STEP Terminology

This topic provides definitions for basic STEP terminology that is helpful to be aware of when reading the online help. Links to additional material on related topics are also provided, when appropriate. This should not be considered a complete list of all STEP terms as it is intended to cover only the more commonly used terms that users are likely to encounter throughout the online help.

Term	Definition	Further Reading
Action	Type of business rule that can be executed to manipulate data or perform an action. Actions can be executed by various processes and events within the system. For example, at approval of an object, within a workflow (on entry to a state, exit from a state, on the transition between tasks, or when a deadline has been met), as part of an import process, or from a bulk update process.	See the Business Actions topic in the Business Rules documentation here.
API	see Public API	See the STEP API Documentation link on the Start Page.
Approval	The process of pushing data from the Maintenance workspace to the Approved workspace in STEP. Approval can be associated with business logic that may prevent approval or may perform automated data updates during approval. Approvals are often the triggers for sending data to downstream systems.	See the Approval of Objects topic in the Getting Started / User Guide documentation here.
Asset	Any type of digital media, such as an image, Word document, PDF, Excel file, PowerPoint, JPG, GIF, etc.	See the Assets topic in the Getting Started / User Guide documentation here.
Asset Push	A process that exports assets from STEP to a file system. Conversion templates can be applied to transform images, for example from high res to low res, resizing, applying color scales, etc., though assets can also be sent as-is to make them available on the file system.	See the Asset Push topic in the Digital Assets guide here.
Assignee	The user or group to which a task is assigned for work to be performed within a workflow. User states can be assigned directly to a named user or to a user group. When a state is assigned to a user group the task is "offered" to all members of that group. To perform the task associated with the state, a member of the group has to claim the task. Once a task is claimed it is no longer visible in the group task list; only the person who claimed the task is able to see it. A user may subsequently release a task back to the group.	See the Assignees in Workflows topic in the Workflows documentation here.
Attribute	A characteristic or detailed piece of information related to a particular object. Attributes can be one of two types, description or specification. Description attributes are available on most object types in STEP, while specification attributes are only available on objects in the Primary Product Hierarchy.	See the Attributes topic in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.
Attribute Group	Groups attributes, reference types, and/or link types. Attribute groups can have sub-groups.	See the Attributes Groups topic in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.
Attribute Value	The value stored in a particular attribute on a particular object.	See the Attributes topic in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.

Term	Definition	Further Reading
Bookmark	A placeholder created by the user that serves as a shortcut to a previously viewed location.	See the Bookmarks topic in the Getting Started / User Guide documentation here.
Business Rule	Automated piece of programming logic that may implement customer-defined rules, such as validations, automatic updates, notifications, data-driven workflow routing, etc. Also see Condition and Action.	See the Business Rules topic in the Business Rules documentation here.

Term	Definition	Further Reading
Calculated Attribute	An attribute where the value is calculated according to a specific formula defined for this attribute. The formula may include static text, other attribute values, information from references on the object, and a number of other options.	See the Calculated Attributes topic in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.
Category Profile	View in STEP that helps product managers and data analysts to get an overview of an entire section of the Product Hierarchy through various metrics that are displayed in dashboard format.	See the Data Profiles topic in the Data Profiling documentation here.
Character Tag	An entry that begins with “<” and ends with “/>” such as <check/>. These tags represent characters that may not be found in the special character map in Unicode, or may be used instead of the Unicode character.	See the Tags topic in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.
Claim	The action that a user performs to take a task in a workflow out of a group queue and assign to himself / herself.	See the Claiming and Releasing Tasks in Workflows topic in the Workflows documentation here.
Classification	A particular type of hierarchy that organizes groups of objects or assets. Objects are linked to classifications via references, and may have references to multiple classifications. Also referred to as "yellow folders."	See the Classifications topic in the Getting Started / User Guide documentation here.
Collection	An object that holds a static set of objects, or a dynamic search criteria that can be refreshed as needed to find the latest matching objects. Using collections, the resulting data can be displayed, bulk actions can be performed, or the objects can be exported.	See the Collections topic in the Getting Started / User Guide documentation here.
Completeness Score	A measurement within STEP, expressed as a percentage, to indicate the proportion of key data that has been completed for a particular object. This key data is configurable, as is the weighting of importance.	See the Metric Visualization topic in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.
Condition	A condition is a type of business rule that evaluates to either true or false, and does not change data. In relation with approval, a condition can act as validation for whether an approval action can be carried out. In relation to workflows, conditions can be used to prevent a transition from being taken if certain conditions are not met.	See the Business Conditions topic in the Business Rules documentation here.
Context	A specific filter placed on the system data. Each context is a combination of different dimensions such as language, country, and so forth, for example, English US, French CA, or German DE. Data may vary based on context.	See the Contexts topic in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.

