A custom item subtype is an item type based on an existing item type. For example, you could create an external user subtype called representative that describes users who act on behalf of a company to sell items in specialty parties.

To use a custom item subtype in Asset Manager applications:

  1. Create your custom item subtype according to the instructions in the SQL Content Repository chapter of the ATG Repository Guide.

  2. Configure the subtype for the versioned database by adding new properties to the repository, adding columns for those properties in the appropriate database tables, and informing the versioning system about the new item type.

    See the Configure Repository Asset Support section of the Setting Up an Asset Management Server chapter in the ATG Content Administration Programming Guide for instructions.

  3. Add the new subtype to the searchable list of item types in the Search tab. This step is optional; by default, a search on a parent type also returns sub-typed values. Perform this task if you want the subtype to be visible in the item types list and you want users to be able to locate only items of this subtype. See Creating and Defining a Task Configuration File.

  4. Create new item mappings for the item subtype. This step is necessary only if the item mappings defined for the parent type are not appropriate for the subtype. See Custom Item Subtypes and View Mappings.

  5. If you created new item mappings or made any other changes that affect which item mapping should be used for an item of this type, be sure to represent those changes in the task configuration file. See Updating View Mapping Settings in a Task Configuration File.

  6. Create property groups so that you can use the Multi Edit tab to edit items in bulk. See Creating and Defining Multi Edit Property Groups.

  7. By default, the icon that appears for items of the parent item type is also used for the custom subtype. See the Implementing a Custom Icon section for instructions on changing the icon.

Items of a custom subtype are automatically visible in the Project tab, Multi Edit tab, and all relevant dialog boxes.