When you are creating or editing an import specification that is aligned with an i2
Analyze schema, you can tell the import wizard to use system match rules to identify
duplicate system records on your chart, and in the Information Store.
About this task
When you use system rules to identify and resolve duplicate information, you limit the
unnecessary creation of new records. For example, your incoming data might contain
details about a person that match with a record in the Information Store. If that
record was ingested from an external source, it is regarded as
system-governed. Analyst's Notebook selects the system record for that
person entity rather than creating a new record. If your data matches with a record
that is uploaded by another analyst, that record is used instead of creating a
duplicate. Missing values in analyst-governed records can be enriched by a
range of incoming data, whereas system-governed records gain security and source
reference updates. The system rules are defined by your system administrator. For
link matching, the rules are set to exact matches on link direction, and match with
the same pair of end records.
Procedure
-
Click the checkbox to select System Matching.
The wizard compares the property values that you assigned in Assign
Columns to the system rules. If the system rules require further assignments, a
flag appears next to System Matching.
- Hover your mouse pointer over the flag to see a detailed message about your
import.
You can proceed with your import without assigning the required property
values, although revisiting your import design at this stage can improve the quality of your record
matching. For example, in your import design you might have assigned a property value of Last Name
to a Person entity. If you have a system rule that looks for a match on Last Name, this identifies
matches in your import data and in the match locations you select. However, if the system rule
specifies Last Name and Passport Number, the wizard tells you which value is not assigned. You can
return to Assign Columns and add more property values to satisfy the requirements of the system
rules before you run the import.
-
Click the checkboxes to select the locations to include in record matching. The
import process uses the system rules to identify matches in the incoming data,
with Information Store records, and on your target chart.
Note: When imported records match with multiple records in
the Information Store, Analyst's Notebook resolves matches in the following
order of preference:
- System-governed records
- Records with the greatest number of properties used by the rule(s)
conditions
- Records with the greatest number of properties
- The record with the earliest created time stamp.
Results
When you run the import, a progress window is displayed. If matches are found, the import is
paused. Another window is displayed that shows you the number of matches between the imported data
and records from the locations you selected. This information is to help you understand what is
happening to your records during the import process and what other actions you might take. For
example, if your import data matches with records in the Information Store, you might want to use
the Get Matches function to identify them.
What to do next
Click Continue to proceed with the import. When the import
completes, a message is displayed to show timing details and the numbers of records that were
created or replaced. Alternatively, you can click Cancel to end the import
and return to the chart.
