Manage tags in Assets Essentials

Last update: January 29, 2024

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Tags help you categorize assets that can be browsed and searched more efficiently. Tagging helps in propagating the appropriate taxonomy to other users and workflows.

Flat lists of controlled vocabularies can become unmanageable over time. Administrators are capable to use the hierarchical tagging structure, which facilitates applying relevant metadata, categorizing assets, supporting search, reusing tags, improving discoverability, and so on.

You can create a namespace at the root-level and create a hierarchical structure of subtags within the namespace. For example, you can create an Activities namespace at the root-level and have Cycling, Hiking, and Running tags within the namespace. You can have further subtags Clothing and Shoes within Running.

Tagging Management

Tagging provides many benefits, such as:

  • Tagging allows authors to easily organize dissimilar assets through a common taxonomy. Authors can quickly search and organize assets by common tags.

  • Hierarchical tags are flexible and are an excellent way of organizing terms in a logical way. Through namespaces, tags, and subtags, entire taxonomic systems can be represented.

  • Tags may evolve over time as an organizational vocabulary changes.

  • Tags managed in Assets as a Cloud Service remain in sync with the tags managed in Assets Essentials, which ensure metadata governance and integrity.

To be able to apply tags to assets, you must first create a namespace, and then create and add tags to it. You can also create tags and add them to an existing namespace. Any tags that you create at the root-level are automatically added to the Standard Tags namespace. You can then add the Tags field to the metadata form so that it displays on the Asset details page. After configuring these settings, you can start applying tags to assets.

NOTE
You need to add the Tags field to the metadata form only if you are not using the default metadata form.

Tagging Management

Additional capabilities beyond what is mentioned in this article including merging, renaming, localizing, and publishing tags are available in Assets as a Cloud Service.

Create a Namespace

A Namespace is a container for tags that can exist only at the root-level. You can start setting up the hierarchical structure of tags by first defining a logical name for the Namespace. If you do not add a tag to any of the existing Namespaces, the tag moves to Standard Tags automatically.

Execute the following steps to create a Namespace:

  1. Go to Taxonomy Management under Settings to view the list of existing Namespaces. You can also view the last modified date, the user who modified the Namespace or tags under it, and the number of times the tag is used in an asset.

  2. Click Create Namespace.

  3. Add Title, Name, and Description for the Namespace. The input that you specify in the Title field gets displayed at the top of the hierarchy. For example, in the following image, Activities refers to the title of the Namespace.

    Tagging Management

  4. Click Save.

Add Tags to a Namespace

Execute the following steps to add tags to a Namespace:

  1. Go to Taxonomy Management.

  2. Select the Namespace and click Create to create the tag at the top level under the Namespace. If you need to create a subtag under a tag that exists in a Namespace, select the tag and then click Create.
    Hierarchy of Tags

    In this example, the image on the left represents the tag directly under the Namespace automobile-four-wheeler displayed in the Path field. The image on the right is an example of subtags added within a tag, as there are more tag names, jeep and jeep-meridian, displayed in the Path field in addition to the Namespace.

  3. Specify the title, name, and description for the tag and click Save.

    NOTE
    • The Title and Name fields are mandatory while the Description field is optional.
    • By default, the tool copies the text that you type in the Title field, removes the blank spaces or special characters (. & / \ : * ? [ ] | " %), and stores it as the Name.
    • You can update the Title field later but the Name field is read-only.

Add Tags to Standard Tags

Unstructured Tags or the tags that do no have any hierarchy are stored under Standard Tags namespace. Moreover, when you want to add additional descriptive terms without affecting governed taxonomy, you can store that value under Standard Tags. You can move these values under structured namespaces over time. Furthermore, you can use the Standard Tags namespace as a free form entry for keywords.

To create a standard tag, click Create Tag at the root-level. Specify title, name, and description and then click Save.

Adding tags to standard tags

NOTE
If you delete Standard Tags namespace using Assets as a Cloud Service, the tags created at the root-level do not display in the list of available tags.

Move Tags

In case you store your tags under the wrong hierarchy or your taxonomy changes over the time, you can move the selected tags to maintain data integrity. The following conditions must be considered while moving tags:

  • Tags can only move beneath existing namespaces or within an existing tag hierarchy.
  • Tags cannot be moved to the root to become a namespace.
  • Moving a parent tag also moves all child tags stored in the hierarchy.

