I2 Analyst's Notebook 7 User Guide - ISS Africa -Investigation ...

Appendix B: The i2 Semantic Approach
Guidelines for Assigning Semantic Types 0.7
General guidelines
This section provides guidelines to consider before assigning semantic types, or
changing any existing semantic type assignments. It covers:
• general semantic type assignments
• guidelines for assigning custom semantic types
• information on sharing custom semantic types
These guidelines are useful irrespective of the product you use to assign the
semantic types.
The following are general guidelines to follow when you are choosing what
semantic type to assign to your data.
• Know your data source
You must be familiar with your data source when assigning semantic types.
The semantic types are assigned to add meaning to the data and allow it to be
aligned for searching and matching. It is important not to distort the real
meaning of the original data source; it will be far easier to assign semantic
types if you know the intended meaning of the original data.
• Look for an appropriate existing semantic type
Before defining your own custom semantic type, always try to find an
appropriate type within your organization’s library of available semantic types.
This library will include both the types available in the i2 Semantic Type Library
as well as any custom semantic types that you have loaded from a custom
semantic type library.
Using an existing semantic type maximizes the likelihood of alignment with
data from other sources. A custom semantic type will only horizontally align if
shared with other data sources. Tips for finding semantic types within the
library are given in your power2 application’s online help. For more information
about sharing custom semantic types, refer to Sharing custom semantic types
on page 364.
i2 Analyst’s Notebook 7 User Guide: Customizing & Analyzing 361