Qualified Field Name Notation

In query.xml and the MatchingConfig element of mefa.xml use qualified field names to specify the location of a field. This method defines a specific field and is not used to define a list of fields. A qualified field name is a sequence of nested nodes in an enterprise record where the most nested element is a data field.

There are two types of qualified field names.

• Fully qualified field names - Allow you to define fields within the context of the enterprise object; that is, the field name uses Enterprise as the root. These are used in the MatchingConfig element of mefa.xml and to specify the fields in a query block in query.xml.

• Qualified field names - Allow you to define fields within the context of the parent object; that is, the field name uses the name of the parent object as the root. These are used in query.xml to specify the source fields for the blocking query criteria.

The following topics describe and illustrate how to form qualified field name strings.

• Qualified Field Name Syntax

• Qualified Field Name Example

Qualified Field Name Syntax

The syntax of a fully qualified field name is:

Enterprise.SystemSBR.parent_object.child_object.field_name

where parent_object refers to the name of the parent object in the index, child_object refers to the name of the child object that contains the field, and field_name is the full name of the field. If the parent object contains the field being defined, the child object is not required in the path.

The syntax of a qualified field name is:

parent_object.child_object.field_name

Qualified Field Name Example

The following sample illustrates an object structure that could be defined in object.xml. The object contains a Person parent object, and Address and Phone child objects.

Person
   FirstName
   LastName
   DateOfBirth
   Gender
   -Address
      AddressType
      StreetAddress
      Street
      City
      State
      PostalCode
   -Phone
      PhoneType
      PhoneNumber

The following fully qualified field names are valid for the sample structure above.

• Enterprise.SystemSBR.Person.FirstName

• Enterprise.SystemSBR.Person.Address.StreetAddress

• Enterprise SystemSBR.Person.Phone.PhoneNumber

The qualified field names that correspond with the fully qualified names listed above are:

• Person.FirstName

• Person.Address.StreetAddress

• Person.Phone.PhoneNumber