Data Type

The master index data type of the field. The following data types are supported:

• string - Contains a string of characters.

• date - Contains a date value.

• float - Contains a floating point integer.

• int - Contains an integer.

• char - Contains a single character.

• boolean - Contains either true or false.

Match Type

The type of matching to be performed against the field, if the field is to be used for match weight generation. You must define at least one field for matching or no weights will be generated.

The match types you specify here define the structure of mefa.xml, including the match string. The match types in mefa.xml might differ from the wizard match types. See Understanding Sun Master Index Configuration Options for information about the available options for this field and how the wizard match types correlate to mefa.xml types.

Blocking

An indicator of whether the field will be used in the blocking query. Specify true to add the field to the blocking query; specify false to omit it from the blocking query.

Key Type

An indicator of whether the field is used to identify unique objects. For example, a business index might store several addresses for each business. Each address is assigned an address type and each business can only have one address of each type. Specify true if the field is a unique record identifier, or false if it is not.

Key type fields should also be required fields (see below), unless a combination of fields are specified as key types for an object.

Note - It is recommended that each child object contain a key type field, but this is not required. If child objects do not contain one or more key type fields, each enterprise object might accumulate a very large number of child objects depending on the survivor strategy used.

Updateable

An indicator of whether the field can be updated from the MIDM and external system messages. Specify true if the field can be updated or false if it cannot.

Required

An indicator of whether the field is required in order to save an enterprise object to the database. Specify true if the field is required or false if it is not. If only one key type field is defined for an object, that field should be required.

Size

The number of characters allowed in each field. This determines the number of characters allowed in the database columns and defines the maximum number of characters that can be entered into each field on the MIDM.

Pattern

The required data pattern for the field. For more information about possible values and using Java patterns, see “Patterns” in the class list for java.util.regex in the Javadocs provided with Java. You might want to define patterns for date, telephone, or SSN fields. Note that for the MIDM, the pattern is further restricted by the value entered for the input mask described in the previous table. If no input mask is specified, all regex patterns are supported.

Code Module

The identification code for the drop-down list that appears for this field in the MIDM.

Note - This value must match an entry in the code column of the sbyn_common_header database table and, by default, an entry for the code you enter is created in the Code List database script. You can further customize code lists in the script after completing the wizard.

User Code

The processing code for the drop-down list that appears for the fields defined by the Constrained By property. For more information, see the description of the Constrained By property below.

Note - This must match an entry in the code_list column of the sbyn_user_code database table.

Constrained By

The name of the field that contains the corresponding User Code value (described above). The User Code and Constrained By properties are used in conjunction to fulfill two purposes. The first purpose is to define a drop-down list for the field that contains the User Code value. The second purpose is to validate the field that contains the Constrained By value against definitions for the field with the User Code value.

For example, if you store non-unique IDs such as credit card numbers or insurance policy numbers, you could create a field named ID Type that has a User Code value of CREDCARD, which is also defined as a code in the sbyn_user_code table. This gives the ID Type field a drop-down list based on the definitions for CREDCARD in the sbyn_user_code table. You could then create a field named ID that would be constrained by the formats defined for the ID Type field. Any IDs you enter would be validated against the value of the ID Type field.