Using Preview

You can use Preview to test how rules will process a single object in the connector space. All rules that were attempted or applied during the synchronization process will be displayed. By selecting an available rule, such as join and project or flow to metaverse, Preview displays the results of that rule. This allows you to catch any errors in your rules before objects are committed to the metaverse, or exported to the connector space. Run Preview from an object's property page in Search Connector Space. You can use Preview to do the following:

• Apply rules to an object that has been staged to the connector space.

• Apply rules to an object that failed to join, and then view the error.

• Apply rules to an object that has an import delta.

• Apply rules to an object that failed due to provisioning errors or schema violations.

• Reapply rules to objects that are already synchronized.

• Choose whether or not to commit the preview results to the metaverse.

• Test a new rules extension.

Note

When previewing an object with a reference attribute, the referenced object must be in the metaverse to be in the scope of a Preview operation. For example, you have staged two new objects to the connector space, object_A and object_B, where object_A references object_B. When you Preview object_A, the referenced attribute will have a value of Reference Unavailable. If you were to join or project object_B to the metaverse, and then Preview object_A, the referenced attribute will be available.

After generating a preview, each available rule displays a different page of information. The following sections list the available rules and the columns that are displayed.

Connector Filter

Preview displays all of the connector filters that are attempted for the object being synchronized. If a filter is satisfied before all configured filters have been evaluated, only those attempted appear in Preview.

Name	Description
Filter	Shows the number of the filter being evaluated. This matches the order of the filters defined in the management agent property page.
Status (Filter)	Displays the result of the evaluation of this filter. The possible values for the Filter status are: Not Filtered—The conditions of this filter were not met and the filter was not applied to this object. Filtered—The conditions of this filter were met and this connector space object becomes or remains a filtered disconnector. Error—There was an error with this step of the synchronization.
Status (Condition)	Displays the result of the evaluation of the condition. The possible values for the Condition status are: No Match—The condition was evaluated without error, but was not a match. Match—The condition was evaluated without error and was a match. Error—There was an error evaluating this condition. The details will be displayed in the status bar.
Data Source Attribute	The data source attribute used for comparison. This column will be blank if the connector filter is a rules extension.
Value	The value of the data source attribute. This column will be blank if the connector filter is a rules extension.
Operator	The operator being used in the comparison operation. This column will be blank if the connector filter is a rules extension.
Compared Value	The value defined in the connector filter that the data source attribute is being compared with. This column will be blank if the connector filter is a rules extension.

Object Deletion Rule

The Object Deletion Rule page will display in cases where the preview object is being disconnected either because it is a pending Delete or because a Connector Filter rule is now satisfied and the object is disconnected from the metaverse.

Name	Description
Metaverse Object	The metaverse object linked to the connector that is being deleted or disconnected.
Object type	The object type of the metaverse object. Object deletion rules are scoped by metaverse object type.
Rule type	This is the type of rule specified for this object type. The possible values are: Declared Rules Extension
Status	The result of the evaluation of the object deletion rule. The possible values are: Metaverse object not deleted Metaverse object deleted Error

Status Details

This text field displays additional details for the operation.

Status	Description
The metaverse object deletion rule was satisfied. The metaverse object will be deleted.	This indicates that the object should be deleted. This means that either a scripted rule indicated the object should be deleted or that all of the conditions for a declarative rule were satisfied indicating that the object can be deleted.
The metaverse object deletion rule was not satisfied. This management agent is not authoritative for metaverse objects of this type.	For declarative rules only. This indicates that the object should not be deleted because the disconnecting management agent is different than the one configured in the rules as the owner.
The metaverse object deletion rule was not satisfied. This is not the last connector from this management agent linked to the metaverse object.	For declarative rules only. This indicates that the disconnection management agent is the configured owner, but that the object should not be deleted because there are other existing connectors to the object from that management agent.
The metaverse object deletion rule was not satisfied. The rules extension declined to delete the metaverse object.	For scripted rules only. This means that the script indicated that the object should not be deleted.
Error	Indicates an error occurred.

