Multiple versions of Composite Domains - How to represent within the KnowledgeBase Domain

Question

What is the best way to represent, in the Knowledge Base Domain, multiple Phone Types and/or Address Types for each parent entity?

An example follows:

I have a list of Companies with multiple phone numbers and multiple addresses.  A Company may have a "Work" phone number and a "FAX" phone number and a "Pager" phone number as well as a "Primary" or "Physical" address and a "Mailing" address, etc.  I want each of the Phones and Addresses to be related to it's specific Company, so that when I create a new Data Quality Mapping project those individual domains can be elicited in the matching routine.

Do I create separate Composite Domains or do I create individual domains specific to each Phone and Address type?  For example:

Composite Domain
Physical Address - comprised of AddressLine1, AddressLine2, City, State, PostalCode
Mailing Address - comprised of the same simple domains listed above, AddressLine1, AddressLine2, City, State, PostalCode

etc... for the PhoneTypes

or

Specific Simple Domains
PhysicalAddressLine1
PhysicalAddressLine2
PhysicalCity
PhysicalState
PhysicalPostalCode

MailingAddressLine1
MailingAddressLine2
MailingCity
MailingState
MailingPostalCode

etc... for the Phone types.

Answer 1

Well, I would prefer storing it in composite domains as it enables you to validate the relationship between values in single domains that are included in a composite domain using the CD rules.

Additionally, if you are using a reference data service (RDS) in Windows Azure Marketplace to validate the address data, you can just attach your composite domain to the RDS, and then map the individual domains within the composite domain to appropriate schema columns of the RDS. You can read about cleansing a composite domain with address data using a RDS from Windows Azure Marketplace here: Attach Domain/Composite Domain to Reference Data.

Thanks
Vivek
(SQL Server Documentation | Twitter: @vivek_msft)

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Answer 2

Thank you Vivek.  I believe that a simple domain can be used only once within a Composite Domain.  So, If I have 2 Composite Domains named "Physical Address" and "Mailing Address", I could not use the same City simple domain within both of the Composite Domains.  I think I would have to do something like this:

Composite Domain        Simple Domain
Physical Address
          |--------------------> Physical AddressLine 1
          |--------------------> Physical AddressLine 2
          |--------------------> Physical City
          |--------------------> Physical State
          |--------------------> Physical Zip

Mailing Address
          |--------------------> Mailing AddressLine 1
          |--------------------> Mailing AddressLine 2
          |--------------------> Mailing City
          |--------------------> Mailing State
          |--------------------> Mailing Zip

Is this correct?

Answer 3

Yes, the above illlustration of storing composite domains and domains is correct. And, you are right that a single domain can be part of only one composite domain.

Have you tried using linked domains in DQS? For your scenario above, you could create linked domains for City and State (where the values/rules will be same), and then use the linked domain in another composite domain. Fo example, create a domain called Physical City, and then create a linked domain called Mailing City. The advantage of a linked domain is that all the changes done in the Reference Data, Domain Rules, Domain Values, and Term-based Relations tabs of either of the domains gets synchronized to the other domain. This way, you do not have to duplicate your efforts. For detailed information about linked domains, see Create a Linked Domain.

Thanks
Vivek
(SQL Server Documentation | Twitter: @vivek_msft)

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NOTE: Please remember to appropriately vote a post as "helpful" or mark as "answer" to help the community.

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Answer 4

Vivek, I can't thank you enough for your help.