Attribute definitions are the at the core of the match service. Attribute definitions are used to construct the Matchgrid, and to determine what attributes are accepted over the REST API.
Attribute Configuration
Each attribute definition has several configuration options that determine how the attribute is used within Match Rules.
- Alphanumeric: If true, non-alphanumeric characters in values for the Attribute are ignored.
- Case Sensitive: If true, values provided for this Attribute are compared in a case-sensitive manner. (Otherwise, case is ignored by default.)
- Null Equivalents: Treats values consisting only of blanks, zeroes, and punctuation as null or empty. For example, if used for dateOfBirth and the provided value is
0000-00-00, it will be treated as if it wasn't provided. - Required: If required, the a value for the Attribute must be provided for a Rule configured to use the Attribute, otherwise the Rule will not execute.
- Search Distance: If specified, when an Attribute is configured with Search Type "Distance" with a Rule, the maximum Levenshtein Distance permitted for the value. This can be thought of as the number of transpositions, so that "Smith" and "Simth" have a distance of 2.
- Search Exact:
- Search Substring From: In Substring searches, begin searching at this position in the attribute value. Note that the first index is 1, not 0.
- Search Substring For: In Substring searches, use the first n characters (starting at the from position) of the attribute value. For example, From 1 For 3 will only consider the letters "smi" when comparing against the string "smith".
Attribute Groups
Attribute Groups link sets of Attributes together when there are multiple components to a complex Attribute. For example, a name typically consists of a "given" and a "family" component. Furthermore, there could be an "official" or "preferred" name. By creating an Attribute Group (eg: "official"), the individual Attribute components (eg: "given" and "family") can be linked together.
The name of the Attribute Group must match the type of the complex Attribute, as conveyed over the API. For example, if the following fragment is sent as part of an API request:
"names":[ { "type":"official", "given":"Pat", "family":"Lee" }]
the Attribute Group name must be configured as "official".