Term	Definition	Further Reading
Data Model	Basic system configuration defining the allowable structures and make up of data within STEP. Consists of system setup data, including: dimensions, contexts, object types, reference types, keys, component models, attribute groups, attributes, lists of values, units, and tags.	See the System Setup / Super User Guide here.
Dimension-Dependent Attribute	An attribute that can have different values for different dimension points, where the actual value is determined by the context in which the attribute is presented.	See the Dimension Dependent Attributes topic in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.

Term	Definition	Further Reading
Entity	A group of master data that has a specific business meaning. Entities typically store product-neutral data in STEP according to client-specific groupings of information, such as customers, employees, suppliers, and addresses. Entities are also often used to store reference data that is utilized within the system. Entities can be grouped into a hierarchy using reference types that are only valid from an entity object to an entity object. A source object can be displayed as a child of the target object or the target as a child of the source.	See the Entities topic in the Getting Started / User Guide documentation here.
Externally Maintained Attribute	A characteristic of an attribute or reference that can be set to ’Yes’ or ’No’. A ’Yes’ selection indicates that the data point is maintained externally, and a change in it does not trigger a change in approval status and/or a new revision on the STEP object on which the data was changed. A ’No’ selection indicates that the data point is maintained internally and a change in it has the potential to trigger a change in the approval status and/or a new revision on the STEP object on which the data was changed.	See the Externally Maintained Attributes topic in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.

Term

Definition

Further Reading

Entity

A group of master data that has a specific business meaning. Entities typically store product-neutral data in STEP according to client-specific groupings of information, such as customers, employees, suppliers, and addresses. Entities are also often used to store reference data that is utilized within the system. Entities can be grouped into a hierarchy using reference types that are only valid from an entity object to an entity object. A source object can be displayed as a child of the target object or the target as a child of the source.

See the Entities topic in the Getting Started / User Guide documentation here.

Externally Maintained Attribute

A characteristic of an attribute or reference that can be set to ’Yes’ or ’No’. A ’Yes’ selection indicates that the data point is maintained externally, and a change in it does not trigger a change in approval status and/or a new revision on the STEP object on which the data was changed. A ’No’ selection indicates that the data point is maintained internally and a change in it has the potential to trigger a change in the approval status and/or a new revision on the STEP object on which the data was changed.

See the Externally Maintained Attributes topic in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.

Term	Definition	Further Reading
Function	A type of business rule that allows for input parameters to produce an output. These operations are side-effect free, and it do not change STEP data.	See the Business Functions topic in the Business Rules documentation here.

Term	Definition	Further Reading
Golden Record	Collection of data from a variety of sources, based on matching, linking, and survivorship rules. The Golden Record is considered the trusted data record, compiled from the various source objects.	See the Survivorship in Match and Merge topic (here) the Survivorship in Match and Link topic (here) in the Matching, Linking, and Merging documentation.
GUI	Graphical user interface. For STEP, this can be the workbench or Web UI. A GUI	See the GUI Setup topic (here) in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation or the Design Mode Basics topic (here) in the Web User Interfaces / Web UI Getting Started documentation.

Term	Definition	Further Reading
Hierarchy	A data structure composed of parents and children.	See the Object Type Hierarchy topic in the Object Types and Structures of the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.
Hotfolder	File system of folders where data can be dropped for automatic loading into STEP, based on the particular configurations and/or code applied to the hotfolder.	See the IIEP Receiver Methods in the Data Exchange documentation (here), Configuring an Asynchronous File Exchange Service in the Data Integration documentation ( here), or Asset Importer in the Digital Assets documentation (here).

