Exchange OData Connector 25.4
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# Customize Field Standardization

Field standardization modifies documents so that they have a consistent structure and consistent field names. You can use field standardization so that documents indexed by different connectors use the same fields to store the same type of information. Field standardization only modifies fields that are specified in a dictionary, which is defined in XML format. A standard dictionary, named `dictionary.xml`, is supplied in the installation folder of every connector.

In most cases you should not need to modify the standard dictionary, but you can modify it to suit your requirements or create dictionaries for different purposes. By modifying the dictionary, you can configure the connector to apply rules that modify documents before they are ingested. For example, you can move fields, delete fields, or change the format of field values.

The following examples demonstrate how to perform some operations with field standardization.

The following rule renames the field `Author` to `DOCUMENT_METADATA_AUTHOR_STRING`. This rule applies to all components that run field standardization and applies to all documents.

    <FieldStandardization>
        <Field name="Author">
            <Move name="DOCUMENT_METADATA_AUTHOR_STRING"/>
        </Field>
    </FieldStandardization>

The following rule demonstrates how to use the `Delete` operation. This rule instructs CFS to remove the field `KeyviewVersion` from all documents (the `Product` element with the attribute `key="ConnectorFrameWork"` ensures that this rule is run only by CFS).

    <FieldStandardization>
        <Product key="ConnectorFrameWork">
            <Field name="KeyviewVersion">
                <Delete/>
            </Field>
        </Product>
    </FieldStandardization>

There are several ways to select fields to process using the `Field` element.

Field element attribute | Description | Example
--- | --- | ---
`name` | Select a field where the field name matches a fixed value. | Select the field `MyField`:
    <Field name="MyField">
       ...
    </Field>
Select the field `Subfield`, which is a subfield of `MyField`:
    <Field name="MyField">
       <Field name="Subfield">
          ...
       </Field>
    </Field>
`path` | Select a field where its path matches a fixed value. | Select the field `Subfield`, which is a subfield of `MyField`.
    <Field path="MyField/Subfield">
       ...
    </Field>
`nameRegex` | Select all fields at the current depth where the field name matches a regular expression. | In this case the field name must begin with the word `File`:
    <Field nameRegex="File.*">
       ...
    </Field>
`pathRegex` | Select all fields where the path of the field matches a regular expression. This operation can be inefficient because every metadata field must be checked. If possible, select the fields to process another way. | This example selects all subfields of `MyField`.
    <Field pathRegex="MyField/[^/]*">
       ...
    </Field>
This approach would be more efficient:
    <Field name="MyField">
       <Field nameRegex=".*">
          ...
       </Field>
    </Field>

You can also limit the fields that are processed based on their value, by using one of the following:

Field element attribute | Description | Example
--- | --- | ---
`matches` | Process a field if its value matches a fixed value. | Process a field named `MyField`, if its value matches `abc`.
    <Field name="MyField" matches="abc">
       ...
    </Field>
`matchesRegex` | Process a field if its entire value matches a regular expression. | Process a field named `MyField`, if its value matches one or more digits.
    <Field name="MyField" matchesRegex="\d+">
       ...
    </Field>
`containsRegex` | Process a field if its value contains a match to a regular expression. | Process a field named `MyField` if its value contains three consecutive digits.
    <Field name="MyField" containsRegex="\d{3}">
       ...
    </Field>

The following rule deletes every field or subfield where the name of the field or subfield begins with `temp`.

    <FieldStandardization>
        <Field pathRegex="(.*/)?temp[^/]*">
            <Delete/>
        </Field>
    </FieldStandardization>

The following rule instructs CFS to rename the field `Author` to `DOCUMENT_METADATA_AUTHOR_STRING`, but only when the document contains a field named `DocumentType` with the value `230` (the File Content Extraction format code for a PDF file).

    <FieldStandardization>
        <Product key="ConnectorFrameWork">
            <IfField name="DocumentType" matches="230"> <!-- PDF -->
                <Field name="Author">
                    <Move name="DOCUMENT_METADATA_AUTHOR_STRING"/>
                </Field>
            </IfField>
        </Product>
    </FieldStandardization>

TIP: In this example, the `IfField` element is used to check the value of the `DocumentType` field. The `IfField` element does not change the current position in the document. If you used the `Field` element, field standardization would attempt to find an `Author` field that is a subfield of `DocumentType`, instead of finding the `Author` field at the root of the document.

The following rules demonstrate how to use the `ValueFormat` operation to change the format of dates. The first rule transforms the value of a field named `CreatedDate`. The second rule transforms the value of an attribute named `Created`, on a field named `Date`.

    <FieldStandardization>
        <Field name="CreatedDate">
            <ValueFormat type="autndate" format="YYYY-SHORTMONTH-DD HH:NN:SS"/>
        </Field>
        <Field name="Date">
            <Attribute name="Created">
                <ValueFormat type="autndate" format="YYYY-SHORTMONTH-DD HH:NN:SS"/>
            </Attribute>
        </Field>
    </FieldStandardization>

The `ValueFormat` element has the following attributes:

`type` | To convert the date into the AUTNDATE format, specify `autndate`. To convert the date into a custom format, specify `customdate` and then set the attribute `targetformat`.
`format` | The format to convert the date from. Specify the format using standard Knowledge Discovery date formats.
`targetformat` | The format to convert the date into, when you set the `type` attribute to `customdate`. Specify the format using standard Knowledge Discovery date formats.

As demonstrated by the previous example, you can select field attributes to process in a similar way to selecting fields.

You must select attributes using either a fixed name or a regular expression:

Select a field attribute by name | `<Attribute name="MyAttribute">`
Select attributes that match a regular expression | `<Attribute nameRegex=".*">`

You can then add a restriction to limit the attributes that are processed:

Process an attribute only if its value matches a fixed value |
    <Attribute name="MyAttribute" matches="abc">
Process an attribute only if its value matches a regular expression |
    <Attribute name="MyAttribute" matchesRegex=".*">
Process an attribute only if its value contains a match to a regular expression |
    <Attribute name="MyAttribute" containsRegex="\w+">

The following rule moves all of the attributes of a field to sub fields, if the parent field has no value. The `id` attribute on the first `Field` element provides a name to a matching field so that it can be referred to by later operations. The `GetName` and `GetValue` operations save the name and value of a selected field or attribute (in this case an attribute) into variables (in this case `$'name'` and `$'value'`) which can be used by later operations. The `AddField` operation uses the variables to add a new field at the selected location (the field identified by `id="parent"`).

    <FieldStandardization>
        <Field pathRegex=".*" matches="" id="parent">
            <Attribute nameRegex=".*">
                <GetName var="name"/>
                <GetValue var="value"/>
                <Field fieldId="parent">
                    <AddField name="$'name'" value="$'value'"/>
                </Field>
                <Delete/>
            </Attribute>
        </Field>
    </FieldStandardization>

The following rule demonstrates how to move all of the subfields of `UnwantedParentField` to the root of the document, and then delete the field `UnwantedParentField`.

    <FieldStandardization id="root">
        <Product key="MyConnector">
            <Field name="UnwantedParentField">
                <Field nameRegex=".*">
                    <Move destId="root"/>
                </Field>
                <Delete/>
            </Field>
        </Product>
    </FieldStandardization>

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Version 25.4 | Last updated October 2025

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Product: Knowledge Discovery Exchange OData Connector 25.4

Topic Title: Customize Field Standardization