Understanding converters

Converters carry out the conversion of data from InfoSphere® MDM formats, such as business objects, to InfoSphere MDM Probabilistic Matching Engine Record formats.

For InfoSphere MDM to interact with the InfoSphere MDM Probabilistic Matching Engine, the data in its business objects must be converted to the Record object format before the InfoSphere MDM Probabilistic Matching Engine can be invoked. These converters and their code are provided in the InfoSphere MDM default external rules directory.

You can use the converters as they are provided or you can customize them. The following Java™ class diagram illustrates the existing converters and their relationships within InfoSphere MDM:

Converter Java class diagram

The class factories of the PME converters are registered as OSGi services in runtime. The blueprint of such OSGi services contain the actual converter Java classes. For details, see the blueprints of the Probabilistic Matching Engine converters.

These converters are delivered in the default external rules directory and already convert a predefined subset of the InfoSphere MDM business objects and their attributes. The mapping for these conversions is described in the section Mapping InfoSphere MDM business objects to the InfoSphere MDM Probabilistic Matching Engine data model.

If you want to add additional fields for matching, then you must customize the default converters. You must also add those fields to the Critical Data Elements table (CRITICALDATALEMENT) to ensure that changes made to those fields will trigger suspect reidentification. For more information, see Identifying data changes.

To make the converters even more flexible, different InfoSphere MDM usage types (such as Name Usage Types, Address usage Types, and Party Identification Types), have formal mappings to the equivalent InfoSphere MDM Probabilistic Matching Engine Record Attribute types. These mappings enable you to change the InfoSphere MDM Probabilistic Matching Engine Record Attribute that is mapped to a specific business object with a specific usage type. For example, the InfoSphere MDM Probabilistic Matching Engine Name Usage Type corresponding to a person's legal name is 1. This normally maps to a InfoSphere MDM Probabilistic Matching Engine Record Attribute called PERLEGALNAME, which is the flavor of the Address Attribute corresponding to a person's legal name. Normally, you would never need to change this setting, but if you do, (for example, you may require that addresses of this type in InfoSphere MDM be mapped to an Attribute called USLEGALNAME), you can change it with the properties mapping in the TCRM_extension.properties file. This way, you can avoid having to change the coding of the converter. For example:

########################################################
# Probabilistic Matching Engine attribute codes corresponding to various codetypes of the business objects in MDM.
#
# Left Hand Side of the assignment Operator.
#   RootObject(i.e.,Person or Organization)
#     ChildObject(i.e., PersonName,PartyContactMethod,PartyAddress etc)
#       ElementName of the codeType which is mapped to eME(i.e., NameUsageType,AddressUsageType etc)
#		   Value of the codeType to which mapping has to be done.
# Right Hand Side of the assignment operator.
#	Attribute code for the Probabilistic Matching Engine.
########################################################	 
Person.PersonName.NameUsageType.1=PERLEGALNAME
Person.PersonName.NameUsageType.2=PERBUSNAME
Person.PersonName.NameUsageType.3=PERNICKNAME
Person.PersonName.NameUsageType.4=PERAKANAME
Person.PersonName.NameUsageType.5=PERMAIDENNAM
Person.PersonName.NameUsageType.6=PERALIASNAME
Person.PersonName.NameUsageType.7=PERPREFNAME
Person.PersonName.NameUsageType.8=PERPREVNAME

Person.PartyAddress.AddressUsageType.1=PERPRIMERRES
Person.PartyAddress.AddressUsageType.2=PEROTHERRES
Person.PartyAddress.AddressUsageType.3=PERBUSADDR
Person.PartyAddress.AddressUsageType.4=PERMAILADDR
Person.PartyAddress.AddressUsageType.5=PERSUMMERRES
Person.PartyAddress.AddressUsageType.6=PERTEMPADDR
Person.PartyAddress.AddressUsageType.7=PERSECONDRES

Person.PartyIdentification.IdentificationType.1=PERSSN
Person.PartyIdentification.IdentificationType.10=PERSIN

Person.PartyContactMethod.ContactMethodUsageType.1=PERHOMEPHONE
Person.PartyContactMethod.ContactMethodUsageType.5=PERCELLULAR
Person.PartyContactMethod.ContactMethodUsageType.8=PERMOBILE

Organization.OrganizationName.NameUsageType.1=ORGLEGALNAME
Organization.OrganizationName.NameUsageType.2=ORGBUSNAME
Organization.OrganizationName.NameUsageType.3=ORGABBRNAME

Organization.PartyAddress.AddressUsageType.3=ORGBUSADDR
Organization.PartyAddress.AddressUsageType.4=ORGMAILADDR

Organization.PartyIdentification.IdentificationType.2=ORGCORPTAXID
Organization.PartyIdentification.IdentificationType.12=ORGDUNSNUM

Organization.PartyContactMethod.ContactMethodUsageType.2=ORGBUSPHONE