Using Rules to Teach Applications

Overview

Rules are used to teach applications in order to improve application recognition.

Search for	Example	Results
A single word	`cat`	Topics that contain the word "cat". You will also find its grammatical variations, such as "cats".
A phrase. You can specify that the search results contain a specific phrase.	`"cat food"` (quotation marks)	Topics that contain the literal phrase "cat food" and all its grammatical variations. Without the quotation marks, the query is equivalent to specifying an OR operator, which finds topics with one of the individual words instead of the phrase.

Search for	Operator	Example
Two or more words in the same topic	`AND` `and` `+` (plus symbol) `&` (ampersand)	`cat AND dog` `"cat food"+milk` `"cat food"&"dog food"`
Either word in a topic	`OR` `or` `\|` (pipe)	`cat OR dog` `cat \| dog`
Topics that do not contain a specific word or phrase	`NOT` `not` `!` (exclamation point)	`NOT cat` `! dog`
Topics that contain one string and do not contain another	`^` (caret)	`cat ^ mouse`
A combination of search types	`( )` parentheses	`cat + (dog \| mouse)` `cat \| dog + (! mouse)`

After a discovery job, the XML Enricher attempts to match data that is contained in a scan file to rules. Rules are contained in SAI files and are created by Micro Focus and by users.

Universal Discovery offers two main ways to teach applications:

Application Rules. Choose the Package Rules or Version Data Rules option.

File Rules. Specify files to use to recognize applications.

Ensure that the application or the release or version of the application is not already taught by Micro Focus. All rules taught by Micro Focus are contained in the Master SAI files in the Software Library. To see if your app or version is contained in the SAI library, see the release notes for the latest Content Pack.

Tip

As an alternative to teaching applications yourself, you can contact Micro Focus Support and submit a request for Micro Focus to add rules for your application to the next release of the Content Pack. For more information, contact Micro Focus Support.
For the fastest and most convenient method, especially when teaching applications that are packaged in a standard format, choose Application Rules > Package Rules option.

For both ways, you identify files that Universal Discovery uses to recognize applications or release or versions of applications. While each are similar, there are differences in the number of supported platforms, and the effort levels required to configure the rules.

The SAI Editor and Viewer is used when configuring rules for both methods. To install these tools, see Inventory Tools.

Note Micro Focus provides some package rules and version data rules out-of-box, and actively maintains them in the Content Pack updates.

In general terms for each way, teach an application as follows:

Install the application

Run the scanner (additional configuration options required for Package Rules) and analyze the scan file using Inventory Tools

Configure the rule by entering the package name (Package Rule) or by specifying individual files (File Rule)

Teach different releases and versions for the same application by typing a regular expression (Package Rule), or by specifying additional individual files for that release or version (File Rule)

(Optional) Use Viewer to view the rule to ensure the rule information was saved.

File

(Most platforms/Operating Systems)

To use this method effectively, you must be knowledgeable about the file contents of each package that you want to teach.

If there are many versions of an application, you must install each version of the application. Additionally, you must identify files that help UD recognize each version of the application. Alternatively, consider using the Package Rules method.

You teach individual files for different releases and versions of the same application. Then, you assign categories to each of those files that helps Universal Discovery identify the relationship of the file to the application.

Rules Matrix

The following table summarizes basic attributes of the ways to teach applications: