How To Create And Manage Taxonomy Automations

Summary

Bynder empowers users to provision assets upon upload with taxonomy automations for security and efficiency. After you've successfully set up your metaproperties and metaproperty options you can automate your taxonomy. By setting up automations, you can trigger specific outcomes when certain conditions are met. Once you've created your taxonomy automation you can go back to your settings to edit or delete your configurations.

Who?

Users need the Manage metaproperties permission to create taxonomy automations.

Why?

Taxonomy Automations allow users to save time when uploading assets, and ensure that assets are pre-filled with the necessary data. For example this can ensure assets with certain metaproperty options are always archived or watermarked.

How?

Understanding Automation Types

Before creating your automations, it is important to understand the two ways metaproperties can interact. Depending on your goal, you may need to use one or both of these types:

1. Show the Metaproperty (Metaproperty Dependency)

This automation shows a metaproperty with all options. It controls the visibility of the field itself, regardless of which specific options inside it are selected. AllOptions.png

  • Use Case: You want the "Country" field to appear only after a "Region" has been selected.

2. Filter Specific Options (Option Dependency)

This automation determines which specific options within a metaproperty are visible based on another selection.SpecificOptions.png

  • Use Case: If "Europe" is selected as the Region, you want the "Country" field to show only European countries (e.g., France, Germany, Spain) rather than all countries in your database.

Important: Automations that apply advanced rights — including watermark, archived, and limited usage are not automatically applied to existing assets. These automations will only take effect during upload or when an existing asset is edited, and the triggering metaproperty option is manually reselected.

Mixing Automation Types

You can combine these two types for a seamless user experience. For example, you can create one automation to show the field when a trigger is selected, and a second automation to limit the options within that field.

  • Note: If you only configure "Specific Options" without a corresponding "All Options" automation, the field may remain hidden because the system hasn't been "told" to display the metaproperty container itself.

Automation Options

Show Metaproperty: If you select this option, you must select a metaproperty from the dropdown menu.

Prefill Metaproperty: Type in the text that you would like to appear. If you select this option, you must select a metaproperty from the dropdown menu (Text and Date metaproperties only).

Empty Metaproperty: If you select this option, you must select a metaproperty from the dropdown menu (Text and Date metaproperties only).

Apply watermark on assets: You can automatically apply a watermark to an asset.

Remove the watermark on assets: You can automatically remove a watermark from an asset.

Allow download of assets: You can allow the download of an asset.

Deny download of assets: You can deny a download of an asset.

Mark assets as archived: You can mark an asset as archived.

Unmark assets as archived: This automation option will unarchive the asset.

Mark assets as limited usage: This automation option will set the asset to limited usage.

Unmark assets as limited usage: This automation option will unmark the asset as limited usage.

Note: Only the Show Metaproperty option works with AND logic, all others work with OR logic.

Creating An Automation

  1. Navigate to Settings > Taxonomy > Metaproperties management.

  2. Click on Configuration.

    configuraiton_add_metapropertues.png

  3. Click Create Automation.

    create_automation.png

  4. Set up a trigger to start the metaproperty automation.

    all_or_any.png
    • Select Any or All. Selecting All changes the logic from OR to AND. You can only set up these automations with single and multi-select metaproperties.

    • The AND logic is supported only for automations where result is "Show metaproperty with specific options" (Metaproperty Option dependencies). The "Show metaproperty with all options" (Metaproperty Dependency) supports only OR logic.

       

  5. From the Select a metaproperty dropdown menu, select or search for the metaproperty you would like to associate with this automation.

    select_a_metaproperty.png

  6. Select the metaproperty option from the dropdown menu.

    specific_options.png
    • Any options: If selected, any metaproperty option tied to this metaproperty is selected.

    • Specific options: If selected, search for and check off the specific metaproperty option you want to be tied to this automation. Note: Up to 100 options are allowed. 

      specific_options_search_.png

  7. You can add multiple metaproperties to the automation.

    ADD_METAPROPETY.png

  8. Click then_select_an_action.png and select one of the options.

    options_automations_2.png
  9. Click Create Automation.

  10. Aautomation_icon.png will appear next to the metaproperty to know if it has an automation associated.

    associated_automation.png

Editing A Taxonomy Automation

  1. Navigate to your Portal >Settings > Taxonomy > Metaproperties management.
  2. Click on Configuration.
  3. Select the metaproperty that is associated with the automation.
  4. In the left-hand sidebar, click Automations.
  5. Hover over the automation you would like to edit and click.
  6. Click edit-metadata_pencil.png to begin editing your automation.