Attribute Recall and Repopulation

The Attribute Recall and Repopulation page will display in cases where a connector space object, either the object being previewed or another object that is connected to the same metaverse object, is disconnected and the metaverse object remains. When a connector space object is disconnected from the metaverse, the attribute values that it contributed to the metaverse object are removed, or recalled. (This can be overridden with an option in the Management Agent Designer Deprovisioning property page. For more information, see Deprovisioning Rules). If there are any Import Attribute Flow rules for these attributes configured on other management agents who have connector space objects linked to this metaverse object, these will be evaluated in order according to the attribute precedence settings to repopulate the metaverse with values for these attributes. The rules engine will process all of the connector space objects until the attributes are repopulated or the available connector space objects are exhausted.

Name	Description
Disconnecting Object	The distinguished name of the object being disconnected. This could be either the object being previewed on another connector space object being disconnected from the same metaverse object as a result of applying the synchronization rules.
Management Agent	The management agent associated with the object being disconnected
Metaverse object	The displayName or globally unique identifier (GUID) of the metaverse object that the connector space object is being disconnected from.
Status	Indicates whether this synchronization step was success or encountered an error.

Recalled attributes

This section displays information about the attributes that will be recalled from the metaverse object.

Name	Description
Attribute	The attribute that will be recalled from the metaverse object.
Value	The value of the attribute that will be recalled.
Type	The type of the recalled attribute

Repopulated attributes

This section displays information about the attributes that will be repopulated, that is, are affected by import attribute flow rules from other connector space objects, for the metaverse object.

Name	Description
Status	The result of the operation for this attribute. The possible status values are: Applied—The rule was successfully executed. The attribute flow specified by the rule was successfully performed. Applied Delete—The flow was configured as a Rules Extension and the last source attribute of the flow was deleted. In this case, the destination attribute will be automatically deleted without consulting the rules extension. Not Applied—The rule was not executed because at least one of the source attributes referenced by the rule did not exist on the connector space object (or, when executing in delta mode, either the mapping had no source attribute or none of the source attributes had changed). This is not considered an error; the rule is simply ignored in this case. Skipped: Not Precedent—The rule was not run because a preexisting destination attribute on the metaverse object was created by another rule with higher precedence. This is not considered an error; the rule is simply ignored in this case. Declined—Indicates that the rule is a rules extension and the rules extension declined the mapping. This is not considered an error; the rule is simply ignored in this case. Skipped: previous mapping—The rule was skipped during a repopulation operation because it was the rule that was previously populating the destination attribute and was found to be deficient (causing the repopulation operation to be run). Here, deficient could mean (1) the rule was being recalled, or (2) the rule was no longer satisfied or declined to run, or (3) the rule just flowed a NULL value to the destination attribute. Skipped: No available mapping in scope—The rule was skipped during a repopulation operation because none of the connector objects linked to the destination metaverse object satisfied the scoping requirements of the rule. For example, the connector space object did not match the rule's source management agent or object type. Another reason may be that the connector space object is a pending export. Import attribute flow rules require an import. Error—Indicates that an error occurred that will stop the processing of the import attribute flow rules. If this status value appears, then the import flow that it applies to will always be the last one present in the list. Even if there were additional import flows, the error condition will prevent them from being processed.
Metaverse Attribute	The attribute on the metaverse object attempting to repopulate.
Value	The value that is applied to the metaverse object. This will only appear on operations with status of Applied.
Management Agent	The management agent associated with the import attribute flow rule being evaluated by the repopulation operation.
Data Source Attribute	The name of the source attributes for the import attribute flow rule being evaluated by the repopulation operation.
Mapping Type	The rule type for the import attribute flow. Possible values are: Direct Rules Extension DN Component Constant

Join

Preview displays the results of all join rules defined for the management agent.

