A collaboration area is an area in which a
group of users can work on certain sets of attributes for an entry
(an item or category). A collaboration area has an associated source
container, which is either a catalog or a hierarchy, and it
has an associated workflow, which specifies the steps
and the flow of steps in the collaboration area.
Collaboration area users An admin user is a user who has
administrator privileges and is therefore authorized to take any action
that is subject to constraint by the general set of privileges. An
admin user is analogous to the root user in a UNIX system.
A collaboration area may have one or more administrative users
designated for it. They must already be users in Collaborative Edition.
Being an admin user of a collaboration area does not confer any extra
privileges on the user outside the collaboration area. However, only
designated users may perform certain operations on a collaboration
area, such as moving entries in a Fixit step to some other disposition.
That is, even an admin user may not perform such actions in a collaboration
area unless such a user is a designated admin user of the collaboration
area.
A designated admin user of a collaboration area may edit its attributes,
for example, such a user may add another admin user. An admin user
may also manipulate entries in the collaboration area.
Within the collaboration area, you work with attributes of entries,
for example, the price and description attributes of a shirt. You
check out entries to the collaboration area. When you check out an
entry, the attributes of that entry that are associated with the workflow
(for example, the price and description attributes), are locked in
the source container (catalog or hierarchy). The attributes remain
locked until the entry completes the workflow. Any modifications that
you make in a collaboration area to the attributes of an entry are
made only to the copy of the corresponding entry in the collaboration
area and are copied back into the source container when the workflow
completes, and then the attributes are unlocked.
After you update the appropriate attributes for an entry, you specify
that you are done with the step. The collaboration area might have
more than one button to choose from, such as
Approve and
Reject to
indicate that you are done. Based on the exit value for that button,
the entry moves to the next step as defined in the workflow. Each
button might be assigned to numerous next steps. For example, the
Approve button
might send the entry to three other steps, rather than to just one
step.
Important: Ensure that you open the collaboration
area and click Refresh whenever attributes
(for example, catalog scripts or link attributes) are modified on
the associated source catalog.
An entry moving through a collaboration area
For
a clothing store that sells shirts, each type of shirt needs to have
a description, dimension for shipping, and a price for the product.
For this scenario, the item in the collaboration area is a specific
type of shirt.
This workflow is a simple three-step workflow:
- Step 1 is the Description step.
- Step 2 is the Dimension step.
- Step 3 is the Price step.
This workflow has three performers. Mary is responsible for providing
the description of the shirt, Bob is responsible for providing the
dimensions for shipping, and Joe is responsible for specifying a price
for the shirt.
For this workflow, the collaboration area is
called the Master data refinement collaboration
area.
To move the shirt through a collaboration area:
- Mary goes to the catalog that has the item. She opens the item
and checks it out by clicking the Check out button
and specifying the Master data refinement collaboration
area where the item goes. Because Mary chose the Master
data refinement collaboration area, three attributes of
that item are now locked: the description, dimension, and price attributes.
The item is checked out to the collaboration area, however, the three
attributes (description, dimension, and price) are enabled for editing.
The item is checked out to the Master data refinement collaboration
area. The item is now in the first step in the collaboration area.
- Mary clicks to view
the Master data refinement collaboration area.
The item is listed in the collaboration area under the Description step.
Mary selects the item, provides a description, and clicks the Save button.
When Mary clicks the Save button, she sees
a message that verifies whether what she provided for the description
is acceptable. For example, if Mary typed a description that exceeded
the character limit for that attribute, a validation error appears.
Mary must correct the problem before the item can move to the next
step. Mary then clicks the button at the bottom of the screen to move
the item to the next step.
- Bob goes to the Collaboration Area Console where
he selects the Master data refinement collaboration
area, and a list of steps for the workflow displays. The item is listed
in the collaboration area under the Dimension step.
Bob selects the item, provides the dimensions for shipping, and clicks
the Save button. Bob then clicks the button
at the bottom of the screen to move the item to the final step.
- Joe goes to the Collaboration Area Console where
he selects the Master data refinement collaboration
area from the list. A step for the workflow displays. The item is
listed in the collaboration area under the Price step.
Joe selects the item, provides a price, and clicks the Save button.
Joe then clicks the button at the bottom of the screen to indicate
that he is done. The item is now checked back into the source container.
This means that the source item's description, dimension, and price
former attribute values are now replaced by the values they have in
the collaboration area. The item is no longer present in the collaboration
area after it has successfully been checked in.
IBM InfoSphere Master Data Management, Version 11.3