Using the Synonym Service

Using the Synonym Service

Starting with version 3.5.3 of OpenEMPI, there is now a Synonym Service that you can make use of to improve the match rates of your instance. The Synonym Service can be used to specify lists of values for a particular field in your data model that have values that should be considered to be equivalent during the evaluation of field similarity between two records. For example, you can specify that the values "Robert" and "Bob" should be considered synonyms when present in the first name field of two records. Two records, one of which has the value of "Robert" and the other one the value "Bob" will be considered to be in agreement in their first name field.

To make use of the Synonym Service, all you need to do is load lists of synonyms on your instance for the specific entity and field that you would like them to be applied to. You can manage the lists of synonyms using either a command line utility or the web service for the Synonym Resource.