Using Unique Node IDs with Structures

For some kinds of rules that you want to create, the node itself (not just the RMId associated with the node) must have a unique ID. You would typically associate this ID with a person's title. This would allow you to write rules that are based on the title (position) rather than the person in the position.

You can also create structures that do not require titles to have unique IDs. This means that a node could be named anything you want it to be and you would not have to be concerned with duplicating titles of nodes. However, if you want to use unique node IDs, you must set them up as unique from the beginning.

Unique Node ID Example

Suppose you have a company with a CEO at the top and two vice presidents (one for Finance and one for Sales). Each VP has direct reports. If you did not need to have unique node IDs, you could name both VP positions as "VP" and you could also repeat the titles of direct reports under each VP.

If you are going to create rules in which node IDs must be unique, you would need to assign unique IDs for each VP ("VP Finance" and "VP Sales"). Direct reports under each VP would also have to unique names for titles ("Accountant 1," "Accountant 2," "Sales Rep 1," "Sales Rep 2" and so on).

If your implementation does not require unique identifiers for titles of positions, you could use duplicate titles for accountants, and sales reps in your structure. For example, all accountant positions could be named "Accountant," and all sales reps could be called "Sales Rep."

If you decide to use unique IDs for nodes, all nodes you add to a structure must have unique IDs. The procedures for creating structures when unique node IDs are used are slightly different from creating structures that don't require unique node IDs. This chapter describes both methods for creating structures.