Working with Rule Sets (Multiple Pass)

A rule set is a helpful way of grouping a related set of rules together in the Rules and Macro Tree so as to perform multiple pass processing. A rule set has no definition itself other than a name, and is used to organize your rules into meaningful groups. In some contexts, the text is too rich and varied to be processed in a single pass. For example, when working with security intelligence data, the text may contain links between individuals that are uncovered through contact methods (x called y), through family relationships (y’s brother-in-law x), through exchange of money (x wired $100 to y), and so on. In this case, it is helpful to create specialized sets of text link analysis rules, each of which is focused on a certain kind of relationship such as one for uncovering contacts, another for uncovering family members, and so on.

To create a rule set, select “Create Rule Set” from the Rules and Macro Tree context menu, or from the toolbar. You can then create new rules directly under a Rule Set node on the tree, or move existing rules to a Rule Set.

When you run an extraction using resources in which the rules are grouped into rule sets, the extraction engine is forced to make multiple passes through the text in order to match different kinds of patterns in each pass. In this way, a "sentence" can be matched to a rule in each rule set, whereas without a rule set it can only matched to a single rule.

Note: You can add up to 512 rules per rule set.

Creating New Rule Sets

  1. From the menus, choose Tools > New Rule Set. Alternatively, click the New Rule Set icon in the tree toolbar. A rule set appears in the rule tree.
  2. Add new rules to this rule set or move existing rules into the set.

Disabling Rule Sets

  1. Right-click the rule set name in the tree.
  2. From the context menus, choose Disable. The rule set icon becomes gray and all of the rules contained within that rule set are also disabled and ignored during processing.

Deleting Rule Sets

  1. Right-click the rule set name in the tree.
  2. From the context menus, choose Delete. The rule set and all the rules it contains are deleted from the resources.