An advanced rule association is an association between business entity fields and a Cloud Data Quality rule specification.
You can use the predefined rule specifications, or create custom rule specifications in Cloud Data Quality and use them. When you create advanced rule associations, you must map the input and output fields of the rule specification with the business entity fields.
The supported predefined rule specification is DUNS SSN Validation that validates the DUNS and Social Security numbers.
You can create advanced rule associations to validate input fields that are empty. Based on the rule specification, the advanced rule association validates the input fields in the business application. If the input fields are empty, the rule returns a value for the empty fields.
For more information about creating or editing rule specifications in Cloud Data Quality, see Rule specification assets in Cloud Data Quality.
Note: When you add advanced rule associations to a field, ensure that you add the field to the custom pages that you use in your business application.
Rules and guidelines for advanced rule associations
Consider the following rules and guidelines to create advanced rule associations:
•Use simple advanced data quality rule associations instead of complex data quality rule associations.
•In an advanced rule association, don't use a rule that contains mapplet in the rule logic. The data quality rule association might not work.
•To ensure the success of the business entity field comparison operation in Business 360 Console, use integer or string values in the rule statement output in Cloud Data Quality.
•When you configure an advanced rule association with a transformation function, set rule statement output values for all the conditions in Cloud Data Quality to generate values in the output field.
•When you modify a rule specification in Cloud Data Quality, select the rule specification again or reset the fields of the advanced rule association in Business 360 Console. Otherwise, the changes to the rule specification aren't effective when the rule is executed.
•Advanced rule associations for date fields with a rule specification that contains the current_timestamp function in Cloud Data Quality return the output in the UTC timezone. To display the date field in other timezones, configure the rule specification with a different timestamp function.
•Enable DTM caching in mappings so that DTM doesn't initialize mappings every time.
•You can't modify the execution order of advanced rule associations. MDM SaaS run the rules parallelly rather than sequentially and doesn't guarantee a specific execution order.
•When you configure advanced rule associations for boolean fields with rule specifications in basic mode in Cloud Data Quality, ensure that the rule logic contains 0 and 1 as the boolean values within single quotes.
•When you add advanced rule associations that can run on input fields with no values, the rule associations run even if all the input fields that you add or update in real time, import through the ingress job, and those that you map and import through the file import job in MDM SaaS business applications are empty.
•If the existing advanced rule associations with transformation function don't run on the input fields with no values, you must enable the rule association even if all the input fields are empty.
•When you run advanced rule associations with validation function on input fields with no values, MDM SaaS displays errors in the transform step of the ingress and file import jobs. If you don't want to run the rule association even if all the input fields are empty, disable the rule associations to run on input fields with no values.
•When you configure advanced rule associations for boolean fields with rule specifications in advanced mode in Cloud Data Quality, ensure that the rule logic contains true and false as boolean values without single quotes.
•After you modify rule specifications in Cloud Data Quality, ensure that you redeploy the existing advanced rule associations that use the updated rule specifications. If you don't redeploy the advanced rule associations in Business 360 Console, they might not work as expected in real time.
• In Cloud Data Quality, when you add a rule specification that contains an expression with the ISNULL function, the advanced rule associations that use the rule specification in Business 360 Console doesn't work as expected.
To validate the input fields that have null values, remove the ISNULL function and use an expression in the following format:
IIF((<Input_Field_name>)="",'INVALID','VALID')
•Advanced rule associations run on the fields even if the field contains only empty space.
•When you overwrite permissions for a rule specification or a folder that contains the rule specification, you can't add rule associations. The existing rule associations that are based on the rule specification might fail.
Ensure that you revert the permissions for the rule specification asset or the folder that contains the rule specification asset.
•If you configure an advanced rule association for a field and run an ingress or file import job to update the other field values, the rule association runs on the field even though you don't modify the field value.
For example, when you configure advanced rule associations for the first name field and run an ingress or file import job to update the middle name field value, the rule associations run on the first name field.
However, if you update the value of the middle name field in real time or through REST APIs, the rule association doesn't run on the first name field.
•When users enter details for a particular section of a record and save the section in a business application, advanced rule associations are run.
•When users enter details for all sections of a record and submit the record in a business application, advanced rule associations are run.
Redeploying advanced rule associations
After you modify rule specifications in Cloud Data Quality, you must redeploy the existing advanced rule associations that use the updated rule specifications. If you don't redeploy the advanced rule associations in Business 360 Console, they might not work as expected in real time.
1 On the business entity page, select a field that's configured with an advanced rule association.
2In the Properties section, click Data Quality > Advanced.
3Click the advanced rule association.
4To redeploy the rule association, perform one of the following tasks:
- On the Input and Output Fields tab, remap input or output fields to a different business entity field, and save the rule association.
- Edit the rule association to revert the input or output fields to the previous mapping, and save the rule association.
- On the Validation tab, update a field value.
- In the Properties section, hover over the rule association and, click Delete.
After you delete the rule association, add the rule association again.