You use the Category Manager to add, edit, or delete categories. As shown in Figure 261, you can access the Category Manager using the view selector from any CategoryService view.
Rows in the CategoryManager table (Figure 303) represent existing categories, where you can edit by double-clicking one. Typically, you edit only the category name, to clarify some logical grouping. All categories must have both a unique name and index.
Starting in AX-3.7, the Workbench tool New Station Wizard creates a station with two default category components, for category indexes 1 (named “User”) and 2 (named “Admin”). Formerly, no category components
were created, and all objects defaulted to category index 1. In addition, while most components and all history objects still
default to index 1 (“User”), selected components (UserService, CategoryService, and ProgramService) and the entire station
File space now default to category index 2 (“Admin”). This “two category model” can be expanded by adding more categories.
To add a new category, click the button. This produces the New dialog, as shown in Figure 304.
You can create multiple categories by typing in a number in “Number to Add.” When you click , the Add dialog includes that number of category rows in the top table (Figure 305).
As needed, click to highlight a single category row before entering a unique Name. For a listing of all the category properties, see Category properties.
When you click , the categories are added with the names you entered, and appear as rows in the CategoryManager and as child components under the CategoryService container.
While a maximum of 100 categories could be created, in general it is recommended to limit the number of categories to as few logical divisions as needed. Included are performance reasons, as well as other considerations.
See Category caveats.
As shown in the New or Edit dialog (Figure 305), there are 2 main properties for a category, as follows:
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Index
Unique index number for the category, as it is known to the station.
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Name
Any descriptive name needed, typically to reflect some logical grouping.
An additional property is available on each category’s property sheet:
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Fault Cause
Read-only text descriptor to describes why a category is in fault, if applicable (typically blank).
Please note the following about using categories:
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Performance-wise, too many categories can consume excess station memory, as each object must maintain a bitmap for category membership. With the default 8 categories, this is only 1 byte, but increments another byte for each additional 8 categories added (9—16, then 17—24, and so on).
Therefore, you should limit categories to the fewest needed, and keep them indexed contiguously.
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If you delete a category (using the Category Manager), you may notice it still appears listed in users’ permission maps, with default “Category
n” name instead of its former user-assigned name. This underscores that categories are simply indices to the station. Each category Name is simply “metadata” (data about data).Moreover, when you assign an component to one or more categories (e.g. using the Category Browser), that component’s category bitmap is updated—as part of its configuration. If you copy that component to another station or save it in a bog for reuse, please note that its category bitmap (to category indices) is included.