Defining group types in IBM Master Data Management
Create and maintain group types to organize your master data records into logical categories based on shared characteristics or business needs.
For example, you can organize families into household groups or group customers based on demographics or marketing categories.
You can define group types from the data types screen. From the Master data navigation menu, click Data types 
to open the data types page, then select Group types.
You can also define groups by importing them from your pre-existing IBM InfoSphere Master Data Management Advanced Edition deployment.
Importing groups from InfoSphere MDM
To import group type definitions, groups, and their member records from InfoSphere MDM, use the MDM Publisher tool. You must have InfoSphere MDM 14.0 or later with the MDM Publisher Refresh 1 feature pack installed. For information about using MDM Publisher, see the MDM Publisher documentation
For information about configuring IBM Master Data Management to import data from InfoSphere MDM, see Loading and working with master data from InfoSphere MDM.
Defining a group type
To enable data stewards to work with groups, you must define at least one group type in your data model.
- Required permissions
- To configure a master data instance, you must be a member of the DataEngineer user group for the IBM Master Data Management service.
To define a new group type:
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From the Master data navigation menu, click Data types
to open the data types page. -
Select Group types and then click New group type.
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Specify the details of your new group type:
a) Provide a display name and description for this group type.
b) Select the allowed member data types in this group type. For example, if this group type is intended to hold VIP customers, you might choose to only allow records that have the Person record type.
c) Click Create.
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Optionally, add attributes and fields to the group. For more information. see Adding attributes and fields to a group type.
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When you are done adding the new group type, click Publish data type in the action bar of the screen.
Important: After a group type is published, it cannot be deleted. You can only delete group types before they are published.
To delete an unpublished group type:
a) Click Data types in the navigation path to go back to the Group types screen.
b) Review the list of group types. In the Data model status column, check to ensure that the value is Not published.
c) Click the action menu for the group and choose Delete group type.
Adding attributes and fields to a group type
After you have created a group type, you can add attributes and fields. You can add either group attributes or member attributes.
- Group attributes are attributes that describe the group object.
- Member attributes are attributes that get applied to each member in the group.
To add a new attribute or field to a group type:
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From the Master data navigation menu, click Data types
to open the data types page. -
Click Group types and select the group type you want to update.
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Click the Attributes and fields tab. There are two sections on this page: Group attributes and Member attributes.
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Click New attribute to add group or and member attributes. Specify the attribute details:
a) Select the base attribute type. These options are based on other attributes defined in your data model.
b) Define the cardinality of this attribute. Choose Single if you do not need provide multiple values for this attribute.
d) Type the display name and, optionally, provide a description of the attribute.
e) Click Create.
Repeat this process to add as many attributes as you need.
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Define the global display settings when users view groups of this type:
a) Click the Display settings tab.
b) Click Group display name, then define how the group name will be displayed. Drag or click + to add a field.
c) Click Summary, then select which group attributes will be displayed in the group's Summary card when a user views group details.
d) Click Attribute groups and define any other groups of attributes that you want to display together on cards when a user views group details.
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When you are done adding the new group type, click Publish data type in the action bar of the screen.
Important: After a group type is published, it cannot be deleted. You can only delete group types before they are published.
To delete an unpublished group type:
a) Click Data types in the navigation path to go back to the Group types screen.
b) Review the list of group types. In the Data model status column, check to ensure that the value is Not published.
c) Click the action menu for the group and choose Delete group type.
For information about creating and managing group instances, see Exploring and working with groups.