Customizing your data model in IBM Match 360

Customize your IBM Match 360 data model to match your organization's requirements by adding new record types, entity types, attributes, and fields.

Required permissions
To configure the data model, you must be a member of the DataEngineer user group for the IBM Match 360 service.

When you onboard your first data asset, IBM Match 360 automatically generates the data model by using a combination of industry standard model attributes and embedded Watson technology. When you upload more data, the model intelligently adjusts itself to accommodate newly populated attributes and fields.

If you want to define relationships in your master data, you must configure one or more relationship types in your data model.

You can always customize the model to match your organization's requirements by adding new relationship types, record types, entity types, attributes, and fields.

Tip: Ensure that you publish your data model after every time you make changes. If the changes are not published, they cannot be used by the matching algorithm or other IBM Match 360 operations.

Watch the following video to see how to use IBM Match 360 to set up a customized data model and corresponding matching algorithm.

This video provides a visual method to learn the concepts and tasks in this documentation.

In this topic:

Accessing the data model

To customize your IBM Match 360 with Watson data model:

  1. From the Master data navigation menu, click the Assets icon assets icon, then click the Modeling tab.

  2. Use the Data model side panel to select the data type you want to view or edit.

  3. Review the current model's record types and attribute types.

  4. From the Modeling screen, you can:

    • View or edit existing record types or create new ones. See Customizing record types.
    • View, edit, or delete existing entity types or create new ones. See Customizing entity types
    • View, edit, or delete existing attributes or create new ones. You can add or remove fields in each attribute type to reflect your organization's data model requirements. See Customizing attribute types.
    • View or edit existing relationship types or create new ones. See Customizing relationship types.
    • Download the data model as a JSON file. Click the Download icon download icon.
    • Upload a data model in JSON format. Click the Upload icon upload icon.
  5. When you are done updating the data model, click the publish model icon publish data model icon in the toolbar in the header.

Customizing record types

By default, the data model includes definitions for person and organization record types. You can edit an existing record type to define new entity types or attribute types. You can also add new record types to your data model.

Adding or editing a record type

To add a record type to your data model, or edit an existing one:

  1. From the Master data navigation menu, click the Assets icon assets icon.

  2. From the Modeling tab, click New record type + or select the existing record type that you want to edit.

  3. Define the name, label, and description of the new record type, then click Create.

    Tip: The name must follow the snake_case format, using only lowercase letters and no spaces, such as example_record_type.
  4. Add attribute types and entity types to your new record type. For details, see the following sections.

Adding an attribute or entity type to a record type

To add an attribute or entity type to a record type:

  1. From the Master data navigation menu, click the Assets icon assets icon.

  2. Go to the Modeling tab.

  3. Under Record types in the Data model side panel, select the record type that you want to modify.

  4. In the edit pane, click New attribute + or New entity type + to start creating and associating attributes and entity types with your new record type.

  5. Define the details of your new attribute type or entity type.

    • New attribute types can either be simple or complex. Complex attributes are made up of two or more simple values.

    • New entity types can either be identity entities or association entities. Identity entities link records that represent the same real-world person, organization, or object. Association entities link records that should be associated for another reason, such as a shared household or employer. For more information, see Data concepts in IBM Match 360.

  6. Click Create to add the new attribute type to your new record type.

Remember: When you are done updating the data model, click the publish model icon publish data model icon in the toolbar in the header.

Deleting an attribute or entity type from a record type

To edit an existing record type by removing one of its entity types or attribute types:

  1. From the Master data navigation menu, click the Assets icon assets icon.
  2. Go to the Modeling tab.
  3. In the Data model side panel, select an existing record type to display its associated entity types and attribute types.
  4. Browse through the entity and attribute types that are associated with this record type. To find a specific attribute type, use the search function.
  5. From the record type view, click the entity or attribute type you want to remove.
  6. Click the Delete icon delete icon.

Remember: When you are done updating the data model, click the publish model icon publish data model icon in the toolbar in the header.

Customizing entity types

By default, the data model includes definitions for person and organization entity types. You can edit an existing entity type to define new attribute types. When defined at the entity type level, an attribute is referred to as an entity attribute. You can also add new entity types to your data model.

Adding or editing an entity type

New entity types can either be identity entities or association entities. Identity entities link records that represent the same real-world person, organization, or object. Association entities link records that should be associated for another reason, such as a shared household or employer. For more information, see Data concepts in IBM Match 360.

To add an entity type to your data model, or edit an existing one:

  1. From the Master data navigation menu, click the Assets icon assets icon.

  2. Go to the Modeling tab.

  3. In the Data model side panel, click New entity type + or select the existing entity type that you want to edit.

  4. Define the purpose, parent record type, label, name, and description of this entity type.

    Tip: The name must follow the snake_case format, using only lowercase letters and no spaces, such as example_entity_type.
  5. Define whether this type of entity persists its composite view in the database or whether it is composed on demand from its member records.

    When an entity's composite view is configured to persist, you can directly search on entity data, including attributes and system properties such as record count and entity ID.

    After an entity type's composite view is configured to persist, this setting cannot be reversed.