Term	Definition	Further Reading
ID	The unique identifier for all objects within STEP. It cannot be translated or edited once created, and cannot contain special characters.
Image Conversion	A series of parameters defining the way in which an image is transformed from the standard high resolution asset that exists in STEP to the required downstream format. Several conversion options are available by default, and additional conversions can be added via configuration and/or extensions. Note that conversions change assets as they are pushed from STEP, leaving the originating file unchanged in STEP.	See the Image Conversion Configuration topic in the Digital Assets documentation here.
Inbound Integration Endpoint (IIEP)	Communication channel defining how data is received by STEP. Each endpoint defines how data is received from an external system, specifying location, transport protocol, data to be exchanged and other configuration parameters.	See the Inbound Integration Endpoints topic in the Data Exchange documentation here.
Integration Endpoint (IEP)	Communication channel between STEP and external systems. See Inbound Integration Endpoint and Outbound Integration Endpoint.	See the Data Exchange documentation here.
Inheritance	The ability to make data available in the product or classification hierarchy to lower nodes by linking it to a higher node in the hierarchical structure.	See the Inherited Attributes topic in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.

Term	Definition	Further Reading
Library	Set of functions that can be reused in multiple business rules or other libraries. Libraries cannot be called independently and must be referenced from other actions, conditions, or functions.	See the Business Libraries topic in the Business Rules documentation here.
Link	A parent/child relationship between objects within the STEP system.	See the Reference and Link Types topic in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.
List of Values (LOV)	A validation base type for an attribute that only allows a value to be considered valid if it belongs to a respective list of pre-configured values assigned to the attribute. Also used to refer to the value list itself. LOVs are also referred to as 'Domains' at times.	See the List of Values (LOVs) topic in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.
Localized Value	An attribute value that is set directly on an object and is not inherited from any level above in the hierarchy.	See the Inherited Attributes topic in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.

Term	Definition	Further Reading
Mandatory Attribute	Indicates that the product and all its sub-products must have a value for the specified attribute in order for the object to be approved.	See the Mandatory Attributes topic in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.
Multi-Valued Attribute	An attribute that can contain more than one value for a specific object.	See the Editing Multi-Valued Attributes topic in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.

Term	Definition	Further Reading
Object	An element within the system, for example, a product, image, classification, attribute, workflow, business rule, etc.	See the Basic STEP Concepts topic in the Getting Started / User Guide here.
Object Type	A specific label for levels within a taxonomy, given to different elements within the system. Nearly every object in STEP is labeled with an object type to help identify what it is (i.e., a product or entity rather than an image, a TIF rather than a PDF, etc.). This includes entities, products, product categories, alternate hierarchies, images and other assets, attributes, and LOVs. Through the use of object types, system administrators can control how rigid or loosely defined the database will be in terms of object creation and where objects are allowed to ‘live’ and/or be used. This labeling also becomes very important when working with exported data so that each type of object in STEP can be identified for special handling in web applications or other uses outside of STEP.	See the Basic STEP Concepts topic in the Getting Started / User Guide here.
Orphan Attribute	A specification attribute that has a value, which has been deleted from / not linked to a product node or classification and is denoted by italics.	See the Linking Orphan Attributes topic in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.
Outbound Integration Endpoint (OIEP)	Communication channel defining how data is sent by STEP. Each endpoint defines how data is sent to an external system, specifying location, transport protocol, data to be exchanged and other configuration parameters.	See the Outbound Integration Endpoints topic in the Data Exchange documentation here.

Term	Definition	Further Reading
Postprocessor	A plugin component within the IEP framework that allows STEP to act on the result of the import / export such as starting workflows, sending notifications, etc.	See the IIEP Configuration Flipper here and the OIEP Output Templates Flipper here and here topics in the Data Exchange documentation.
Preprocessor	A plugin component within the integration endpoint framework that allows STEP to modify the message prior to import / export. It can be used for various functionality such as pre-validation, format conversion, filtering, etc.	See the IIEP Configuration Flipper here and the OIEP Output Templates Flipper here and here topics in the Data Exchange documentation.
Primary Product Classification (PPC)	Hierarchy that allows for different types of objects to be stored once in the database; each object within this hierarchy has a unique ID / identifier and may have only one location within the hierarchy. Also referred to as the 'blue hierarchy'.	See the Object Type Hierarchy topic in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.
Product	One of the object super types, referring to any object within the Primary Product Classification (blue hierarchy).	See the Products topic in the Getting Started / User Guide documentation here.
Product Template	InDesign templates that determine what type of data will appear on a printed page, including the positioning and styling.	See the Product Templates topic in the STEP Publisher documentation here.
Product Variant	Data type used to model multiple variants of a similar object. For example, T-shirts in various sizes and colors could all be variants of a single product.	See the Product Variants topic in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.
Proof View	A tab in workbench or Web UI that displays a product template view ('proof') of a selected node (typically a product) without the user needing to access InDesign.	See the Proof View section of the STEP Publisher documentation here.
Publication	One of the super types, referring to objects in the publication (green) hierarchy.	See the Publication Hierarchy section of the STEP Publisher documentation here.
Public API	The set of server-side functions that have been exposed to be used in the business logic. This includes many functions to create, get, and set data, such as values and references. It also includes various methods for logging as well as sending emails.	See the STEP API Documentation link on the Start Page.
Purge	Removal of an object from the database. Following purge, an object cannot be revived.	See the Revisions topic in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.

