Working with Normalization Rules

Last updated
Save as PDF
Share
1. Share
2. Tweet
3. Share

To work with normalization rules, you must have the following role:

Catalog Administrator
Catalog Manager
Cataloger

Normalization rules are used to change or update bibliographic metadata at various stages, for example when the record is saved in the Metadata Editor, imported via import profile, imported from external search resource, or edited via the "Enhance the record" menu in the Metadata Editor. The normalization rules are written in a specific syntax, allowing you to create rules to affect specific changes to records. For example, you can edit or delete fields, and you can also do that conditionally, based on some other condition that takes place or doesn't in the bibliographic record.

Normalization rules can be applied to individual records in the MD Editor or to a group of records:

To apply normalization rules to an individual record, use the Enhance Record option (refer to the section MD Editor Menu and Toolbar Options) or Apply Changes to an individual record when you preview normalization rules (see To preview the outcome of a rule).
To apply normalization rules to a set of records, you need to create a process using the MarcDroolNormalization or DcDroolNormalization tasks (see Working with Normalization Processes) and specify the normalization rule create with the MD Editor (refer to the procedure To create a new normalization rule file). Once you have created the process, you can run a job using that process (see Running Manual Jobs on Defined Sets). In addition, you can create a process that will enable applying normalization rules when clicking Save in the MD Editor (see Working with Normalization Processes).

Normalization rules are created by following a specific programming syntax and using the editing window provided in the MD Editor under the Rules tab.

Rules Tab Editing Window

In addition to creating your own normalization rules program, you can also copy/paste existing rules into the editing window or use out-of-the-box examples (Rules tab) to develop your normalization rules. See Normalization Rules Syntax for more information regarding the syntax for normalization rules and examples that you can copy to the editing window.

Using the Preview functionality in the MD Editor, you can:

View the normalization rules and metadata records side by side
Preview the outcome of a rule when run on a metadata record
Toggle between the rule and the preview changes
Edit rules and test immediately

For a short overview of Normalization Rules, watch Normalization Rules (6:00).
For detailed information on Normalization rules with examples, watch Normalization Rules (1 hr).

Creating Normalization Rules

This section describes how to create a normalization rule or copy a rule from the Community Zone, work with previously created rules, and preview the outcome of a rule when it is run on a single metadata record. For more information, see the Normalization Rules area on this page.

Note that normalization rules on IZ records that are linked to NZ records can be applied only to local fields. To apply normalization rules to such records, run the normalization rules and normalization processes only in the Network institution.

For Network Zone consortia members, users can control whether to save new rules locally or in a network institution. To make this selection, open the Records or Templates area, and go to New > Placement Options. Note that this selection is per user.

To create a new normalization rule:

On the MD Editor page (Resources > Cataloging > Open Metadata Editor), open the Rules area.
To create a normalization rule for a MARC or Dublin Core record, select New > Normalization. The Normalization Rules Properties (New Rule) dialog box opens.

Normalization Rules Properties Dialog Box
Enter a name and a description for the normalization rule.
The word "rule" must not be capitalized if used in the rule name. If capitalized, the rule will not work.

Do not use a backslash (\) in the rule name! If done so, the rule cannot be used for the filter set functionality.
To create a normalization rule for a MARC record, select Drool. To create a normalization rule for a DC (Dublin Core) record, select 'XSL'.
Select an access option, Private or Shared. If you select Private, only you can work on the rule and the rule cannot be included in a normalization process. If you select Shared, your rule will be shared among catalogers. In this case, more than one user can view the rule at the same time; if two or more people have the rule open for editing, a warning message appears when one of you tries to save changes. (You have the option of keeping your changes or allowing the other user to make and save changes.)
Select Save. The MD Editor editing pane opens.
You can include existing rule syntax (Edit > Add Rule > {type of rule}) or define a rule (for details, see Normalization Rules Syntax).
Select Save. The rule is added to the list of rule files under the Normalization Rules tab.

