building up the results set over time as new metadata is created.

Recent Access¶

User interfaces can keep track of the metadata elements that a particular user is working with, so they can quickly access them. Such a collection would be chained off of the individual's Person element using the ResourceList relationship. The collection would have the RecentAccess classification attached.

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