Audience: the master-data steward - a user with PRODUCT_CATEGORY_MANAGE. Only the steward creates categories, attributes, tags and methods, so the taxonomy stays clean; everyone else requests them. Everything here is myWork-local and is never pushed to Unleashed.
Open Products → Categories & Tags (page title "Categories & Tags").
The category tree
A hierarchical tree (a category can have a parent). For each category you set:
Name (the slug is generated from it).
Parent - reparent to reshape the tree.
Sort order - where it sits among its siblings.
Active - switch a category off to hide it without deleting it.
Description - a short note on what belongs here.
Usage classification (default) - what products in this category are used as (stock to sell, equipment, fixed asset, consumable and so on), picked from Finance's classification-category catalog. The default is "— Inherit from parent —"; sub-categories inherit it, nearest wins, and a product can override it on its own page. See Classification Categories.
Unleashed Group guid - an optional bridge to the old Unleashed product group this category replaces.
Keep the tree organised by what things are (function or type), most-general at the top. Do not create categories for build stages ("Sub-assemblies", "Painted") or processes ("Laser-cut") - those belong to other axes.
Per-category attributes (the spec fields)
Attributes are the typed fields a product shows for its category. You define them per category and they inherit down the tree.
Each attribute has:
a code (unique within the category chain) and a label;
a datatype: TEXT, NUMBER (with a unit such as mm), BOOL, SELECT (with a controlled list of options) or DATE;
a required? flag, a sort order and an active? flag.
Inheritance rules:
A product sees the union of its category's attributes plus every ancestor's.
Inherit-and-add only - a child can add new fields but cannot redefine a field a parent already declares. If the same code appears twice, the nearest level wins.
Add a field to a parent and every product beneath it gets it for free - so define shared specs high in the tree.
You cannot delete an attribute that products are using - deactivate it instead (in-use SELECT options are deactivated, not deleted).
Only SELECT, BOOL and NUMBER attributes appear as filters on the product browse.
Tags
A flat dictionary of cross-cutting labels (long-lead, RoHS, origin-cn, service-part, obsolete-candidate). Anyone with edit rights can apply an existing tag to a product; the steward curates the list itself.
Manufacturing methods
A small admin-managed list (laser cutting, bending, welding, milling, turning). Add a method here - no redeploy is needed - and it is immediately selectable on products.
Bulk tools (one-time or occasional)
For large jobs these run via the steward API rather than this page - always dry-run first, then apply:
Seed from Unleashed groups - creates a category per old Unleashed product group and links every product across, so nothing starts uncategorised. Idempotent, and it preserves anything already classified.
Auto-classify - a keyword ruleset that bulk-assigns categories by code and description.
Bulk-tag - adds a tag to many products selected by group, category or keyword.
Use them to get from "flat Unleashed groups" to the real function-based tree, then refine by walking BOMs (a parent's BOM tells you what its children are).
Governance
R&D proposes categories, fills attributes and fabrication level, defines BOMs and flags anything missing.
Procurement names products to the convention and picks the category using the decision test.
The steward owns the tree, the attribute definitions, the tag dictionary and the method list, and sets each category's usage-classification default.
Finance owns the classification-category catalog the default picks from, and decides the treatment of anything left unclassified.
Related
Classifying a product: categories, attributes and tags - the rules R&D and procurement follow.
Finding products: search, filters and the faceted browse - how attributes and tags become filters.