To copy/contribute normalization rules in the Community Zone:

On the MD Editor page (Resources > Cataloging > Open Metadata Editor), select the Rules tab and expand the Normalization folder.
To copy, open the Community folder. Right-click the rule you would like to copy and select Duplicate.
The Duplicate Rule dialog opens. Indicate your name and description and indicate whether you want to save as a private (available only to you) or a shared rule (available to all users in your institution).
The name and contact email of the Alma user who contributed the rule to CZ are indicated in the dialog, you can contact this user in case of any questions.
To contribute your own to CZ, right-click the rule and select Contribute to CZ.
The Rule Sharing dialog opens. Provide descriptive name and description and select Save to save the rule in CZ.

To work with an existing normalization rule:

On the MD Editor page (Resources > Cataloging > Open Metadata Editor), select the Rules tab and expand the Normalization folder to display the saved rules.
Select the rule with which you want to work and select one of the following options:
- Edit – Opens the textbox with the rule(s) syntax, enabling you to modify this syntax (for details, see Normalization Rules Syntax).
- Delete – Select Yes to confirm the rule file’s deletion.
- Duplicate – Duplicates the selected rule file, enabling you to modify and save it as a new rule without affecting the original file.
- Properties – Opens the Normalization Rules Properties dialog box, enabling you to modify the properties of the rule file.
To rename the rule, duplicate the rule, give the duplicate the desired name, and then delete the old rule.

To preview and save & test the outcome of a rule:

Locate the bibliographic record with which you want to work (using the Repository Search or within the MD Editor > Records tab) and open it in the MD Editor.
Press (F6) or select the Split Editor icon.
Select the Rules tab in the left pane and expand the Normalization folder.
Right-select the rule that you want to preview or test in the Private or Shared (not the Community) folder and select Edit.

The rule is displayed in the right pane of the MD Editor.
Select Preview. The rule is applied to the record and the outcome appears.

To update Network records, the normalization must be run by the Network institution (not by a member). An institution cannot update Network records, therefore the normalization will be applied only on the local fields (the local extensions of the member). When previewing a rule for a Network record, the following message is displayed: Note that the rules will be applied only to local fields when the normalization process is run.

Select Apply Changes to save the modifications to the record or select Back to normalization rules to edit them some more.
When you have made your final changes to the normalization rule, select Save and test using external record to save the final version of your normalization rule. For details, see Testing Normalization Rules for External Data Sources.

Normalization Rules for Dublin Core and MODS Records

In the Metadata Editor, there are the following types of rules related to Dublin Core and MODS:

XSL indication rules
XSL normalization rule

XSL Normalization Rule does not support discovery:local.

Dublin Core and MODS normalization rules cannot be written in a regular Normalization Rule format, but only as an XSL. This means that you compose the XSL directly in the Metadata Editor (as explained above), or you can compose it in Notepad (or another external application of your choice) and then copy it to the Metadata Editor.

You can view the below examples of XSL Normalization Rules for Dublin Core in the Community Zone in the Metadata Editor:

EXL – Change dc:language value en to English
EXL – Generic rule to replace string in Dublin Core record
EXL_Add_field_accessRights

To write XSL for Dublin Core and MODS:

Write the XSL in an external application of your choice.
Open the Metadata Editor > Rules section.
Copy and paste the XSL to the Metadata Editor and save the rule.

Normalization Rules for Primo VE and Esploro

In addition to Alma normalization rules, you can create normalization rules for Primo VE and Esploro. To create these rules, click New, then select:

Normalization (Discovery) – This option appears only when Primo VE is defined in the system. Select this option if you are creating DC or XML normalization rules for bibliographic records that are loaded into Primo VE and not managed in Alma. For information regarding the syntax of these rules, see Normalization Rule Syntax for DC and XML Formats.
Normalization (Research) – This option appears only when Esploro is defined in the system. For details, see Managing Asset Normalization Rules (Esploro).

