Constraints for creating hierarchical items

Constraints are enforced when you create hierarchical items and documents.

The following constraints are enforced at run time when you create a hierarchical item or document:

• Name constraint: Each hierarchical item or document requires a name.
• Parent constraint: Each hierarchical item or document requires a single hierarchical parent folder.
• Reachable constraint: The hierarchical item or document must be reached from the root hierarchical folder.
• Same-name sibling constraint: The name value of a hierarchical item or document must be unique within a given hierarchical parent folder.
• Folders-only constraint: Each item in a folders-only item type must have a semantic type of Folder.

Specifying a hierarchical parent folder

Because a parent folder is required, it must be specified when you create a hierarchical item, unless the system is configured to use a default folder. The parent folder is specified during item creation using the DKConstantICM.DK_ICM_PROPERTY_PARENT_FOLDER property. For example:

DKDDO parent = dsICM.getRootFolder();
propId = ddo.addProperty
   (DKConstantICM.DK_ICM_PROPERTY_PARENT_FOLDER,parent);

Security checking

To create a hierarchical item or document, you must have the ItemAdd privilege. In addition, you must have access with the linking privileges on both the input hierarchical parent folder and the created hierarchical item.

System-defined objects protection

You cannot create new items in the ICM$FOLDER item type.

Auto-folder considerations

According to auto-linking rules, a hierarchical item type can be a target item type and a non-hierarchical item type can be a source item type. Non-hierarchical folders are propagated and linked as normal when a hierarchical item is created in the target item type.

The following table compares constraints for creating hierarchical and non-hierarchical items