1.1 Glossary

This document uses the following terms:

action: A business rule argument that determines what occurs when the business rule is run at validation time.

business rule: A user-defined process that can proactively manage data within the Master Data Services (MDS) database.

child: A data item in the MDS system that has a superior data item. A child member in MDS can also be a leaf member or a consolidated member.

collection: A user-defined group of data items from the same entity.

condition: A business rule argument that determines when to apply the actions of the business rule. Conditions can be parsed together by using the logical operators AND and OR.

consolidated member: A container member within the MDS system. Consolidated members can be superior to leaf members or to other consolidated members.

Data Quality Services (DQS): A knowledge-driven solution for creating and maintaining a DQKB that is used to perform various data quality operations, such as data cleansing and data matching.

entity: Tabular data that is stored within the Master Data Services (MDS) system.

globally unique identifier (GUID): A term used interchangeably with universally unique identifier (UUID) in Microsoft protocol technical documents (TDs). Interchanging the usage of these terms does not imply or require a specific algorithm or mechanism to generate the value. Specifically, the use of this term does not imply or require that the algorithms described in [RFC4122] or [C706] must be used for generating the GUID. See also universally unique identifier (UUID).

hierarchy: An arrangement of data items within the Master Data Services (MDS) system in a ranked or graduated series.

leaf member: A standard member of any entity within the Master Data Services (MDS) system.

master data: Non-transactional data sets that provide context to the organization. Master data are the nouns of the business.

MDS unique identifier (MUID): A GUID that uniquely identifies a Master Data Services (MDS) object.

member: A single master data record that is stored in the Master Data Services (MDS) system.

model: The highest level of data organization in Master Data Services. A model contains objects and entities.

parent: A data item within the MDS system that can contain child members.

publish: An operation that makes business rules available for use within the Master Data Services (MDS) system.

SOAP: A lightweight protocol for exchanging structured information in a decentralized, distributed environment. SOAP uses XML technologies to define an extensible messaging framework, which provides a message construct that can be exchanged over a variety of underlying protocols. The framework has been designed to be independent of any particular programming model and other implementation-specific semantics. SOAP 1.2 supersedes SOAP 1.1. See [SOAP1.2-1/2003].

version: A snapshot of data members within a model that may correspond to a specific period of time.

Web Services Description Language (WSDL): An XML format for describing network services as a set of endpoints that operate on messages that contain either document-oriented or procedure-oriented information. The operations and messages are described abstractly and are bound to a concrete network protocol and message format in order to define an endpoint. Related concrete endpoints are combined into abstract endpoints, which describe a network service. WSDL is extensible, which allows the description of endpoints and their messages regardless of the message formats or network protocols that are used.

WSDL message: An abstract, typed definition of the data that is communicated during a WSDL operation [WSDL]. Also, an element that describes the data being exchanged between web service providers and clients.

WSDL port type: A named set of logically-related, abstract Web Services Description Language (WSDL) operations and messages.

XML namespace: A collection of names that is used to identify elements, types, and attributes in XML documents identified in a URI reference [RFC3986]. A combination of XML namespace and local name allows XML documents to use elements, types, and attributes that have the same names but come from different sources. For more information, see [XMLNS-2ED].

XML schema: A description of a type of XML document that is typically expressed in terms of constraints on the structure and content of documents of that type, in addition to the basic syntax constraints that are imposed by XML itself. An XML schema provides a view of a document type at a relatively high level of abstraction.

MAY, SHOULD, MUST, SHOULD NOT, MUST NOT: These terms (in all caps) are used as defined in [RFC2119]. All statements of optional behavior use either MAY, SHOULD, or SHOULD NOT.