Normalization Rule Syntax

Rule can contain one or several other rules. Each rule contains a condition, and one or more actions to be applied to records. Actions are applied to a record if the record meets the condition. Each action can be performed on a single field within a record. Actions are performed in the order in which they appear within the rule.

When defining a rule that contains multiple rules, you must use the priority (or salience) factor. Actions stipulated in the rule with the higher priority are performed first. For example, the action in a rule with priority 2 is performed before the action in a rule with priority 1. For examples of the way in which priority (or salience) can be used in normalization rules, see Alma Normalization Rule Examples. Note that priority (or salience) is only necessary when the fields in the rules are the same. Otherwise, when each rule deals with different fields, multiple rules are performed from top to bottom.

Learn more about creating normalization rules in the Normalization Rules video (5:42 mins).

Learn how to create normalization rules that delete specified fields from records, or change the contents of these fields in the Normalization Routine Syntax for Deletion or Content Change video (9:57 mins).

When

(<conditions on MARC record>) then

Action

End

<conditions on MARC record> contains one or more Boolean clauses that apply to the record. If <conditions on MARC record> returns TRUE, the rule is applied to the record; otherwise, the rule is not applied and the record is not processed.

“When” must be the only word in the first line. The condition must be placed on a separate line.
You can use multiple conditions on the whole record in the “When” condition only. Every rule must have just one action (after the “Then” line). If you would like to use several actions after the “Then” line, break this down to several rules, each with a single action.
While it is permissible to include multiple Boolean Operators in the rules, when a large number of Boolean operators are selected, slower performance is likely to result. Thus each rule should include no more than 200 Boolean operators.
If not specified, the condition will work on the record level. If you want the condition to work on each MARC21 field separately, the condition should be specified per field. For example, when there are multiple MARC21 fields with the same tag.

Note that when you use backslashes, you may not use an uneven number of backslashes such as \z or \\\z. However, using a single backslash is supported in the following escape sequences:

In general, you should use a double backslash (\\) for escape sequences.

Using an uneven number of backslashes will produce the following error: "Invalid escape sequence (valid ones are \b \t \n \f \r \" \' \\ )"

The following are some examples of fixes that can be done to the rules when this error is encountered that keep the existing rule's behavior:

replacing \\\ with \\
replacing \. with .
replacing \ with \\
replacing \( with (
replacing \) with )
replacing \\\| with \\|

Record Elements

Conditions and actions apply to record elements, such as the MARC record, fields (one or more), indicators, subfields (one or more), and field/subfield contents.

To test a condition or apply an action to a record element, the element must match the following syntax:

