Creating Collections

Collections gather relevant events into a single space so that analysts can tag, collaborate with notes, and attach files. Collections can be thought of as case files or a folder of information. At a high level, collections allow the following capabilities:

• Attaching events that are relevant to a case or investigation.
• Assigning users as a collection's primary analyst or participant.
• Assigning a custom status through collection tags.
• Assigning additional labels through system/additional tags.
• Assigning a priority from among high, medium high, medium, medium low, and low.
• Enabling collaborative dialogue between users using the comments functionality with the ability to attach files to comments, and create threads of collapsible comments.
• Utilizing custom fields to allow users to capture specific customized information on a collection.
• Exporting to a PDF or CSV file. (Requires Read permissions to Workstation Collections Export and Write permissions to Workstation Export Builder.

Using Collections Widgets

The Collections widget and the Object Details Viewer are used together when working with collections. The Collections widget is used to create collections, find and search for existing collections, or customize a view containing multiple collections.

Creating Collections

Collections are highly customizable thanks to custom fields, and can be assigned priorities with a designated status.

To create a collection:

1. Add the Collections widget to an open view.
2. At the top right side of the Collections widget, click the blue + button to create a new collection within the widget.
3. Type a Name for the collection.
4. Type an optional Description to better define the collection's intended purpose.
5. If needed, use Assign to User to designate a Workstation user as the collection's primary analyst.
   • Users assigned to collections receive system notifications when certain changes occur.
   • While not required, assigned users can be helpful for designating a point person responsible for a collection's management.
6. If needed, use Participants to identify additional users that may be involved on this collection.
7. Assign an optional Priority to designate a collection as Low, Medium-Low, Medium, Medium-High, or High priority.
8. Assign tags to the system notification generated for the collection.
   • Collection tags are assigned in the Primary Tag field to color code and organize your collection.
   • Select one or more system tags in the Additional Tags field.
9. When finished, click Create.

Filtering Collections

Filters applied to collections can fine tune results and exclude irrelevant or archived collections.

To filter the collections widget:

1. At the top right side of an open Collections widget, click the filter button.
2. Select the desired filter filter:
   • Created filters by timestamp of creation date.
   • Sort by includes options to sort by title, created at, priority, assigned to, and primary tag.
   • Tag filters collections by collection or system tag.
   • Assign to filters collections assigned to the selected user.
   • Participants filters collections where the selected user is a participant.
   • Status filters collections by active or archived status.
   • Custom Fields filters collections that include the selected custom field(s).
   • Text Search filters collections by name or any text custom field values matching the search term.
3. Click Apply Filters. The filter window closes, and the filter is applied.

Editing Existing Collections

If changes are needed for a collection, drag the collection into Object Details Viewer.

To make edits to collections:

1. At the top right side of the Object Details Viewer widget containing a collection, click the pencil icon (✎).
2. Make edits to the collection.
3. Click Update to update the collection, or Cancel to discard the changes.

Archiving Collections

Collections cannot be deleted from Workstation, but they can be archived. Archived collections can be filtered from the collections widget.

To archive a collection:

1. At the top right of a collection open within Object Details Viewer, click the archive icon.
2. Confirm archival of the collection, or click Cancel to halt archival.

To unarchive a collection:

1. At the top right of an archived collection open within Object Details Viewer, click the archive icon.
2. Confirm unarchival of the collection, or click Cancel to keep the collection archived.