The primary goal of Model Categories is to provide a way to categorize different types of models in the system. Model Categories allow you to quickly access data for tickets and assets based on filters for use in default and custom views, analytics, and data exports. Additionally, the Model Category is required for asset models in Incident IQ. You will always need to assign a Model Category when creating a new model.
Adding a New Model Category
You may want to create a new Model Category to accommodate equipment or software that does not fall into the default categories. Administrators can create additional model categories by clicking Administration > Model Categories in the left navigation bar, taking you to the Model Categories page. Click Add Category in the top right corner of the screen.
In the fly-out window, you will need to provide the following information:
The model category name
A parent category (computers, software, hosted solutions, etc.)
An icon (optional)
An image (optional)
For models to be accessible for use in ticketing and assets, they must be added to a non-parent category. Ensure your new category is nested beneath a global parent category (computers, printers, software, etc.)
If you are using multiple modules in Incident IQ, select the product visibility of your new Model Category, allowing you to enable and disable the availability of model categories by product module.
You can also set Model Category visibility based on user roles, allowing you to remove options for users who may not need to see that particular Model Category while allowing other roles to see and select the Model Category without any issue. Once saved, your model category will be available for immediate use.
Managing Existing Model Categories
Administrators can edit Model Categories if needed by clicking on Administration > Model Categories in the left navigation bar.
On the Model Categories page, click the specific Model Category you want to edit.
Important Note: If you are editing a default Model Category, the only option available for editing in the fly-out window is Product Visibility and Role Visibility.
If it is not a default Model Category, you will be able to edit the following fields of information in addition to the visibility options:
The model category name
A parent category (computers, software, hosted solutions, etc)
An icon (optional)
An image (optional)
In order to see your model categories, you must tie the child category to a global parent category. This will ensure the custom category will show up when your users create a new ticket.
Managing Popular Model Categories
Popular Categories allows users to quickly find and select common Model categories. Users who have permission to “Manage Asset Models” can set the popularity of model categories to control which Popular Device Categories users see based on their role.
This feature only applies to the Ticketing product.
To see your site’s popular categories, navigate to Admin > Model Categories. The column Popularity shows the roles for which a model category is popular. If the column is blank for a category, that model category is not set as popular for any role. If the column has a star icon next to a role, that model category is set as popular for users with the listed roles.
To set the popularity of a model category, click the checkbox to the left of the model category’s name. Then click Set Popularity.
Select the toggle next to the role you would like to set the popular categories for.
If you want to remove a model category’s popularity, leave the toggle off for the desired roles and select the Overwrite checkbox.
After you have made the desired selections for each role and for overwriting, click the Update Categories button to proceed.
You will be prompted to confirm that you want to update the selected model categories. Click the Apply Changes to Categories button.
It will show that a bulk operation is being performed to update the model categories. Click the Close button to return to the model categories grid.
A site option controls whether only the popular categories will appear for your users initially.
Bulk Delete Model Categories
Bulk actions are available for Model Categories in the list view, allowing users to delete multiple items at once instead of one at a time.
The Bulk Select and Delete action is accessible on the Enabled Model Categories and All Model Categories tabs. Select the Model Categories and then Delete from the action toolbar.
You cannot delete a Model Category if:
The model category is on Incident IQ’s Catalog.
The model category is currently associated with an asset (deleted or active) in the current product.
If the model category is associated with any assets in other products, it will be disabled for the current product instead of being deleted.
The model category is currently associated with ticket data.
If the model category is associated with any tickets (open or closed) in other products, it will be disabled for the current product instead of being deleted.
If the model category is enabled in another product, it will be disabled for the current product instead of being deleted.
Once the bulk operation is finished, the completed and skipped Model Categories will be displayed in their respective tabs.
The filter in the top right corner lets you filter Model Categories by the source to better understand which global items were skipped.
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Deborah Prosser - Community Manager