Enforcement Structure

The online definition and maintenance system and batch utilities are used to define and maintain enforcement values. Batch operations provide easy specification of word or acronym sets and word delimitation values. By using the online system, you can establish enforcement structures.

Structures are organized by dictionary and node, entity types, and entity type templates for enforcement. A template consists of a collection of fields where each field can be associated with a fixed literal, multiple values, a system-owned table of values, or a field can indirectly reference another template already defined. The template example below demonstrates the use of a field designator with compressible characters (p++++++++), a literal value (AREA-), a fixed field designator (aaaaaaaaa), and wildcards (***************).

p++++++++AREA-aaaaaaaaaa**************** ────+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4

Field designators are a unique set of lower-case characters or a single character. Compressible characters are represented by a plus sign (+) and indicate that portion of a field which is variable. Literals represent the actual data required during active enforcement and wildcards allow for entry of any values at runtime. Field delimitations can be dashes (-), underscores (_), spaces ( ), or all three. Delimitations established at product installation can be altered at any time. Refer to Modify CA IDMS Enforcer Tuning Parameters.

Entity types, templates, and field values can be selectively included or excluded from active enforcement. Once a structure is established using online definition and maintenance utilities, a table containing enforcement values can be generated. Enforcement can be activated for current or future dates and can be active online and in batch or it can be used to audit your dictionary for existing entity-name occurrences. For more details, see Active Enforcement and "Passive Enforcement".