InfoSphere MDM portfolio-wide glossary

This glossary contains terms and definitions applicable across the InfoSphere® MDM portfolio. Not all documents or user interfaces use the updated terms and definitions.

The following cross-reference is used in this information: See refers the reader from a term to a preferred synonym, or from an acronym or abbreviation to the defined full form of the term. See also refers you to a related or contrasting term.

application server

A server program in a distributed network that provides the execution environment for an application program. See also operational server.

attribute

A characteristic or trait of an entity type that describes the entity, for example, the Person entity type has the Date of Birth attribute. See also entity type and entity.

CBA (composite bundle archive) file

A file that packages together one or more OSGi bundles. It provides one or more packages at specific versions to an OSGi application. You can also extend a deployed application by adding one or more composite bundles to the composition unit for the application.

centralized implementation style

An architecture for mastering data that is applicable when a physical golden copy of the master data is authored in a central location either through workflow or transactional activity and that golden copy is stored and accessed centrally. Also referred to as transactional or persistent. See also registry implementation style.

coexistence implementation style

An architecture for mastering data that is applicable when data maintenance is distributed, but a golden copy is maintained in a central location. The central location publishes the golden copy to systems that subscribe. A coexistence implementation style provides the infrastructure for hybrid MDM capabilities.

collapse

To consolidate records that are identified as suspected duplicates and create one new record. The original records are then deactivated. See also merge.

composite view

A way of aggregating attribute information from one or more member records. For example, the view might always display the attribute information that is the most current across multiple member records for a person, or it might always display the attribute information from one particular source system. See also physical MDM table.

consolidation implementation style

An architecture for mastering data that is applicable when data creation is distributed across data sources, but a consolidated physical golden copy is created and stored centrally. Typically this style is used to support business intelligence or data warehousing initiatives. Sometimes this term is referred to as downstream MDM.

EAR file (enterprise archive)

A specialized type of JAR file that is defined by the Java™ EE standard and is used to deploy Java EE applications to Java EE application servers. An EAR file contains Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) components, a deployment descriptor, and web archive (WAR) files for individual web applications.

EBA (enterprise bundle archive) file

A file that contains a set of OSGi bundles that are deployed as a single OSGi application and that are isolated from other OSGi applications.

entity

A single unique object in the real world that is being mastered. Examples of an entity are a single person, single product, or single organization. See also attribute.

entity persistence

See persistence.

entity registration

For hybrid MDM, a process for persisting an entity from the virtual MDM to the physical MDM, in which the new physical MDM record contains the unique party ID, the source system type, and the source system member ID for the virtual MDM member record. Entity registration is managed by the Entity registration job within the InfoSphere MDM Workbench. As the name implies, it runs in entity registration mode rather than full persistence mode. See entity registration mode and full persistence mode.

entity registration mode

For hybrid MDM implementations, configuring persistence to use the entity registration mode means that when you persist an entity from the virtual MDM to the physical MDM, the process creates a record that contains the unique party ID, the source system type, and the source system member ID for the member record. See also entity registration, persistence mode, and full persistence mode.

entity transition

An approach to MDM implementations where a representation of the virtual MDM data is created in the MDM database and then subsequently the virtual MDM source systems are taken offline permanently.

entity type

A person, organization, object type, or concept about which information is stored. Describes the type of the information that is being mastered. Typically corresponds to one or several related tables in database. See also attribute.

full persistence mode

For hybrid MDM implementations, configuring persistence to use the full persistence mode means that when you persist an entity from the virtual MDM to the physical MDM, the process creates a record that contains all attributes for the entity. See also persistence mode and entity registration mode.

hybrid MDM

The management of master data where a coexistence implementation style combines physical and virtual technologies. Compare with the physical and virtual MDM capabilities. See also physical MDM and virtual MDM.

master data engine

See operational server.

mapping

In a hybrid MDM implementation, mapping refers to the set of correspondences between virtual MDM attributes and physical MDM attributes. InfoSphere MDM includes .map files that define the default correspondences between virtual MDM attributes and physical MDM attributes for the Person and Organization domains.

