Managing service categories

The Service Catalog items are organized by applying them to various service categories. Each SC Item can be related to an unlimited number of categories (for details, see Categorizing objects). You can use service categories to find appropriate items when you browse the Service Catalog.

The service categories are organized in the hierarchial tree. When building the categories tree, you can add new categories and add new subcategories within existing categories as well as modify and delete the categories. The categories tree always includes system "All Items" and "Uncategorized" nodes; "All Items" includes all existing SC items, "Uncategorized" includes items that are not assigned to any category. The "All Items" category and "Uncategorized" category cannot be changed in any way.

Each service category can be either internal or public. Self Service Portal (SSP) customers can see only public categories, the internal ones are invisible for them.

By default, a new service category is internal. You can make the category visible for Self Service Portal customers by marking it as public.

You can perform the following operations with service categories:

• To add a new category:

  1. In the Categories pane, select a category of the same level, as the one you want to add, and click New > New Category on the Module menu. Alternatively, you can right-click a category, and then click New > New Category.

  2. In the New Category window, enter a name and (optionally) description of the category.

  3. If you want to mark the category as public, select the Public Category check box.

  4. Click OKspan>.

• To add a new subcategory:

  1. In the Categories pane, select the parent category, to which you want to add a subcategory, and click choose New > New Subcategory on the Module menu. Alternatively, you can right-click the parent category, and then click New > New Category.

  2. In the New Category window, enter a name and (optionally) description of the category.

  3. If you want to mark the category as public, select the Public Category check box.

  4. Click OK.

  NOTE: If a category has subcategories, it is marked with the black triangle on the left. Clicking the black triangle unfold the subcategories. To view all subcategories in the tree, choose Expand All from the pop-up menu. To collapse the expanded categories, choose Collapse All.

• To modify a category:

  1. In the Categories pane, select the category and click More > Properties on the Module menu. Alternatively, you can right-click the category, and then click Properties.

  2. Edit the name and description of the category as needed.

  3. If necessary, make the category public or internal by selecting or clearing the Public Category check box.

  4. Click OK.

• To move a category:

  • If you want to move a category to the root, select the category and click More > Move to > Top Level on the Module menu. Alternatively, you can right-click the category, and then click Move to > Top Level.

  • If you want to move a category to another category, click More > Move to > Category... on the Module menu. Alternatively, you can right-click the category, and then click Move to > Category.... In the Choose Category window select the destination category and click OK.

• To make an internal category public:

  • In the Categories pane, select the category and click More > Mark as Public on the Module menu. Alternatively, you can right-click the category, and then click Mark as Public.

• To make a public category internal:

  • In the Categories pane, select the category and click More > Mark as Internal on the Module menu. Alternatively, you can right-click the category, and then click Mark as Internal.

  NOTE: If you mark a category that has subcategories public or internal, you'll be asked whether to mark only this category or all its subcategories, too. Although marking a Service Catalog category as internal hides all its subcategories from browsing by SSP customers.

• To delete a category:

  • Click the category and click Delete on the Module menu. Alternatively, you can right-click the category, and then click Delete.

Related Information:

Categorizing objects