Term	Definition	Further Reading
Queue	The mechanism within the IIEP framework that allows messages to be processed in an asynchronous way. The queuing concept allows separating processes from different integration endpoints as well as controlling the degree of parallel imports (a queue size of one guarantees sequential import, while a queue size larger than one allows parallel processing of multiple messages for increased throughput where sequential execution is not required).	See the Background Processes and Queues topic in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.

Term	Definition	Further Reading
Reference	An association between objects within the STEP system.	See the Reference and Link Types topic in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.

Term	Definition	Further Reading
Special Character	A character that cannot be found on a standard keyboard but can usually be found in the Windows character map. Example: Trademark Symbol - ™	See the Tags topic in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.
State	A step within a workflow to which a specific user, user group, or system can be assigned to complete the task(s) associated with the state.	See the Creating a Workflow topic in the Workflows documentation here.
STEP	Stibo Enterprise Platform master data software application that provides business managers a single source database to store, manage, and re-purpose product information for publication or syndication.
STEP’n’design	STEP’s plugins for InDesign that allow data from the STEP database to be pulled onto pages.	See the STEP Publisher documentation here.
STEPXML	The native XML language for STEP, which can be used for importing / exporting STEP data, as well as transferring configurations between STEP systems.	See the STEPXML Format topic in the Data Exchange documentation here.
Super type	A major category of data within STEP including: Asset, Classification, Entity, Product, and Publication. See the specific definition for each super type for additional information.	See the Object super types topic within the Getting Started / User Guide here.
Superseded	The 'Superseded' status displays with affected components and serves as guidance to admin users selecting which components to implement when configuring their Web UI.
Super User	A user that is given administrative privileges within the STEP system.	See the Actions Sets topic in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.

Term	Definition	Further Reading
Task	The work and/or action that must be completed within a specific workflow state (whether by a user or via automation).	See the Working with Tasks in Workflows topic in the Workflows documentation here.
Transition	The change of tasks from one state to another within a workflow.	See Creating a Workflow in the Workflows documentation here.

Term	Definition	Further Reading
Unique Key	A unique key is a system entity that represents a specific object in the STEP system. The entity is composed of one or more data points, whether utilized as-is or in a combined and/or transformed format using a specified formula. There can be exactly one record for each object for each defined key. No two objects with the same unique key for an active key can exist.	See the Unique Keys topic in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.
User Permissions	Rules that allow or restrict users from performing certain functions within the system.	See the Privilege Rules topic in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.

Term	Definition	Further Reading
Validation Base Type	A characteristic of attributes that identifies the format of the accepted data for the attribute value, such as whether the value is a date, integer, fraction, text, LOV, etc.	See the Validation Rules topic in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.

Term	Definition	Further Reading
Web UI	A web-based interface to access the STEP database in order to read, edit, or download data and assets. Multiple Web UIs can be configured for each STEP installation.	See the Web User Interfaces topic in the Web UI documentation here.
Workbench	An interface for managing data in STEP, as well as carrying out administrative functions.	See the STEP Workbench UI topic in the Getting Started / User Guide documentation here.
Workflow	Business process(es) modeled as a series of states and tasks that can be executed by users and/or automatic processes within the STEP system. Workflows prompt the next step of a process to be started, by either creating a task for a user, or sending an alert. Workflows may contain a number of process steps or tasks, as well as business logic.	See the Workflows documentation here.
Workspace	A set of independent ‘copies’ of the database objects that provides a revision-specific view of objects. Workspaces are organized into separate areas including Main and Approved. The Main workspace is where data maintenance takes place. The approved workspace is a non-editable snapshot of data that has been determined to have been acceptable for publishing to downstream systems.	See the Workspaces topic in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.