IM Relationship Resolution Information Center, Version 4.2

Web service pipeline searches

Built into IBM® Relationship Resolution pipelines is a dynamic search and query interface, that provides a single-point-of-access for Web services to query the entity database. You use UMF input documents to structure the request, and then send the UMF input document through Web services to the pipelines for processing. Once processed, the pipeline returns a UMF output document that contains the results.

Web services pipeline searches provide answers to two types of questions:

Which entities in the entity database match to a particular attribute or set of attributes? (UMF_SEARCH)
This type of Web services pipeline search takes full advantage of entity resolution to recognize and standardize the incoming search criteria, and then to match the search criteria to entities in the database. It is called a summary or result set query, and it returns a list of entities with data values that match to the requested attribute value or list of attribute values.
To perform a summary or result set query, you create a UMF_SEARCH input document that contains the search criteria that the pipeline uses to perform entity resolution. The pipeline responds by returning a UMF_SEARCH_RESULT output document with the query results, which are the list of entities that matched the search criteria.
What does the entity database know about a specific entity? (UMF_QUERY)
This type of Web services pipeline search uses SQL statements and parameters to query the entity database. It is called a detail or drill-down query, and it returns a detailed list of the information about a single entity.
To perform a detail or drill-down query, you create a UMF_QUERY input document that indicates which entity in the entity database you want information about. The pipeline responds by returning a UMF_QUERY_RESULT output document with the detail about the requested entity.

While performing Web service pipeline searches, the pipelines perform all standard pipeline functions, including logging.

Both the input (request) and the output (response) for Web services pipeline searches use UMF documents and structure the information in UMF.

Web service pipeline search formats

IBM Relationship Resolution comes with several built-in formats for each of the Web services pipeline searches:
UMF_SEARCH formats
WS_SUMMARY_TOP10
Returns a list of the top 10 entities in the database that most closely matched the attribute data specified in the search criteria
WS_SUMMARY_TOP100
Returns a list of the top 100 entities in the database that most closely matched the attribute data specified in the search criteria
WS_SUMMARY
Returns a list of all entities in the database that matched the attribute data specified in the search criteria
UMF_QUERY formats
WS_DETAIL
Returns all data from entity database for the requested entity ID
WS_RELATION
Returns a list of all entities in the entity database that are related to the input entity at 1-degree
WS_ALERT
Returns a list of all alerts in the entity database that involve the input entity ID

You indicate which built-in format to use in the FORMAT_CODE tag in the appropriate UMF input document.

Performance considerations

Web services pipeline search requests that contain more search criteria typically mean the system compares against fewer entities in the database. That, in turn, means that the system returns results quicker than requests with fewer search criteria.



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Last updated: 2009