Configure primary associations

When a child object has multiple parent objects, the Association Heuristic setting controls how the system reassigns a new primary parent after the child object has been created.

A new primary parent is assigned to a child object whenever the child object becomes disassociated from its primary parent. You can change how primary parent objects are reassigned to disassociated child objects.

Platform > Repository > Resource > Association Heuristic
Default: Chronological
Values: Type one of the following values:
  • Chronological - the reassignment of a primary parent is based on the earliest creation date and time of an association.
  • Folder Context - the reassignment of a primary parent is based on the folder path within the context of the business entity.

    For example, control C1 has multiple risk parents: R1, R2, R3, and R4 (primary parent) and the object associations were created in the following chronological order:

    Table 1. Parent folder path and associated child folder path
    Parent folder path C1 Child folder path
    /BE1/SBE2/R2 /BE1/SBE1/C1
    /BE1/SBE1/R1 /BE1/SBE1/C1
    /BE1/SBE3/R3 /BE1/SBE1/C1
    /BE1/SBE4/R4 (primary parent) /BE1/SBE1/C1

    If you disassociate the primary parent, R4, from C1, although R2 is chronologically the earliest association to C1, R1 is reassigned as the primary parent. This is because R1 and C1’s folder paths match (/BE1/SBE1).

    Note: If no folder path matches the child object, the chronological order is used.