Name	Description
Join Rule	The number of the rule selected as defined in the management agent.
Metaverse Object Type	The object type, or types, that the join rule will use to search for a match.
Resolution	Displays the resolution of the join attempt. The possible values are: Match—Indicates that a single metaverse object was successfully determined. This may occur if there was only a single value in the search results or if there were multiple values and a resolution rules extension chose a winner. No Match—Indicates that the search resulted in no matches. Processing will continue on to the next join rule, if any. Multiple Matches—Indicates that the search produced multiple matches, but no rules extension resolution handler was specified. Processing will continue on to the next join rule, if any. Error—A fatal error occurred that stopped the process of not only the current join criterion, but the entire join step.
Join Resolution Name	If a Join Resolution Rules Extension is configured, the name of the rule is displayed.
Status (Criterion)	The possible values are: Match—Indicates that the processing of the join criterion resulted in a single matching metaverse object. Because a suitable match was found, no additional join rules will be processed or displayed. No match—Indicates that the join criterion failed to produce a match. This could be due to the following: An unsatisfied mapping. A rules extension producing no matching values. An ambiguous result that was not resolved. If there are more join rules then processing continues until a match is found or all of the join rules have been processed. Error—A fatal error has occurred that caused the rules engine to stop the entire join process.
Status (Condition)	The possible values are: Applied—Indicates that the condition was successfully executed and that it has contributed one or more values to the search criterion. Not Applied—Indicates that a source attribute referenced by the mapping was not present in the connector space object, and the processing of the current join rule will stop. The rules engine will process the next join rule if there is one available. Declined—For rules extension mappings only. Indicates that the rules extension declined to produce values for the search criterion, and the processing of the current join rule will stop. The rules engine will process the next join rule if there is one available. Extension No Value—For rules extension mappings only. Indicates that the rules extension failed to produce any values for the search criterion, and the processing of the current join rule will stop. The rules engine will process the next join rule if there is one available. Error—A fatal error has occurred that stopped the process of not only the current join condition, but the entire join step.
Matches	A button is displayed if there are any matches for this rule. If there is a single match, clicking on the button displays the metaverse object properties page for that object. If there are multiple matches, they are listed in a dialog box. To display the metaverse object properties page for that object, click the object in the list.

Projection

Preview displays the projection results at the bottom of the Join and Projection page.

Name	Description
Status	Displays the result of evaluating the Projection rule for this object. The possible values could be: Projected—The rule successfully determined the object type that should be used for the projected metaverse object. Note that declarative rules always have this status value. Declined—Applies only to projection rules defined by a rules extension. Indicates that the rules extension declined to choose a metaverse object type and that the object should not be projected. Error—There was an error with this step of the synchronization.
Mapping type	This value is either Declared or Rules Extension.
Metaverse object type	The object type of the newly created metaverse object based on the Projection rule configuration.

Metaverse Object Type

The Metaverse Object Type page will be displayed if the object type of the metaverse object is changed when a connector space object is joined to it. This can only be accomplished by a rules extension join rule. During this operation, all of the Import Attribute Flow rules for this object are repopulated based on the new object type. The page will display the results of the repopulation operation.

Name	Description
Metaverse Object	The displayName or GUID of the linked metaverse object.
Object Type	The original object type of the metaverse object
New Object Type	The object type of the metaverse object after the type change.
Status	Displays the status of the evaluation of this rule. The possible values here are: Successful Error
Attribute repopulation	The results of the repopulation operation. For the details, see the Attribute Recall and Repopulation section above.

Flow to Metaverse (Import attribute flow)

Preview displays the results of applying all of the import attribute mapping rules that have been defined in the Configure Attribute Mapping property page of the management agent.

Name	Description
Status	Displays the status of the synchronization process for this specific attribute flow rule. The possible values are: Applied—The rule was successfully evaluated. The attribute flow specified by the rule was successfully performed. Applied Delete—This indicates that the rule caused the destination attribute to be deleted. This will cause the import attribute flow rules to run a repopulation operation in an attempt to repopulate the destination attribute. This can also indicate that the flow was configured as a rules extension and the last source attribute of the flow was deleted. In this case, the destination attribute will be automatically deleted without consulting the rules extension. Not Applied—The rule was not executed because at least one of the source attributes referenced by the rule did not exist on the connector space object, or when executing in delta mode, either the mapping had no source attribute or the source attribute, or attributes, had not changed. This is not considered an error; the rule is simply ignored in this case. Skipped: Not Precedent—The rule was not executed because a preexisting destination attribute on the metaverse object was created by some other rule with a higher precedence. This is not considered an error; the rule is simply ignored in this case. Declined—The rule was defined as a rules extension and the rules extension declined the mapping. This is not considered an error; the rule is simply ignored in this case. Skipped: previous mapping—The rule was skipped during a repopulation operation because it was the rule that was previously populating the destination attribute and was found to be deficient (causing the repopulation operation to be run). Here, deficient could mean (1) the rule was being recalled, or (2) the rule was no longer satisfied or declined to run, or (3) the rule just flowed a NULL value to the destination attribute. Skipped: No available mapping in scope—The rule was skipped during a repopulation operation because none of the connector objects linked to the destination metaverse object satisfied the scoping requirements of the rule. For example, the connector space object did not match the rule's source management agent or object type. Another reason may be that the connector space object is a pending export. Import attribute flow rules require an import. Error—Indicates that an error occurred that stopped the processing of the Import Attribute Flow rules. If this status value appears, then the attribute that it applies to is always the last one present in the list. Even if there were additional import flows, the error condition will prevent them from being processed.
Data Source Attribute	The name of attribute, or attributes, in the connector space that are the source for this flow rule.
Mapping Type	The type of attribute flow rule. The possible values are: Declared Rules Extension Constant DN Component
Metaverse Attribute	The name of the metaverse attribute that is the destination for this flow rule.
Initial Value	The value of the metaverse attribute before any changes are synchronized.
Final Value	The value of the metaverse attribute after any changes are synchronized. In the case of direct mappings, this matches the value in the connector space. In rules extension mappings this could be calculated based on the precedence of multiple connector space values.