MDM hub

See operational server.

member record

With virtual MDM, the representation of the entity as it is stored in individual source systems. Information for each member record is stored as a single record or a group of records across related database tables. Sometimes referred to as record. See also entity.

merge

1. To consolidate records that are identified as suspected duplicates. 2. In virtual MDM, to consolidate records that are identified as suspected duplicates by associating them with one common enterprise ID. See also collapse.

operational server

The software that provides services for managing and taking action on master data. The operational server includes the data models, business rules, and functions that support entity management (including data load, cleansing, linkage, and deduplication). Other capabilities include security, auditing, and event detection. Previously referred to as master data engine in the Initiate Master Data Service® product, and as MDM hub or MDM server in the InfoSphere MDM Server product. See also application server. Contrast with collaboration server.

OSGi (Open Services Gateway initiative)

A module system and framework for the development and deployment of Java applications.

persistence

In hybrid MDM, the creation of and updates to representations of virtual MDM entities in the physical MDM. In other words, data that is aggregated from the source systems for the virtual MDM are maintained and centralized within the tables for the physical MDM.

persistence mode

You can configure persistence in one of two modes: entity registration mode or full persistence mode. The persistence mode determines whether to create a partial or full version of a virtual MDM entity in the physical MDM database. See also entity registration mode and full persistence mode.

physical MDM

The management of master data where master data is created in, stored in, and accessed from a central system. See also hybrid MDM and virtual MDM.

physical MDM table

A centralized database table for a physical, golden copy of the master data. Typically the physical MDM table is associated with the centralized implementation style or coexistence implementation style. See also composite view.

potential duplicate

See suspected duplicate.

record

The storage representation of a row of data. See also member record.

reference data mapping

In hybrid MDM, reference data mapping is a kind of virtual-to-physical mapping used to move values directly from the virtual MDM to the physical MDM without a transcoding step. The case and formatting are preserved. See transcoding.

registry implementation style

An architecture for mastering data that is applicable when master data is maintained in a distributed fashion and remains fragmented across those systems with a centrally located “index” (golden record) for the distributed data. See also centralized implementation style.

service-oriented architecture (SOA)

A conceptual description of the structure of a software system in terms of its components and the services they provide, without regard for the underlying implementation of these components, services, and connections among components.

source system

With virtual MDM, the system (application) from which a specific record in the MDM database originated. For example, a registration system or an accounting system.

split

To create two or more new records from a record that was previously collapsed.

supplemental attribute

In hybrid MDM, an additional attribute for an entity type that is stored only on the persisted entity within the physical MDM database.

suspected duplicate

Two or more records that might represent the same person, organization, or object. Previously referred to as suspect duplicate, suspect, and potential duplicate.

suspected duplicate processing

A set of operations that searches and matches existing records that are duplicates of the record that is being added or updated.

task resolution

The act (user review and action) or process (such as automatic linking) of correcting data to remove an MDM task from the task queue.

transactional implementation style

See centralized implementation style.

transcoding

In hybrid MDM, transcoding is a kind of virtual-to-physical mapping that uses an XSLT template to convert an attribute in the virtual MDM data model to a code type attribute in the physical MDM data model. See reference data mapping.

undo collapse

To undo a previously completed collapse operation by deactivating the consolidated record and then either cloning the original records or re-creating them with new record definitions.

unmerge

To unlink previously merged records.

virtual MDM

The management of master data where master data is maintained in a distributed fashion and remains fragmented across those systems with a central "indexing" service. See also hybrid MDM and physical MDM.

workflow

A sequence of activities or steps that define business processes for managing product information data. A workflow is applied to a particular container by defining a collaboration area associated with that container and workflow. Each workflow applies either to items or to categories.