Autocuration and partial matching

This article explains the process of matching inventoried products with the Catalog. When an exact match isn't available, partial matching and autocuration techniques are employed to create valid matches. The order of precedence is:

1. Exact match.

2. Full match.

3. Autocuration.

4. Partial match.

For a reference of terms, refer to Glossary.

Exact match

Exact matches:

• Non edition based products: Source V & T & Version = catalog V & T & Version.

• Edition based products: Source V & T & Version & Edition = catalog V & T & Version & Edition.

Full match

Full and exact matches:

• Full match for non edition based products: Source V & T & Version = catalog match rule l.h.s. V & T & Version

• Exact match for edition based products: Source V & T & Version & Edition = catalog match rule l.h.s. V & T & Version & Edition.

Autocuration

The source must have number of version parts > = matching catalog entry.

When exact and full matches fail, we attempt autocuration. This process involves adding a new version to the catalog for a specific Vendor and Title where one didn't exist before. Before doing this, we need to ensure that the version we are about to create is valid. Once the new versions is added, a match is returned between the source VTVCE and the new catalog VTVCE record.

The following rules must be adhered to before autocurating an entry:

• The source Vendor and Title (VT) can match a catalog VT either directly (exact match) or through a match rule, such as Source Vendor 'Microsoft' and Source Title 'Microsoft Visio'. There must be at least one match rule that connects the source VT to the catalog VT.

• The source version doesn’t contain any letters or special characters (e.g. ‘/’ or ‘-‘).

• If there is already an entry in the catalog with the same version major.minor, the source major.minor must have an equal or greater number of version parts than the catalog version. This ensures that the version we are about to add to the catalog is accurate and not missing any version parts. In other words, if the catalog already has the same major.minor version, the source version must have as many or more parts to ensure accuracy.

• If there is no existing major.minor in the catalog, autocuration can occur, allowing the creation of a new major.minor.

• For edition-based products, the match rule used for autocuration must focus on the edition rather than the version.

Partial match

The source version must match the catalog's major.minor version. If autocuration hasn't occurred, Partial matching is attempted. For Partial matching, the source version should have fewer version parts than the catalog's major.minor. If it has the same or more parts, it would have been autocurated.

For example, if the catalog has version 3.2.1.1 for a specific VT and the source version is 3.2, then Partial matching can occur. In Partial matching, the lowest version for that catalog's major.minor is returned.