Deploying Find Matching Records match rules

In a deployment of i2 Analyze, you can deploy match rules on the server for all Analyst's Notebook Premium users to use in Find Matching Records. The match rules are provided to analysts when they connect to the server.

Before you begin

Ensure that i2 Analyze is started, and that you can connect to the deployment by using Analyst's Notebook Premium.

Also, to reload the server through the reload endpoint, ensure that you have a command-line tool such as postman or curl, and a user that has the i2:Administrator command access control permission.

Note: For more information about using the admin endpoints, see Using the admin endpoints.

About this task

In your configuration development environment, use Analyst's Notebook Premium to create your match rules, which are saved to an XML file that you can move to the i2 Analyze server. (The match rules files that Analyst's Notebook Premium creates are compatible with both Find Matching Records and system matching, but you should configure the features separately.)

Alternatively, you can create the server rules by editing the match rules XML file manually. If you create the match rules this way, you must still complete the following steps that describe how to configure and deploy the file on the i2 Analyze server.

Procedure

  1. Connect to your server in Analyst's Notebook Premium to load the i2 Analyze schema, and then create your match rules. As you do so, test them with representative data on the chart.
    For more information about how to create match rules, see Find matching records in the Analyst's Notebook documentation.
    After you create your rules, Analyst's Notebook Premium saves a file named local-fmr-match-rules.xml to the %localappdata%\i2\i2 Analyst's Notebook Premium\Match Rules\<data_source_id> directory on the local workstation. The file is saved in the directory that was modified most recently.
Next, you must place the match rules file on the i2 Analyze server and update the deployment with your changes.
  1. Move the local-fmr-match-rules.xml file to the toolkit\configuration\live directory in the i2 Analyze deployment toolkit.
  2. Delete the fmr-match-rules.xml file from the toolkit\configuration\live directory.
  3. Rename local-fmr-match-rules.xml to fmr-match-rules.xml.
Update the deployment with your changes.

The following method deploys your changes without stopping the server by using a POST request to a REST endpoint.

To redeploy your changes by using the deployment toolkit only, see Redeploying Liberty. You must deploy your changes by using the deployment toolkit if you are in a deployment with high availability or you are deploying in your production environment.

  1. In a command prompt, navigate to the toolkit\scripts directory.
  2. Update the configuration on the server:
    setup -t updateLiveConfiguration
    The updateLiveConfiguration toolkit task updates server with every file in the toolkit\configuration\live directory.
  3. Update the running application by using the reload endpoint:
    curl -i --cookie-jar cookie.txt -d j_username=user_name
                                -d j_password=password
                                http://host_name/context_root/j_security_check

curl -i --cookie cookie.txt -X POST http://host_name/context_root/api/v1/admin/config/reload
    To reload the server like this, ensure that you can use the admin endpoints. For more information, see Using the admin endpoints.
    Warning: The reload method updates the configuration without requiring a server restart, but any logged-in users are logged out from i2 Analyze when you run it.

What to do next

Connect to the deployment again and test that your server rules are visible in the Find Matching Records feature. In Analyst's Notebook Premium, you must log out and log in again to see your changes.

Note: If you copied the local-fmr-match-rules.xml file instead of moving it, each rule is duplicated in Analyst's Notebook Premium because the local and server rules are the same.

If you continue to develop your server rules by using this process, the cached-fmr-match-rules.xml file in the Match Rules directory contains the rules that are currently deployed on the server. Every time that Analyst's Notebook Premium connects, the cached rules file is overwritten with the latest version from the server.

If you want to modify the server rules again without using Analyst's Notebook Premium, you can modify the file in an XML editor. Any changes that you make are validated when you start i2 Analyze. For more information about the structure of the match rules file, see Match rules syntax.