Create alias IDs

Alias IDs enable you to associate a property or class in one object store with an equivalent property or class in another object store.

By assigning alias IDs, you enable support for multi-object store searches.

Only user-defined and built-in properties and classes can be aliased. System classes cannot be aliased.

An object in one object store can only be aliased to one object in another object store. The mapping must be one-to-one between object stores. Aliasing creates an association between objects in different object stores which are functionally identical, and there should only be one of those in each object store.

TIP When entering an alias ID, include the curly braces ( { } ). These braces are part of the Primary ID.

Aliasing Properties

To perform a cross object store search and retrieve the same value for equivalent properties in each of the object stores, create an alias between the properties.

NOTE   If you add an alias ID to a property template already assigned to a class, the alias ID is not automatically applied to that class property. You must manually assign the alias ID to the class property.

To assign an alias ID to a property:

  1. In Enterprise Manager, expand the object store containing the property template you are assigning an alias ID to.
  2. Select the Property Templates node.
  3. In the details pane, right-click the property to add an alias ID to.
  4. Select Properties.
  5. On the General tab under Alias IDs, click Assign. Enter the Primary ID (GUID) of the property template you are aliasing in the Assign Alias ID dialog and click OK.
  6. Click OK to apply the new alias ID and close the property sheet.

To assign an alias ID to a property once it is assigned to a class:

  1. Expand the Enterprise Manager tree to display the class you want to work with.
  2. Right-click the class and select Properties from the content menu.
  3. Select the Property Definitions tab.
  4. Select the property to alias and click Edit. If the property is inherited from a super class, select Inherited Properties to display the property.
  5. On the Alias IDs tab under Alias IDs, click Assign. Enter the Primary ID (GUID) of the property template you are aliasing in the Assign Alias ID dialog and click OK.
  6. Click OK to apply the new alias ID and close the property sheet.

Aliasing Classes

When creating a cross object store search in Search Designer that filters by document class, the software expects the document class to exist in all the object stores against which you are searching. When the search executes, the software looks for all the document class filters in all the object stores specified for the search, using aliasing to resolve equivalent classes.

To assign an alias ID to a class:

  1. Expand the Enterprise Manager tree to display the class to assign an alias ID to.
  2. Right-click the class and select Properties from the content menu.
  3. Select the Advanced tab.
  4. Click Assign.
  5. Enter the Primary ID (GUID) of the class you are aliasing in the Assign Alias ID dialog and click OK.
  6. Click OK to apply the new alias ID and close the property sheet.

Example of aliasing properties and filtering by document class

In this example, you have two object stores, OS1 and OS2. Both object stores have a functionally equivalent property called SSN.

Object store OS1 has a class, Data1, and object store OS2 has a class called Data2. The SSN property was added to each class.

To create a search in the Search Designer that retrieves documents from both object stores where the SSN number is the same, filtering by Data1 and Data2:

  1. Create aliases between SSN on Data1 in OS1 and SSN on Data2 in OS2 (to enable searching).
  2. Create aliases between Data1 and Data2 (to enable filtering).
  3. Create a search template which searches in OS1 and OS2 for SSN equal to an input value filtering by Data1.

Documents with the class Data1 in OS1 and Data2 in OS2 where SSN equals the specified value are returned.