This topic discusses the several name-related properties
of classes and containable objects and describes what happens when
a class or object is renamed.
When creating objects, do not use spaces or numbers at the beginning
of name properties. Leading spaces are automatically dropped when
you create an object. Although leading numbers are displayed correctly
in a Display Name, they do not appear in the Symbolic Name, which
is used by queries.
Name properties fall into two broad categories: class name properties
and containable object name properties.
Class name properties
The properties in
this section belong to classes, but not to the objects based on those
classes. For example, a subclass of the Document class might have
the Display Name of "Current Invoices" and
a Symbolic Name of "CurrentInvoices" (no space), but documents
that are instances of this class would have neither of these properties.
Instead, they would have the properties described in Containable object
name properties.
- Display Name
- The Display Name is a property of all classes, but not of the
objects based on those classes. This property is user-readable and
is assigned at fetch time based on the current client locale settings,
thus making it locale-specific. The Display Name is the provider-specific
name for a class and is typically the designated Name property for
a class. In order to modify the value of this property, you must first
obtain the proper localized string for the property from the Display
Names property and then edit the Display Name string value.
- Symbolic Name
- The Symbolic Name property is the programmatic identifier for
a class and is required to be unique within an object store. Its value
must begin with a letter and can contain the following characters
only: A to Z, a to z, 0 to 9, and _ (underscore); spaces and symbols
are not allowed. Property templates and object stores also have a
Symbolic Name property. For property templates, the Symbolic Name
property is required to be unique within a class family only.
- This property is normally set at creation time and is typically
assigned the same value as the Display Name property (the spaces are
removed from the Display Name before assigning the value to the Symbolic
Name). However, the Symbolic Name property is not required to have
the same value as the Display Name property. For more information,
see Renaming a class.
- Starting with the 4.5.1 release, a metadata prefix-naming convention
for class and property symbolic names has been defined. All new classes
and properties introduced in this release or later, by any IBM® ECM product that produces its
own Content Platform Engine add-on
feature, or by new system properties in the Content Platform Engine server, are required
to adhere to this naming convention. This naming convention applies
to class and property symbolic name values only; there are no constraints
on the values that are chosen for display names.
- Details of the prefix-naming convention are as follows:
- A prefix of "Cm" is used for the symbolic name of any new
Content Platform Engine class or
system property of a user-extensible class introduced in this release.
For example, "CmNewProperty".
- All new system classes follow the naming convention, whether they
are user extensible or not.
- The "Cm" prefix is also used for any new properties or classes
that are introduced in Content Platform Engine add-on
features. However, the DITA add-on feature continues to use the "Dita" prefix
instead of "Cm".
- 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:
- "Cm": reserved by Content Platform Engine
- "Dita": reserved by Content Platform Engine for the FileNet® P8 DITA Add-on
- "RM": reserved by IBM Enterprise Records
- "EDM": reserved by IBM eDiscovery
Manager
- "EDISC": reserved by IBM eDiscovery
Manager
- "ICC": reserved by IBM Content
Collector
- When you create a class or custom property, 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.
- Name
- The Name property is read-only and is visible on the property
sheet for a class. The value of the property is either the same as
the Display Name property, the class identifier string when there
is no Display Name value, or an empty string if neither value exists.
The Name property is available for all classes, but not objects based
on those classes, and is automatically updated when the Display Name
property value is modified.
- Renaming a class
- When you rename a class, you change the value of the Display Name
property that causes the value of the Name property to also be updated.
However, changing the value of the Display Name property does not
automatically change the value of the Symbolic Name property. This
is by design, allowing administrators to change the Display Name without
requiring the redesign of any custom applications that are written
to find that particular class.
Containable object name properties
The
properties in this section belong to objects that are created as instances
of classes, including documents, folders, and custom objects. For
example, the Document class has the Display Name property, while a
document object, which is an instance of the Document class, does
not have the Display Name property, but instead has the Document Title
property.
- Document Title
- The Document Title property is the friendly name displayed for
a document. When you rename a document by using the Document properties,
you change the value of this property. Document Title is a custom
property and is used by document objects in much the same way as Display
Name is used for classes.
- Folder Name
- The Folder Name property is the user-friendly name that is displayed
for a folder. You can change the Folder Name property through the
Folder properties or through the Rename Folder option in the Action
menu of the administration console.
- Containment
- The Containment Name property is the unique name for the head
object (in other words, the containee object) in a referential containment
relationship. This property applies to objects in folders, which can
include documents and custom objects.
- If the head object is a document, the Document Title is used to
set the value of the Containment Name property. If the head object
is a folder or custom object, the Name property of the object is used.
For information about filing one or more documents or custom objects
in multiple folders, see Filing
a document.
- Creating name properties for an object
- When you use the administration console to create an instance
of a class, you use the property grid to specify a value for the Name
property for the object. The ContainmentName property is assigned
by Content Platform Engine according
to the settings of the referential containment relationship of the
new object. For more information about this relationship, see A technical
aside on referential containment.
- Renaming a document, folder, or custom object
- You can use the administration console to rename an object or
to rename the containment name of an object.
- Rename the document title: The Document Title property can be
modified under the General tab or through the
property grid (Properties tab) of the document.
- Rename the containment name of document: The document containment
name can be modified by clicking Rename containment name under
the document’s Folders Filed In tab.
- Rename the folder name: The folder name property can be modified
under the General tab or the property grid
(Properties tab) of the document.
- Rename the containment name of custom object: You cannot rename
the name of the custom object, but you can rename its containment
name. The containment name can be modified by clicking Rename
containment nameunder the Folders Filed In tab.