Provisioning Summary

The provisioning summary page will be displayed for each time the provisioning rules extension is invoked. It is possible for the provisioning rules extension to be called multiple times in a given synchronization cycle. This page will display a summary line for each action taken by the provisioning rules extension.

Name	Description
Operation	The provisioning operation performed by the rules extension during this invocation. The possible values are: Add Rename Deprovision
Distinguished Name (DN)	The distinguished name or anchor value of the connector space object for this provisioning action.
Management Agent	The management agent associated with this object.
Status	The status of the operation. Possible values are: Success Error

Outbound Synchronization Rules

The Outbound Synchronization Rules pages display the results of all outbound synchronization rules that will be applied during the preview.

Name	Description
Synchronization Rule Name	The name of the synchronization rule being applied.
Synchronization Rule Action	The type of action performed by the synchronization rule, relative to the metaverse object. Possible values are: Add Remove
Status	The status of the synchronization rule action. Possible values are: Applied – indicates that all the flow definitions defined in the rule were successful. Not Applied – indicates that all or some of the flow definitions defined in the rule were not successful. Details are provided in the Error Message field. Error Message – Details the reason that the synchronization rule was not applied.
Connector Action	Indicates the action taken as the result of the synchronization preview. Possible values are: Provisioned – the object was provisioned to the target connector space. Disconnect – the object was disconnected from the target connector space. Joined – the object was joined to an existing connector space object. None – indicates the object is already joined to a connector space object from a previous synchronization run.
Flow	A list of all source to target attribute flows defined in the synchronization rule.

Inbound Synchronization Rules

The Inbound Synchronization Rules pages display the results of all inbound synchronization rules that will be applied during the preview.

Name	Description
Synchronization Rule name	The name of the synchronization rule being applied.
Status	The status of the synchronization rule action. Possible values are: Applied – indicates that all the flow definitions defined in the rule were successful. Not Applied – indicates that all or some of the flow definitions defined in the rule were not successful. Details are provided in the Error Message field. Error Message – Details the reason that the synchronization rule was not applied.
Metaverse Object	Lists details of the metaverse object that is affected by the synchronization rule.
Action	Indicates the action taken as the result of the synchronization preview. Possible values are: Provisioned – the object was provisioned to the target connector space. Disconnect – the object was disconnected from the target connector space. Joined – the object was joined to an existing connector space object. None – indicates the object is already joined to a connector space object from a previous synchronization run.
ID	The ID of the metaverse object.

Connector Provisioning Operation Details

Whenever a provisioning operation is performed and listed in the Provisioning Summary page, there will be a corresponding details page for the operation: Connector Add, Connector Rename, or Connector Deprovisioning.

Connector Add

Name	Description
Distinguished Name (DN)	The distinguished name of the connector space object being added by the provisioning rules extension.
Management Agent	The management agent associated with the connector space object being added.
Object type	The object type of the connector being added by provisioning.
Status	The result of evaluating this rule. The possible values are: Applied—The object was successfully added. Failed: Duplicate Object—The object could not be added because there was already another object in this connector space with the requested distinguished name Failed: Filter Rejection—The object could not be added because the new distinguished name would be filtered out by exclusion and inclusion filters. Failed: No Parent—The object could not be added because the new distinguished name's parent did not exist. Error—The object could not be added because the target management agent was being deleted.
Attributes	During the provisioning Add operation, initial attribute values may be set. These are displayed here.