  7. Click Save.

    edit_atuomation.png

     

Note: You can search for automations that contain a certain metaproperty option. Click all options to navigate the list or search for a metaproperty option.
 
 

Deleting A Taxonomy Automation

1. Navigate to Settings > Taxonomy > Metaproperties management.

2. Click on Configuration.

3. Select the metaproperty that is associated with the automation.

4. In the left-hand sidebar, click Automations.

edit_atuomation.png
5. Hover over the automation you would like to delete and click thethree_dots.pngbutton.

6. Click trash.png to delete your automation.

7. A warning message will appear informing you that "The automation will be permanently deleted. This action cannot be undone. Click the empty_box.png

8. Click Yes, delete.

Note: Any changes made to your automation can be found in your Change History.

Filtering Automations

  1. Navigate to Settings > Taxonomy > Metaproperties management and click Configuration in the left sidebar.
  2. Select a metaproperty with an automation.
  3. Select Any type in the right side a metaproperty with an automation.
  4. Select Any options or specific options, depending on the type of automation.
  5. If you select specific options, select the one that you would like to filter.
  6. Check the filtered automations.

Note: If no results are displayed after filtering, the selected criteria do not match any existing automations. To view more results, try broadening your search by adjusting the Trigger/Action or Any/Specific options.

Automatically Marking Assets To Allow Or Deny Asset Downloads

  1. Navigate to Settings > Taxonomy > Metaproperties management and click Configuration in the left sidebar.
  2. Click the metaproperty that contains one or more options that, when selected, should make the asset downloadable or non-downloadable.
  3. Click the ➕ button in the Automations section in the right sidebar.
  4. Open the Select an option dropdown, which you can find next to the metaproperty you clicked in step 2 to set up the condition(s). Select the metaproperty option(s) that, when selected, should make the asset downloadable or non-downloadable.
    • (Optional) Click ➕ Add metaproperty to add other conditions to your automation.
  5. Open the dropdown in the Type section and select the option that suits your needs.

Automation Limitations

  • When selecting “specific options” for option_trigger or option_action, up to 100 options are allowed per automation.
    • When the Show metaproperty is selected with "specific options" you can select which options are supposed to be displayed - this is the equivalent of Metaproperty option dependencies and is responsible for showing specific values, assuming that the field itself is visible in the first place.
  • Metaproperty automations (dependencies) are not respected when batch editing or after approving an asset in the waiting room. For example, when you want to change the City metaproperty option, your assets are tagged with it, and your batch edit includes assets tagged with different Country options. The system will show all cities on the batch editing screen. To avoid dependency conflicts and to allow saving your batch edit, the metaproperty automations can no longer be applied.
  • You can enable either Autocomplete Search or Add New Options, but you cannot enable both. If both additional settings are enabled, the automation will not work.
  • Automations that apply advanced rights (watermark, archived, and limited usage) do not retroactively apply to existing assets. They are triggered only at the time of upload or when an asset is subsequently edited and the triggering option is reselected. If you need these rights applied to assets that already exist in your DAM, you will need to edit each asset and reselect the relevant metaproperty option to trigger the automation.

Troubleshooting

My dependent metaproperty stays hidden even after I select the trigger option.

This is often caused by a missing Metaproperty Dependency.

  • The Cause: You may have configured an automation to show "Specific Options" (limiting what can be seen), but you haven't created an automation to show the metaproperty itself ("All Options").

  • The Resolution: 

    1. Create an automation where the Action is: Then show [Metaproperty] with All Options.

    2. Ensure this automation uses the same Trigger as your "Specific Options" automation.

    3. Check for "Circular Dependencies" (e.g., if Metaproperty A triggers Metaproperty B, ensure Metaproperty B isn't also trying to trigger Metaproperty A).

Conflicting Automations

If your automations are behaving unexpectedly, check for:

  • Loops: Ensure an option isn't set to "show itself."

  • Mixed Logic: If you have multiple automations for the same metaproperty, ensure the logic (e.g., "If Any" vs. "If All") is consistent across all rules to avoid conflicts.

Related Articles

How To Mark Assets As Archived

How To Mark Assets As Limited Usage

How To View Change History In Your DAM

Level: Proficient

Proficient-level articles are for users who have some prior Bynder knowledge. These articles require you to know the basics and may also require higher-level portal rights to accomplish the task outlined within the article. 

 

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