  6. Click Create to add this entity type to the data model.

  7. Add attributes to your new entity type. For details, see the following sections.

Adding an attribute to an entity type

Attributes that you define as part of an entity type are stored in the database at the entity level, as opposed to the record level. Entity attribute values display when users view an entity, regardless of the member record attributes values. If no entity attribute values are defined, then the system determines all of an entity's attribute values from its member records' values by using attribute composition rules. For more information about attribute composition, see Defining attribute composition rules in IBM Match 360.

To add an attribute to an entity type:

  1. From the Master data navigation menu, click the Assets icon assets icon.

  2. Go to the Modeling tab.

  3. Under Entity types in the Data model side panel, select the entity type that you want to modify.

  4. In the edit pane, click New attribute + to start creating and associating attributes and entity types with your new record type.

  5. Define the details of your new attribute.

    New attribute types can either be simple or complex. Complex attributes are made up of two or more simple values.

  6. Click Create to add the new attribute to your new entity type.

Remember: When you are done updating the data model, click the publish model icon publish data model icon in the toolbar in the header.

Customizing attribute types

To customize the fields that make up your attribute types:

  1. From the Master data navigation menu, click the Assets icon assets icon.
  2. Go to the Modeling tab and click Attribute types.
  3. Browse the list of attribute types or use the search function to locate a specific type.
  4. Select an attribute type from the list to view it and its associated fields.
  5. To add a field to an attribute type: a. Click Add field +. b. Define the field label, field name, and description, then click Save. The new field is added to the associated attribute type.
    Tip: The name must follow the snake_case format, using only lowercase letters and no spaces, such as `example_field_name`.

Remember: When you are done updating the data model, click the publish model icon publish data model icon in the toolbar at the top of the screen.

Customizing relationship types

Create a new relationship type within your data model or edit an existing one. You can also delete an existing relationship type from the data model.

You can see existing relationship types listed in the Data model side panel's Relationship types section.

Select a relationship type to see its details, as well as to edit or delete it.

Adding a relationship type

To add a relationship type to your data model:

  1. From the Master data navigation menu, click the Assets icon assets icon.

  2. Go to the Modeling tab.

  3. In the Data model side panel, click Add relationship type +.

  4. Define the label to use for the new relationship type. This label will be used to refer to relationships of this type. As you type the label, the relationship type name automatically completes.

  5. Optionally, edit the prefilled relationship type name.

    Tip: The name must follow the snake_case format, using only lowercase letters and no spaces, such as `example_relationship_type`.
  6. Type a short description of the new relationship type.

  7. Define whether this relationship is directional or bidirectional.

    • Directional relationships differ depending on which member of the relationship you are viewing. The labels for directional relationships are different depending on which side of the relationship you view. For example: Doctor-Patient, Parent-Child, Employer-Employee.
    • Bidirectional relationships are mutual relationships. The label used for bidirectional relationships is the same regardless of which side of the relationship you view. For example: Married to, Sibling of, Coworker of.
  8. Click Next.

  9. If you are defining a directional relationship, define the labels for each side of the relationship (source and target). For example, for an employment relationship, you can define labels such as "Employs" and "Is employed by".

  10. Click Add endpoint rules to define rules that govern the types of entities that can be involved in relationships of this type. Endpoint rules are made up of source-target pairs. They define what types of entities are allowed for both the source and target sides of the relationship. Select All record types if there are no entity type restrictions or select one of the existing entity types in your data model.

    Tip: You must define at least one endpoint rule, but can define as many as necessary.
  11. After adding endpoint rules, click Done.

  12. Click Create

After creating a relationship type, you can see it listed in the Data model side panel's Relationship types section.

Select a relationship type to see its details, as well as to edit or delete it.

Remember: When you are done updating the data model, click the publish model icon publish data model icon in the toolbar in the header.

Adding an attribute to a relationship type

Add attributes to a relationship type to enable the relationship entity to store additional information about relationships of this type.

To add an attribute to a record type:

  1. From the Master data navigation menu, click the Assets icon assets icon.
  2. Go to the Modeling tab.
  3. Under Relationship types in the Data model side panel, select the relationship type that you want to modify.
  4. In the edit pane, click New attribute to start creating and associating attributes and entity types with your new record type.
  5. Define the details of your new attribute type. Your new attribute can either be simple or complex. Complex attributes are made up of two or more simple values.
  6. Click Add to add the new attribute type to your new record type.

Remember: When you are done updating the data model, click the publish model icon publish data model icon in the toolbar in the header.

Deleting an attribute from a relationship type

To edit an existing relationship type by removing one of its attribute types:

  1. From the Master data navigation menu, click the Assets icon assets icon.
  2. Go to the Modeling tab.
  3. Under Relationship types in the Data model side panel, select the relationship type to display its associated details and attribute types.
  4. Browse through the attribute types that are associated with this relationship type. To find a specific attribute type, use the search function.
  5. From the relationship type view, click the attribute type you want to remove.
  6. Click the Delete icon delete icon.

Remember: When you are done updating the data model, click the publish model icon publish data model icon in the toolbar in the header.

Next steps

Learn more

Parent topic: Configuring master data