Create a property template

When you create a property template, you are creating a collection of metadata properties that globally define one or more custom properties that you can assign to any number of classes in an object store. A property template has no function or meaning in the Content Engine object store until it is assigned to a class as a custom property. During property template creation, you assign values to metadata properties such as data type and cardinality (determines whether a property holds a single value or multiple values).

When you create a property template, you should not assign it the same name as the name of an existing property in the same class family. Although you can create such a property template without causing an apparent error, you cannot later assign it to a class as a custom property.

Symbolic name

The symbolic name of a property template is its programmatic identifier and is required to be unique within a class family only. A class family is defined by a root class (for example, Document, Folder, and CustomObject) and all of its descendants. 

Starting with the 4.5.1 release, a metadata prefix-naming convention for property and class symbolic names has been defined for Content Engine. All new properties (and classes) introduced in this release or later, by any IBM ECM product that produces its own Content Engine add-on feature, or by new system properties in the Content Engine server, adhere to this naming convention. This naming convention applies to property and class symbolic name values only; there are no constraints on the values chosen for display names.

Details of the prefix-naming convention are as follows:

Starting with the 4.5.1 release, any IBM ECM product that produces its own add-on feature must conform to a prefix-naming convention. These add-on features use a prefix of "Cm???", in which "???" represents a short product-name abbreviation. However, any IBM ECM products that have already established their own prefix-naming convention before this release continue to use it instead.

The following add-on metadata prefixes are reserved:

When you create a custom property by using a property template or a new class, avoid assigning its symbolic name with a value beginning with one of these reserved prefixes; as long as you do so, you will not be subject to name collisions in this release or in any future upgrades.

Create a Property Template wizard

After you have created an object store, you can create a property template by using the Create a Property Template wizard. When the wizard has been completed successfully, the new property template is listed in the tree when you expand the Property Templates node.

To start the Create a Property Template wizard

  1. In Enterprise Manager, right-click Property Templates.
  2. Select New > Property Template.
  3. Complete the wizard, referring to the help text provided for more information.