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Working with the Rules Builder

You can use the Rules builder to identify the attributes and set the relevant conditions that you want to include as part of your match rule.

You can search and select the attributes to include in the match rule. By default, the Rules builder shows the list of recommended attributes. The attributes displayed in the Recommended attributes list are based upon the most frequently used attributes in the match rules.

To select from the broader list that includes all the attributes, click the VIEW ALL ATTRIBUTES link.

As you select the required attributes, these are listed in the Rules builder and the BUILD MATCH RULES button becomes active.

Click the BUILD MATCH RULES button to use the Rules builder’s capabilities.

Based on the selected attributes, your first Set contains a row for each comparator against each attribute along with an extra row. As an example, the Phone/Number, Address/City, and Name attributes were selected as seen in the screen-shot shown above. Now, you can specify the match rule criterion based on each of these attributes. In addition, you can also add another set that contains any other attributes that you want to match upon.

Working with rows in a Set

Let us understand how to create a match rule.

When you hover-over (mouse-over) a row, the options to Add, Duplicate or Delete a row are displayed. The Delete row option is available when you click the More options icon as shown below.

For each of the attributes that are displayed as individual rows, you can specify the following details:
  • Select the operator - This could be And, And not, Or, Or not
  • Select the comparator
  • Select the attribute
  • Select the value of the attribute, if needed
  • Specify the Row settings - Ignore in token, Select match token, Select comparator class and/or select cleanser

Multiple attributes within a set can have any of the four operators. The attributes can be specified with an And, And not, Or, Or not condition.

Note: In the Advanced editor, the attributes are grouped based on the operators that are used to specify the conditions associated with the attribute. For example, all And attribute conditions would appear as a group.

Select the Comparator that you want to set for each attribute that you have already selected. For example, select the Fuzzy comparator for the Name attribute if you want the two slightly similar names being compared to be counted as potential matches. The list of comparators is shown below.

For more details about these comparators/match rule operators, please see Comparison Operators.

Note: When you select the Equals, In, Not Equals or Null Values comparators, you can specify the values for the attributes in the same row. You can even specify multiple values separated by commas.

For example, you may want to specify that Name equals John, in that case, your row entry would look like the one shown below.

Click the Row settings drop-down to see the available options in a dialog box.

You can choose to ignore the selected attribute in match rule tokenization by turning On the Ignore in token option. For more details, see ignoreInToken.

Click the Select match token drop-down to select the match token applicable to the selected attribute. You can choose from 15 Match tokens. For more details, see Match Token Generation.

Click the Select comparator class drop-down to select a comparator class applicable to the selected attribute. You can choose from 16 Comparator classes. For more details, see Comparator Classes.

Click the Select cleanser drop-down to select the cleanser applicable to the selected attribute. For more information, see Name Dictionary Cleanser.

After you make the required selections in the Row settings dialog box, you can click anywhere outside the dialog box to apply your selection and close the dialog box.

If you want to add more details to your match rule, you can either add a new row to the same set, or, add a new set.

Working with multiple Sets

While working with complex match rules, you may need to add more than one set of match instructions. In that case, you can easily add or duplicate a set. You can also delete a set of instructions, if it is not needed. To use the various options at the Set level, click the More options icon for the set as shown below.

Note: Multiple sets can be combined with only one operator, either And or Or. This operator is available at the top of the first set.

After you have completed setting a match rule, the Rules builder would look like the image shown below.

The Match queries section displays the conditions that you have set for the selected attributes, including the selections made as part of the row settings. Click SAVE to create your match rule. The newly created match rule is listed in the Match Rules section on the Entity details page for the Entity type which you had selected before creating the match rule.

You can edit an existing match rule either in the Rules Builder or the Advanced Editor. While creating a match rule, you can only select the Match Rule Type as either Suspect for review or Automatic merge. However, while editing a match rule, even the Relevance-based match rules and/or user-defined (custom) match rules are displayed in the Advanced Editor or Rules Builder, as appropriate.

You can switch to the Advanced Editor view to work with the match rules in the JSON format.