Visual Hierarchies form the backbone of the Process Navigator page, which provides a visually-navigated interface for users to find processes and supporting documents in Vault QualityDocs. Documents that support a process can be associated with one or many processes and can be viewed as a user browses their process hierarchy relevant to their role.

Before using Visual Hierarchies, an Admin must complete several configuration steps.

How Visual Hierarchies Work

Vault primarily uses the Visual Hierarchy and Hierarchy Document objects to form the content structures that users will see when they arrive and browse on their Process Navigator page. Vault utilizes Visual Hierarchy object types as the highest level of organization in the structure. Visual Hierarchy object records then make up the navigation nodes of the page, while Hierarchy Document object records establish the relationship between Visual Hierarchy object records and your business process Vault documents. Process owners can create and arrange these records to categorize and display collections of documents to best fit their needs.

Creating Visual Hierarchies

Before a process owner can populate a hierarchy, an Admin must create a new object type for the Visual Hierarchy object, which represents the highest level of organization. Visual Hierarchy object records then represent the nodes of a process tree, and you must create a set of interrelated Visual Hierarchy records to form the structure of the Process Navigator page.

To create and arrange Visual Hierarchy records:

  1. Navigate to Business Admin > Visual Hierarchies or to a custom tab.
  2. Click Create.
  3. Add a Name and Description for the hierarchy node. Vault displays the Name field value as a clickable item in the navigator, and displays the Description value on the hierarchy details page.
  4. In the Icon Selector field, choose an appropriate icon from the drop-down. In the navigator, Vault displays this icon to the left of the record Name.
  5. In the Parent Selector field, choose a parent Visual Hierarchy record to organize the current record under, or click the binoculars icon to search for one. Visual Hierarchy records without a parent selected in this field are displayed as the top-level nodes of the structure. See Structure Limitations below for more details.
  6. Optional: In the Position within Parent field, enter a value to determine the order in which Vault should display the records in the navigator. If you do not enter a value, the record will be placed after any records which possess a value in this field. If multiple records possess the same value or lack a value in this field, Vault resolves any such conflicts by displaying those records in alphabetical order.
  7. Optional: Select a Vault document image file in the Visual Hierarchy Image [1-3] fields. These images are available to users viewing the Visual Hierarchy within the Process Navigator.
  8. Click Save.

By default, Vault will immediately begin displaying newly created Visual Hierarchy records in the navigator to users with the appropriate permissions. Depending on the configuration of your Vault, Visual Hierarchy object records may need to go through a review workflow or lifecycle state change before being displayed.

Structure Limitations

The navigator supports a maximum of ten (10) Visual Hierarchy object records without a parent record, and supports a maximum of five (5) levels of parent-child relationship. Each parent Visual Hierarchy record can have up to 15 child records. You cannot associate Visual Hierarchy object records of a given object type with a parent record of a different Visual Hierarchy object type.

Adding Documents to a Visual Hierarchy Record

In order to display a collection of supporting documents in the navigator, you must add those documents to the appropriate Visual Hierarchy object record:

  1. Navigate to Business Admin > Visual Hierarchies or to a custom object tab.
  2. Click into the relevant Visual Hierarchy object record.
  3. In the Hierarchy Documents section, click Create.
  4. Select a document in the Document field, or click the binoculars icon to search.
  5. Click Save.

When a user clicks into a details page in the navigator, Vault populates the Documents section at the bottom of the page with a filterable list of these documents. Note that users will always see the latest version they have permission to view in this list or, if configured by an Admin, the latest steady state version.

Process owners who create and manage business processes in Visual Hierarchies require a permission set that includes Create, Read, Edit, and Delete permissions to the Hierarchy Document, the appropriate Visual Hierarchy object types, and permissions to the object controls for the Icon Selector, Lineage, and Parent Selector fields.