Understanding the Data Dictionary

Business rules contain a series of condition and action statements.

A statement contains some, or all of the following fields: Command, Value 1, Operator and Value 2.

For example:

Command Value 1 Operator Value 2
IF Function Code = Sales Order Entry
IF Transaction Date > Due Date
SET Description   Address Line 1

The contents of the Value 1 and Value 2 fields can be selected from lists provided by the data dictionary.

Value 2 can also be entered manually as a literal value. For example, IF Account Code = 64000.

The data dictionary groups all of the possible field values into logical groups, for example by record type and system function. It lists the options that are available to you on a series of selection dialogs. These enable you to step down through the various levels in the dictionary hierarchy to find the item you require.

The selection lists are dynamic and reflect the statements and choices you have already made in the Event Profile or Rule Set. For example, if the Event Profile references the Ledger Entry function, then you are only able to define rules that reference data items that exist on a ledger entry transaction or related static data items. In addition, because a ledger entry transaction contains a very large amount of data, the data items are divided into logical selection groups, for example for journal header, journal line and journal control data items.