Grammar classes, types, and rules

Fusion includes several built-in grammars classes (icon for grammar classes and types) and types (blue globe icon to represent grammar type) that are comprised of specific built-in grammar rules (grammar rule icon). You can also create custom grammar classes (custom grammar class icon) and grammar rules (custom grammar rule icon) to suit your specific needs, including adding a custom grammar rule to a built-in grammar class. Grammar classes, types, and rules are the basis for grammar sets.

When managing grammars, keep the following in mind.

  • Changes you make to grammar classes and rules affect the grammar sets they are included in.

  • You cannot edit the name or description of built-in grammar classes, types, or rules.

  • You can add a custom grammar rule to a built-in grammar class (top-level).

  • To view additional information about a grammar class, type, or rule, click in the row for the class, type, or rule and then click the open detail panel icon (open detail panel icon).

IMPORTANT: To ensure accuracy, test custom grammar rules against a small sample dataset before applying to full datasets.

Grammar rules

A grammar rule represents a word, phrase, or block of information to be identified and is based on a regular expression pattern. In addition to the built-in grammar rules that are included in the built-in grammar types and classes, you can create custom grammar rules to identify information that might be specific to your environment. Grammar rules can be defined by a specific pattern or by terms.

As an example using a pattern, you identify your customers with a customer ID that follows a specific syntax, or pattern. Over time, your customer ID pattern has changed in length to accommodate for growth. You create a custom grammar class, "Customer IDs", to identify managed items that reference the customer IDs. You then create one or more custom grammar rules within the custom grammar class that define these patterns. You can create multiple custom grammar rules, one for each customer ID pattern you want to identify, or create a single custom grammar rule that includes multiple patterns. Consider the following:

  • If you need to discriminate between the different customer ID patterns, create multiple custom grammar rules, one for each of your customer ID patterns. The grammar rules display separately in the dashboards, and you will need to include all grammar rules and "OR" them in searches to get results for both patterns.

  • If you do not need to discriminate between the different customer ID patterns (you just care about identifying customer IDs, no matter the pattern), create a single custom grammar rule that includes multiple patterns, one for each of your customer ID patterns. All ID patterns display together as a single grammar rule in the dashboards. In searches, you will need to include the single grammar rule.

TIP: Grammar rule patterns are defined using standard regular expressions. Grammars in Fusion are derived from OpenText IDOL. For more information about the regular expression syntax for grammar rules, see Grammar rule syntax.

If you define the grammar rule using terms, you can manually enter the desired terms or load the terms from an existing term list.

When managing grammar rules, keep the following in mind.

  • You cannot edit the name or details of built-in grammar rules.

  • You can add a custom grammar rule to a built-in grammar class.

  • To view additional information about a grammar rule, click in the row for the grammar rule and then click the open detail panel icon (open detail panel icon). Details about the grammar rule display on the GENERAL tab.

  • To configure data masking for grammar rules, see Data masking