Perform the following steps to move tags from one location to another:

  1. Select the tag or the entire hierarchy of tags under the appropriate namespace and click Move.
  2. On the Move dialog, select the new destination tag or Namespace using the Select Tag section.
  3. Click Save. The tag displays at its new location.

Edit Tags

To edit the title of the tag, select the tag and click Edit. Specify the new title and click Save.

NOTE
  • The Name of a tag cannot be updated. The root path for a tag is also based on the name of the tag. The path remains the same even if you update the Title field.
  • Additional operations such as merge, localize, and publish are available in Assets as a Cloud Service.

Delete Tags

You can delete multiple Namespaces or tags simultaneously. The delete operation cannot be undone.

Perform the following steps to delete tags:

  1. Select the Namespace or tag and click Delete.
  2. Click Confirm.
NOTE
  • Deleting the parent tag or Namespace also deletes the subtags stored in the hierarchy. If you need to delete or update the parent Namespace, it is recommended to move your tags to the new destination before deleting the parent hierarchy.
  • Deleting a tag also deletes all its references from assets.
  • You cannot delete Standard Tags that exist at the root level.

Add Tags component to the Metadata form

The tags component gets added to the default metadata form automatically. You can design a Metadata form either by using a template or from scratch. If you are not using an existing Metadata form template, then you can modify your Metadata form and add the tags component. The metadata property mapping is filled in automatically and cannot be modified at this time. Assets as a Cloud Service users can update the mapping to store tag values using custom namespaces and expose only subsets of hierarchies using root paths.

Watch this quick video to see how to add the Tags component to your metadata form:

video poster

Add Tags to Assets

  1. Go to Asset details page and navigate to the Tags section of Metadata form.

  2. Select the tag picker icon which is next to the Tags field or start typing in a tag name to see suggested results.

    Tagging-assets

  3. Select one or more tags. The subtag is selected automatically along with the parent tag or namespace.
    Tags modified in the Assets Essentials are applied in Assets as a Cloud Service as well.

Add tags to blocklist

Assets Essentials enables you to configure a blocklist that includes words that should not be added as Smart Tags to assets when they are uploaded to the repository. This capability helps you to maintain brand compliance and reduces effort to moderate Smart Tags.

Block smart tags for all assets

Assets Essentials allows an admin to block smart tags for the existing and the newly added assets. To block tags, execute the following steps:

  1. Navigate to Blocked Tags under Settings.

  2. Click Add blocked tag.

  3. Type the tags in the textbox that you need to block and click Enter.

  4. Once you are done with adding tags, click Add. The entered tags get listed in the blocked tags list.

    NOTE
    You can add a maximum of 25 tags to the list at once. Repeat the steps to add more tags to the blocklist.

You can also block smart tags for a single asset. Navigate to the details of an asset. Under Tags tab, remove the unwanted smart tags and click Save. The tags are listed in the blocklist for the selected asset.

Actions performed on blocklist

  • Remove tags: You can also remove the tags from blocklist. To do this, select one or more tags that you want to remove. Click Remove. You can remove a maximum of 25 tags from the list at once.

  • Select all: Select the checkbox adjacent to Tag Name to select all the tags in the blocklist.

  • Sorting: You can sort the blocklist in either ascending or descending order. To do this, click arrow adjacent to Tag Name.

    block tags

    NOTE
    Do not use special characters while adding a tag in the blocklist. Characters such as a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and - can be used.

Export blocklist

Assets Essentials allows you to export the listed blocked tags into CSV format. To export blocklist, execute the steps below:

  1. Click Export as CSV.
  2. Choose the appropriate location to save the CSV file. You can also rename the file as per the requirement.
  3. Click Save. The exported list in CSV format gets downloaded at the selected location.

Import blocklist

Assets Essentials provides the ability to import blocked tags from a data source (CSV). To import blocklist, execute the steps below:

  1. Click Import as CSV.

  2. Choose the CSV file from your device. Click select a file to navigate to the file from your device. Alternatively, you can drag and drop the CSV file from your device.

  3. Click Upload. The tags from the CSV file are listed in the blocked tags list.

    Import blocked tags list

In case you want to download a blocked tags template, follow the steps below:

  1. Click Download Template.
  2. Choose the appropriate location to save the CSV file. You can also rename the file as per the requirement.
  3. Click Save. Block tags template in CSV format are downloaded at the selected location.
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