What is category for?

[inno-steffg]

The Vorto DSL specifies a meta-field "category", but I cannot find any explanation what it actually means in documentation and I cannot even see any UI or function that makes use of it.

[Ebolon]

Here is a short explanation in the docs for category:

Parameter/Element	Mandatory	Description	Type	Examples
category	Y	The category should be used to logically group function blocks that semantically belong to the same domain.	top level category (mandatory) and a sub category (optional), separated by aslash (/)	IAP/smarthome indego

---

The DSL allows to define category as:

Terminals.xtext
terminal ID: '^'?('a'..'z'|'A'..'Z'|'_') ('a'..'z'|'A'..'Z'|'_'|'0'..'9')*;

Functionblock.xtext
CATEGORY : ID ('/' ID)*;

---

Currently there is no model published which uses a slash in category. I think the same can be possible archived with the namespace of a model. Maybe category is something legacy because Vorto 0.1 did not supported namespaces as today.

Here some fun stats what categories are currently used in the vorto repository:

category: count
----------------
iot : 157
demo : 221
sensors : 8
None : 162
payloadmapping : 100
example : 13
eclipse : 3
SmartObject : 80
IoT : 1
general : 4
main : 1
Activity : 1
xdk : 3
devices : 1
umgebungskachel : 5

[inno-steffg]

Super summary.

Now, when it is used that "strange", why not making it optional everywhere? It is so already in Datatype and Mapping, but mandatory in Function Block and Information Model.
Making it optional there wouldn't break existing definitions, but would simplify definitions and eventually increase the specifiers experience.

I was distracted by that detail, seeing it being required, caused me to search for the sense to put something meaningful in it.

Regards
Steffen