Rule groups

A rule group is a collection of rules that are applied to records at the same point in the standardization process. To ensure that rules are applied in a particular order, you can organize the rules into rule groups in the Standardization Rules Designer.

Rule groups can contain rules that are applied to records before or after the other actions in the standardization process. A rule group is invoked by a separate action in the pattern-action specification.

For example, the following action invokes the Hardware_Retail rule group. The example includes comments that specify the rule group that is invoked.

; Rules for hardware retail products
; ----------------------------------
; ----------------------------

& ; CALL Hardware_Retail SUBROUTINE
CALL Hardware_Retail

The Hardware_Retail rule group might include rules like the following rule:

B | + | S | C | P ; Common Pattern Found: CALL Post_Process SUBROUTINE then EXIT
COPY_A [1] {ProductBrand}
COPY_S [2] {ProductName}
COPY_A [3] {ProductSize}
COPY_A [4] {ProductCode}
COPY_A [5] {ProductUnitPrice}
CALL Post_Process
EXIT

For most rule sets, you might need only the following rule groups:

A rule group for rules that you want to apply to records before all other actions
A rule group for rules that you want to apply to records after all other actions

In IBM® InfoSphere® QualityStage® Version 9.1 and later, the pattern-action specification for predefined rule sets contains the following rule groups:

The Input_Overrides rule group contains rules that are applied to records before all other actions in the pattern-action specification.
The Unhandled_Overrides rule group contains rules that are applied to records after all other actions in the pattern-action specification.

You cannot add rules that are based on pattern-action language to these rule groups.

In the Standardization Rules Designer, you can modify the rules in a rule group, add a rule group, or change the name of a rule group. For a rule set to work correctly, the references to the rule groups in the pattern-action specification must match the information about the rule groups in the Standardization Rules Designer. Before you provision a rule set and apply it in a job, ensure that changes are published from the Standardization Rules Designer and that the pattern-action specification is updated to match the Standardization Rules Designer.

In the pattern-action specification, the rule groups for the Standardization Rules Designer must be added to the following types of rule sets:

Custom rule sets that you created before IBM InfoSphere QualityStage Version 9.1
Copies of predefined rule sets that were made before IBM InfoSphere QualityStage Version 9.1