Data Generation Rules

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When identities are created or updated, the data added to their fields is governed by data generation rules. Throughout a user's lifecycle, data generation rules run based on pre-defined triggers.

You can set an order for data generation rules so they will be run in order of priority. If multiple rules have the same priority, they are run in non-deterministic order or in parallel.

For additional details, visit Data Generation Patterns Syntax.

Working with Data Generation Rules

Search for or navigate to the Configuration page.
Select the Data Generation tab.
1. Create a new Rule by clicking Create Rule.
2. Or edit a Rule by selecting an existing one and clicking Edit.
Use the field descriptions below to create or edit a Rule.

Fields

To create a Data Generation Rule, select Create and fill out all required fields, plus any additional ones desired. The table below summarizes field details and requirements.

Field	Required	Data Type	Note
Rule Name	Yes	Unique; Text
Description	Yes	Text	If selected, an email will be sent to the specified email address whenever an user is added to this user type.
Field Name	Yes	Selection	The field to which this rule will apply.
Priority	No	Number	An integer value that defines the priority of this rule relative to other rules.
Enabled	No	Boolean	If true, the rule is enabled and will be run based on the trigger.
Conditional Rule	No	Boolean	See Creating Conditional Rules below.
Triggers	No	Selection	The selected option defines what triggers this rule to run. Trigger options: User Creation User Update Field Update Timer<>: Hourly Minute(s) past the hour. Daily Time of day Weekly Day of week Time of day Monthly Day of month Time of day
Rule Type	No	Selection	The type of rule, which can be either script or pattern.
Script	No	Selection	A script that evaluates the user to return the value for the field. If this type is selected, then the following fields are required. Script: The script to run.
Pattern	No		A pattern (or list of patterns) to generate the field's value. If this type is selected, then the following fields are required. Generation Rules: Use template strings in the format `{{givenname}}`, where the template string is any user field name, including custom fields. In addition, it is possible to restrict the length of the replacement value using the format `{{variable:<length>}`}, where as the number of characters you want to use, for example, `{{surname:5}}` will use five characters from the surname. Spaces can be used. For example, to generate an user's full name, the corresponding field can be set to generate data using a format similar to `{{honsuffix}} {{givenname}} {{surname}}`. These special system template strings are also available: `appshortname`: The short name of the application `yyyy`: The current year as four digits (for example, 2012) `yy`: The current year as two digits (for example, 12) `mm`: The current month as two digits `dd`: The current day as two digits `increment`: An incrementing number - if used, must be placed as the last (right-most) string in your rule format. The number of digits can be controlled with the length parameter. For example, `*------` will count up to a maximum of 999. When separated by new lines, more than one format can be configured per Rule, and each format will be tried in turn to find a unique value.
Characters to Exclude	No	Text	A list of characters to exclude from the generated value Only available when the field type is a string
Convert to Lower Case	No	Boolean	If true, the field's value will be transformed to lowercase Only available when the field type is a string
Convert to ASCII/Latin1	No	Boolean	If true, the field value will be converted to ASCII/Latin1 character set Only available when the field type is a string
Transform Existing Values	No	Boolean	If true, the field's existing values will be the generation rules' starting point.

Creating Conditional Rules

Conditional rules enable additional adjustments when specific conditions occur, such as a user leaving a field blank.

To create a conditional rule, select the Conditional Rule checkbox. Two new dropdown options become available: Condition Type and Conditional Field.

Condition Type - Select the criteria that must be met before an action is triggered.
- Field is blank
- Field is NOT blank
- Field equals value
- Policy is True - If selected, choose a Dynamic Collection.
Conditional Field - Select the field to be generated if the condition is met.
- Dynamic Collection will replace this field if the Condition Type is “Policy is True”.

For example, if you create a rule to generate a username, and you select the Condition Type “Field is blank,” and the Conditional Field “UserName,” and the Event Trigger “User Creation,” then later during user creation, if the “UserName” field is blank (empty), the system will create a username with this Data Generation Rule. However, if the user created does have a username, the Data Generation Rule will not be triggered.

Mapping Tables

To narrow a rule to apply to only specified scenarios, you can configure the rule to use a mapping table. To do this, add a lookup to the rule, including the mapping table and the key name.

There are two types of lookups: by value or by reference.

Lookup Type	Function	Syntax	Note
Lookup By Value	Look up a hard-coded table name and key.	`lookup:tableName:key`
Lookup By Reference	Look up a hard-coded table name using a key from the user data.	`lookupRef:tableName:keyField`	`keyField` is the field in the user record to be used as the key.

Both types of lookup can be used in a single pattern data generation rule; they are not exclusive.

Data Generation Pattern Syntax

A pattern is used to generate data dynamically by grabbing data from entity fields, using lookups (mapping tables), or using keywords like “appshortname” or “increment” to increment for unique fields.

Below, we define general syntax for patterns you can use to generate data.

Fields and values are NOT case-sensitive.

For information on creating and managing a data generation rule, see Data Generation Rules.

General Syntax

Be sure to wrap every substitution with double curly brackets “{{}}”; otherwise, the literal value will be used to generate the data.

{{fieldName}} => grabs value from that field name
Literal Value => Literal Value

Keywords

{{appshortname}} => Delinea
{{yyyy}} => 2006 //current date year
{{yy}} => 06 //current date year
{{mm}} => 10 //current date month
{{dd}} => 31 //current date day

Field Substitutions

Only the user object type is supported at this time, so only user fields will work. And only Text, LongText fields can be used to generate data.

{{fieldName}} => value for field name
{fieldName[0]}} => value for field name at index 0 (must be an array of string values)

Lookup Substitutions

Lookups have three main parts. First, they are prefixed with the keyword “lookup.” Then, they are followed by the mapping table name (spaces must be used if the mapping table name has spaces) and, finally, the row key.

The row key can be followed by an index for mapping tables that have rows with more than one value per row.

{{lookup.tableName.rowKey}} => The value for the given mapping table at the given row.
{{lookup.tableName.rowKey[2]}} => The value at index 2 for the given mapping table at the given row.

Lookup Reference Substitutions

Lookup references operate the same as lookups in that they can use mapping tables, but instead of providing an explicit row key value, you can use a field on the entity to grab a row key dynamically. They are also prefixed with lookupref instead of lookup.

{{lookupref.tableName.fieldName}} => The value for the given mapping table at the given row. The Row key is generated from the value in fieldName.
{{lookupref.tableName.fieldName[2]}} => The value at index 2 for the given mapping table at the given row.

Modifiers

This section lists the modifiers that you can add to your syntax to generate values.

Character Length

You can specify the maximum number of characters you want to grab from a field or lookup value.

In the event that the value is less than the provided character length, it will grab the entire value.

{{fieldName:3}} => Retrieves only the first 3 characters.
{{lookup.tableName.rowKey:3}} => Retrieves only the first 3 characters.
{{lookup.tableName.fieldName:3}} => Retrieves only the first 3 characters.

Increment

The number provided with the increment substitution will specify the number of places that will be generated. For example, “1” will start at “1” and increment up to “9”, “2” will start at “01” and increment up to “99”, etc.

This will only increment for fields that have the unique property equal to true.

{{increment:3}} => starts at 001 and goes up to 999