Node Categories and Backend Mapping

Node Categories and Backend Mapping

This article provides an advanced reference for the complete set of cleansing nodes available in MatchLogic, organized by category, along with their mapping to the backend CleaningRuleType enum values. This information is useful for administrators, developers, and advanced users who need to understand how the visual flow builder translates to the underlying API operations.

The node library sidebar fully expanded showing all three categories — Standardization, Cleansing, and Smart Operations — with all available nodes listed under each

Category 1: Standardization

Standardization nodes normalize data to a consistent format. This category contains 7 nodes:

Node Backend Rule Type Enum Value Description
Uppercase UpperCase 4 Converts all characters to uppercase
Lowercase LowerCase 5 Converts all characters to lowercase
Title Case ReverseCase 6 Capitalizes the first letter of every word
Proper Case ProperCase 7 Smart capitalization with name-aware rules
Reverse Case ReverseCase 6 Swaps uppercase and lowercase characters
Copy Field — — Duplicates a column (handled separately)
Replace Replace 1 Finds and replaces text in a field

Category 2: Cleansing

Cleansing nodes remove unwanted content from field values. This category contains 8 nodes:

Node Backend Rule Type Enum Value Description
Trim Trim 3 Removes leading and trailing whitespace
Remove Whitespace RemoveWhiteSpace 10 Removes all spaces
Remove Extra Whitespace RemoveExtraWhiteSpace 11 Collapses multiple spaces to one
Remove Numbers RemoveNumbers 9 Strips all digit characters
Remove Letters RemoveLetters 21 Strips all alphabetic characters
Remove Special Characters RemoveSpecialCharacters 8 Strips punctuation and symbols
Remove Non-Alphanumeric RemoveNonAlphaNumeric 14 Keeps only letters and digits
Remove Non-Printable RemoveNonPrintable 18 Strips invisible control characters

Category 3: Smart Operations / Mapping

Smart Operations nodes perform advanced, multi-step transformations. This category contains 3 nodes:

Node Backend Mechanism Description
Address Parser Dedicated parsing logic Splits full address into structured components
WordSmith Dictionary-based lookup Maps variations to canonical values via dictionaries
Regex Pattern Custom regex engine Extracts or transforms data using regular expressions

Smart Operations nodes use specialized backend handlers rather than the simple CleaningRuleType enum, since they require more complex configuration and processing.

How the Flow Builder Communicates with the Backend

When you save and apply a cleansing workflow, the flow builder translates the visual graph into a structured payload:

  1. Each node is serialized with its type (mapped to the CleaningRuleType enum or a dedicated handler), configuration parameters, and position.
  2. Connections between nodes define the execution order.
  3. The payload is sent to the POST /api/DataCleansing/ApplyRules endpoint.
  4. The backend processes the rules sequentially, applying each transformation in the connected order.
  5. The workflow graph (nodes, edges, and positions) is separately persisted via the POST /api/datacleansing/transformationgraph endpoint for later retrieval.

A diagram showing the flow from the visual flow builder nodes through serialization to the backend API endpoints ApplyRules and TransformationGraph

Additional Backend Rule Types

The backend CleaningRuleType enum includes additional values that may appear in saved workflows or API responses:

  • Remove (2) — Generic pattern removal
  • RemoveLeadingWhiteSpace (12) — Leading whitespace only
  • RemoveTrailingWhiteSpace (13) — Trailing whitespace only
  • RemoveNonAlpha (15) — Keeps only letters
  • RemoveNonNumeric (16) — Keeps only digits
  • RemoveNonWhiteSpace (17) — Keeps only whitespace
  • ReplaceZerosWithOs (19) — Converts digit 0 to letter O
  • ReplaceOsWithZeros (20) — Converts letter O to digit 0
  • ReplacementForNonPrintableCharacters (22) — Substitution for non-printable characters
  • ReplacementForEmptyValues (23) — Substitution for empty/null values

Tip

Understanding the backend mapping is helpful when troubleshooting workflows via the API or when building integrations that programmatically create cleansing rules without the visual flow builder.