About the Rules-Based Framework

In the rules-based framework, individual field components are recognized by the patterns defined for each data type and by information provided in configurable files about how to preprocess, match, and postprocess each field components. The rules-based framework processes data in the following stages.

• Parsing - A free-form text field is separated into its individual components, such as street address information or a business name. This process takes into account logic you can customize, such as token patterns, special characters, and priority weights for patterns.

• Normalization - Once a field is parsed, individual components of the field are normalized based on the configuration files. This can include changing the input street name to a common form or changing the input business name to its official form.

• Phonetic Encoding - After a field is parsed and optionally normalized, the value of a field is converted to its phonetic version. The value to be converted can be the original input value, a parsed value, a normalized value, or a parsed and normalized value.

Using the street address data type, for example, street addresses are parsed into their component parts, such as house numbers, street names, and so on. Certain fields are normalized, such as street name, street type, and street directions. The street name is then phonetically converted. Standardization logic is defined in the standardization engine configuration files and in the Master Index Configuration Editor or mefa.xml in a master index project.