By sharing metadata values, documents become eligible for linking through Related links. However, sharing metadata values is not enough for such a link to be created. A necessary step occurs in the Select metadata section of the Related links administration interface. This step is composed of a mandatory action and an optional action as follows:
- Select at least one metadata key (mandatory)
- Select the checkbox in the Required column next to one or more metadata keys (optional)
Example
To link documents which share the same values for the AFS_Version metadata key:
- Select AFS_Version in the drop-down list, then select the Add button (
) - Select the checkbox in the Required column next to AFS_Version as follows:
As a result of this configuration, documents with the metadata AFS_Version=6.5 are linked to other documents with the metadata AFS_Version=6.5, documents with the metadata AFS_Version=7.10 are linked to other documents with the metadata AFS_Version=7.10, and so on.
In addition to the AFS_Version metadata key, the audience metadata key is also present. However, it is not defined as "Required." This means that it is optional.
The following list describes some of the impacts of defining a metadata key as optional or required:
- Fluid Topics creates reciprocal links between documents which share values for required metadata. This is true even if neither document has the optional metadata. It is also true if both documents share the optional metadata.
- Fluid Topics creates a nonreciprocal link from a source document that has at least one required metadata but does not have the optional metadata to a target document with at least one of the same required metadata plus the optional metadata.
- If the source document has the optional metadata but the target document does not, Fluid Topics does not create a link.
- Optional metadata never trigger Related links. Fluid Topics only links documents which share the optional metadata if they also share the required metadata.