Define Rule
User Guide — Set Up Your Quality Checks and Score Your Data
| Last updated: September 2026
Contents
- Overview
- Finding Your Way Around
- Choosing What to Work On
- Setting Up Quality Checks
- Duplicate Check
- Adding a Complex Rule
- Creating the DQ Score
- Quick Reference
1. Overview
Define Rule is the workbench where you decide how your data should be checked, and then score it. You pick a piece of data, switch on the checks it should pass, and run a job that measures your data against those checks. The results are what appear on the Dashboard and the Scorecard.
Think of it as the "set it up and run it" screen for data quality: everywhere else in the Quality module you view or manage results — here is where those results are actually produced.
What you can do here
- Choose a data element to work on, by drilling from object to catalog to element.
- Switch on and configure the built-in quality checks for that element.
- Turn on a duplicate check for a catalog.
- Add a complex rule for checks the built-in ones don't cover.
- Run the scoring job that produces your data quality scores.
WHERE TO FIND IT — Open Quality → Define Rule.
2. Finding Your Way Around
The screen is built around three working areas, arranged left to right, with a row of action buttons at the top-right:
- Enterprise Objects (far left) — the list of objects you can work on.
- Catalog & Critical Data Elements (second panel) — the catalog (table) you've chosen and the data elements inside it.
- Quality Checks (main panel) — where you switch on and set up the checks for the element you've selected.
The action buttons at the top-right are:
- Duplicate Check — a tick box that turns duplicate checking on or off for the chosen catalog.
- Complex Rule — opens a dialog to add a custom rule.
- Create DQ Score — runs the job that scores your data. A status label next to it shows how a running job is progressing.
The next sections walk through these in the order you'd normally use them.
3. Choosing What to Work On
Before you can set up checks, you tell the screen which data you mean. You do this by drilling down through the two left panels:
- Pick an object under Enterprise Objects. You can narrow the list by its domain layer.
- Pick a Catalog — the dataset (table) you want to check — in the second panel.
- Pick a Critical Data Element — the specific column within that catalog. If the catalog has none, the panel says so.
Once you've selected an element, the Quality Checks panel on the right fills in with the checks available for it.
WORK ONE ELEMENT AT A TIME — The Quality Checks panel always reflects the element you've selected on the left. Switch elements to set up checks for each one.
4. Setting Up Quality Checks
The Quality Checks panel lists the checks you can apply to the selected data element. Each check has a tick box — switch it on to apply it, and its configuration appears below.
For each check you turn on, you can:
- Fill in what it needs. Depending on the check, this may mean choosing a column (or two), or entering values — for example a range's lower and upper limits.
- Assign a dimension. Each check is tagged with a quality dimension (Completeness, Validity, Accuracy, and so on) so its result rolls up correctly on the Scorecard.
- Add more than one. Use the add icon to apply the same kind of check more than once (for example two different ranges), and the remove icon to take one away.
When you've set things up, use Save (at the top of the panel) to keep your changes.
ONLY THE CHECKS THAT FIT ARE SHOWN — The list is filtered to the checks that make sense for that element's data type, so you won't see, say, a number-range check on a text field. The available checks come from the Check Type configuration.
THE APP WILL FLAG GAPS — If a check is switched on but missing something it needs — a column not chosen, both fields not filled in, or a lower limit set higher than the upper — you'll be told what to fix before it saves.
5. Duplicate Check
A duplicate check looks for repeated records where each one should be unique. Because it applies to the whole catalog rather than a single element, it has its own control: the Duplicate Check tick box at the top-right.
Choose a catalog, then tick Duplicate Check to turn it on (or untick it to turn it off). The box is only available once a catalog is selected.
UNIQUENESS, IN ONE CLICK — This is the quick way to add a uniqueness check to a catalog without building a rule by hand.
6. Adding a Complex Rule
Some checks are too specific for the built-in options. For those, use the Complex Rule button to open the Create Rule dialog — the same one used in Manage Rule — already filled in for the element and catalog you've selected.
Give the rule a name and description, set its type, priority, dimension and status, then save. It's added to your rules just like any other, and you can open it later to build its exact condition. See Manage Rule for the full details of that dialog and the condition builder.
WHEN THE TICK BOXES AREN'T ENOUGH — Reach for a complex rule when your requirement needs custom logic that the standard checks can't express.
7. Creating the DQ Score
Setting up checks describes what to measure. To actually measure your data and produce scores, run the scoring job.
Select Create DQ Score. This opens the Data Quality Job Initialization dialog, which shows the job's settings (its parameters). Review them and choose Initiate to start the job.
While the job runs, a status label appears next to the button so you can see its progress. When it finishes, your new scores are available on the Scorecard and summarised on the Dashboard, under the reporting date the job produced.
THIS IS WHAT FILLS THE DASHBOARD AND SCORECARD — Those screens show the results of the last DQ Score job. If your latest changes aren't reflected there yet, running this job is usually what's needed.
ONE RUN AT A TIME — If a scoring job is already scheduled or in progress, the button waits until it's finished (or has stopped) before you can start another.
8. Quick Reference
A fast lookup for the most common actions.
| I want to… | Do this |
|---|---|
| Open the workbench | Quality → Define Rule |
| Choose what to check | Pick an object → a Catalog → a Critical Data Element on the left |
| Turn on a check | Tick it in the Quality Checks panel, fill in what it needs, assign a dimension |
| Apply the same check twice | Use the add icon on that check; remove to delete one |
| Keep my changes | Select Save at the top of the Quality Checks panel |
| Check for duplicate records | Select a catalog, then tick Duplicate Check |
| Add a custom rule | Select Complex Rule and complete the dialog |
| Produce the scores | Select Create DQ Score → Initiate, and watch the status label |
| See the results | Open the Scorecard, or the Dashboard for the summary |
Source: OnCoor Quality module product documentation, written for end users. For the latest screens and options, always refer to the in-app interface.