Connector Rename

Name	Description
Distinguished Name (DN)	The original distinguished name of the connector space object being renamed by the provisioning rules extension.
New Distinguished Name (DN)	The new distinguished name of the connector space object being renamed by the provisioning rules extension
Management agent	The management agent associated with the connector space object being renamed.
Object type	The object type of the connector space object being renamed by provisioning.
Status	The result of evaluating this rule. The possible values are: Applied—The object was successfully renamed. Unchanged—The rename operation was effectively ignored because the new distinguished name matches the old distinguished name. Failed: Duplicate Object—The object could not be renamed because there was already another object in this connector space with the requested new distinguished name. Failed: Filter Rejection:The object could not be renamed because the new distinguished name would be filtered out by exclusion and inclusion filters. Failed: No Parent—The object could not be renamed because the new distinguished name's parent did not exist. Error—The object could not be renamed because the target management agent was being deleted.

Connector Deprovisioning

Name	Description
Distinguished Name (DN)	The original distinguished name of the connector space object being deprovisioned by the provisioning rules extension.
Management agent	The management agent associated with the connector space object being deprovisioned.
Object type	The object type of the connector space object being deprovisioning by provisioning.
Status	The result of evaluating this rule. The possible values are: Applied—The object was successfully disconnected from the metaverse and deprovisioning rules will be consulted. Failed: Already Deprovisioned—The object could not be disconnected because it already has been disconnected. Error—There was a fatal error during this operation.

Connector Summary

The Connector Summary page will appear whenever there are any outbound synchronization operations as a result of processing this object. Similar to the Provisioning Summary page, the Connector Summary page will contain a line for each connector operation.

Name	Description
Distinguished Name (DN)	The distinguished name or anchor value of the connector space object.
Management agent	The management agent associated with the connector space object.
Operation	The operation that was performed on this connector space object.
Status	The result of evaluating this rule. The possible values are: Successful Error

Export attribute flow

Preview displays the results of all of the export attribute mapping rules that have been defined in the Configure Attribute Mapping property page of the management agent.

Name	Description
Status	Displays the status of the synchronization process for this specific attribute flow rule. The possible values are: Applied—The rule was successfully evaluated, and the attribute flow specified by the rule was successfully performed. Applied Delete—The source object contained none of a rule's source attributes and so a delete was automatically flowed to the destination attribute. This is considered a successful flow. Not Applied—The rule was not applied because at least one of the source attributes referenced by the rule did not exist on the connector space object. This is not considered an error; the rule is simply ignored in this case. Skipped: Flow Null Denied—An attribute deletion was detected in the metaverse object but it was not pushed out to the connector space object because it was suppressed. This is configured in the management agent with the Allow Nulls option in the Configure Attribute Flow page. By default the setting is to suppress all attribute deletions. Skipped: Not Precedent—A metaverse attribute value was not pushed out to the connector space object because an overlapping Import Attribute Flow rule exists for the management agent with a precedence that is higher than that associated with the metaverse change. Skipped: No Reference Source Attributes—An attribute flow was not run because none of the source metaverse attributes were reference attributes. This will only occur when executing a reference synchronization. Declined—The rule was a rules extension and the rules extension declined the mapping. This is not considered an error; the rule is simply ignored in this case. Error—Indicates that an error occurred that stopped the processing of the Export Attribute Flow rules. If this status value appears, then the attribute that it applies to is always the last one present in the list. Even if there were additional export flows, the error condition will prevent them from being processed.
Metaverse Attribute	The name of the metaverse attribute that is the source for this flow rule.
Mapping Type	The type of attribute flow rule. The possible values are: Declared Rules Extension Constant
Data Source Attribute	The name of one or more attributes in the connector space that are the source for this flow rule.
Initial Value	The value of the connector space attribute before any changes are synchronized.
Final Value	The value of the connector space attribute after any changes are synchronized. In the case of direct mappings, this will match the value in the connector space. In rules extension mappings this could be calculated based on multiple metaverse attributes.

For more information, see Use Preview to Test the Effect of Synchronization.