The External Match application is enhanced to support multiple nested attributes and multiple levels of nested attributes during mapping.

The External Match application is enhanced to support multiple nested attributes and multiple levels of nested attributes during mapping. For example, an organization can have multiple addresses in different cities and multiple phone numbers for each address. When you load data for such an organization, you can map these addresses and phone numbers as nested and sub-nested attributes.

In the following example, the organization has three addresses in three different cities: City1, City2, and City3:

By default, the first level of a nested attribute is shown and that cannot be deleted. When one attribute of a nested attribute is mapped, the ADD button appears that allows you to add one more nested attribute. Therefore, you can keep adding nested attributes by using the ADD button as long as an attribute of the previous nested attribute is mapped.

When you click on the ADD button, another Address (2) nested attribute appears. The number next to Address (2) represents the count of the number of nested attributes.

You can map City2 and Street2 columns with the City and Street attributes respectively under the Address (2) nested attribute as follows:

Similarly, you can map City3 and Street3 columns with the City and Street attributes respectively under the Address (3) nested attribute:

If you remove the mapping for all sub-attributes of a nested attribute, then the nested attribute is removed. The following image shows that the mapping for City2 and Street2 columns with the City and Street attributes under the Address (2) nested attribute is removed. The count changes to Address (1) and Address (2) but the attributes under Address (2) are mapped to City3 and Street3 columns.

In case of multiple match rules that have the same nested attribute, if you map the nested attribute in one rule, it automatically gets mapped in the other match rules. In the following example, the address nested attribute is mapped in the Address Match rule.

When you expand the other match rule Address Match with Relationships, you can see that the Address attribute is mapped to the same columns.

You can also have a nested attribute within a nested attribute. The following image shows that the Address nested attribute has a sub-nested attribute called Unit:

After you map the Unit Name and Unit Value columns with the UnitName and UnitValue attributes respectively, the ADD button appears and the behavior is similar as explained above for the nested attribute.

Mapping of Multiple Columns

You can also have multiple columns mapped to one attribute of a nested attribute as shown in the following image:

In the example above, City1.1 and City1.2 columns are mapped to the City attribute and Street1.1 and Street1.2 columns are mapped to the Street attribute. Similarly, the columns are mapped for City2.1, City2.2, and Street2.1. The Street2.2 is not mapped as it does not have any value. Similarly, you can map other city and street columns by using the ADD button and the behavior is similar as explained above.