Each piece of content that is stored within Documentum is of a certain object type. Object types are used to declare what set of metadata can be applied to different content objects.

For publications, the default object type for all content in a publication is called eps_element. This object type declares certain metadata fields for publishing elements, such as:

At your discretion, you can add metadata fields to the basic definition of an eps_element. Or, you can create specialized object types that are based on eps_element.

For example, you could define an object type called sports_article that adds additional metadata fields such as:

Once defined, the sports_article object type can be used as the default object type for articles in the sports section of a publication. Object types are defined at the system-wide level, but how object types are used in particular publications and sections is defined in the Element Types screen that is accessible through the System Default Settings node or the Publications folder. See Configuring Element Types for more information about selecting an object type for element types at the system, publication, section, or issue level.