Syntax
Expression	Meaning
"<tag>", "<new tag>"	Represents a field tag, for example, 001, 245, etc.
"<oldCode>", "<newCode>"	Represents a subfield code, for example, a, b, c.
"<element>" for a data field	The following are the possible values for the data field: FIELD– for example: 245 FIELD_VALUE – for example: 245.value* FIELD_INDICATOR – for example: 245.{1,2} FIELD_SUBFIELD_CODE – for example: 245.a FIELD_INDICATOR_SUBFIELD_CODE – for example: 245.{1,2}.a FIELD_SUBFIELD_CODE_VALUE – for example: 245.a.value* FIELD_INDICATOR_SUBFIELD_CODE_VALUE – for example: 245.{1,2}.a.value*
"<element>" for a control field	The following are the possible values for a control field: FIELD_POSITION_LENGTH – for example: LDR.{17,3} FIELD_POSITION_LENGTH_VALUE – for example: LDR.{17,3}.eng
"<element>" for a fixed position field	The following are the possible values for a fixed position UNIMARC/CNMARC 1XX field: FIELD – for example: 100 FIELD_VALUE – for example: 100.{,}..{,}.value FIELD_INDICATOR – for example: 100.{1,2} FIELD_SUBFIELD_CODE – for example: 100.a FIELD_INDICATOR_SUBFIELD_CODE – for example: 100.{1,2}.a FIELD_SUBFIELD_CODE_VALUE – for example: 100.a.value* FIELD_INDICATOR_SUBFIELD_CODE_VALUE – for example: 100.{1,2}.a.{,}.value* FIELD_POSITION_LENGTH – for example: 100.{,}.a.{17,3} FIELD_POSITION_LENGTH_VALUE – for example: 100.{,}.a.{17,3}.* Relevant only for UNIMARC/CNMARC 1XX fields.
CONDITION at record level	The following are the possible condition options. See the next section (Conditions) for important information. TRUE – always true not exists "{element}" – true if the element does not exist (for data fields) not existsControl "{element}" – true if the element does not exist (for control fields) exists "{element}" – true if the element exists at least once (for data fields) existsControl "{element}" – true if the element exists at least once (for control fields) existsMoreThanOnce "{element}" – true if the element exists more than once. For an example of the use of this condition, see Indication Rules for MARC Records - Syntax Examples. contains – true if the element contains a value. Used for merge rules. The following are the possible condition options relevant only for UNIMARC/CNMARC 1XX fields: existsFixedField "{element}" - true if the element does not exist (for data of 1XX fixed position fields) not existsFixedField "{element}" - true if the element does not exist (for data of 1XX fixed position fields)

Conditions

Conditions can be defined at the entire rule level (WHEN), or at a specific action level (IF). The same condition will behave differently depending on the level at which it is defined.

WHEN clause – A condition that must be met by the entire record in order to determine whether the rule is applied to the record
IF (within an action) – A condition that applies to a single field in order to determine whether the specific action is taken on that field

Conditions can be:

containsScript – Use this condition to detect a specific language. The containsScript condition uses the following fixed list of languages for which you can check: Arabic, Armenian, Bengali, Bopomofo, Braille, Buhid, Canadian_Aboriginal, Cherokee, Cyrillic, Devanagari, Ethiopic, Georgian, Greek, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Han, Hangul, Hanunoo, Hebrew, Hiragana, Inherited, Kannada, Katakana, Khmer, Lao, Latin, Limbu, Malayalam, Mongolian, Myanmar, Ogham, Oriya, Runic, Sinhala, Syriac, Tagalog, Tagbanwa, TaiLe, Tamil, Telugu, Thaana, Thai, Tibetan, and Yi. See the following syntax example:

rule "Is CJK in Authority"
when
containsScript "Han" "1**"
then
set indication."true"
end
exists <element> – At least one match is found
- exists <element> – Applies to data fields. When used in an IF clause, both the action element and the element tested by the condition must be the same (data) field.
- existsControl <element> – Applies to control fields. When used in an IF clause, both the action element and the element tested by the condition must be the same (control) field.
existsMoreThanOnce <element> – Multiple matches are found. Applies to data fields. When used in an IF clause, both the action element and the element tested by the condition must be the same (data) field.
not exists <element> – No match is found
- not exists <element> – Applies to data fields. When used in an IF clause, both the action element and the element tested by the condition must be the same (data) field.
- not existsControl <element> – Applies to control fields. When used in an IF clause, both the action element and the element tested by the condition must be the same (control) field.
recordHasDuplicateSubfields (for indication rules; see Working with Indication Rules) – Returns true if duplicate subfields (subfield and its contents) are found for the current record according to the fields, subfields, and the characters to ignore (charsToIgnore) string that were passed as parameters in the following format:

recordHasDuplicateSubfields "<tag>" "<code>" "<charsToIgnore>"

Multiple tags (fields) separated by commas can be specified. Multiple codes (subfields) can be specified with no spaces to separate them. One or more characters (alphanumeric or punctuation) with no spaces to separate them can be specified as characters to ignore at the end of the content in the subfields that are being evaluated for duplication. See Example 6 for more information.

For the records that meet the recordHasDuplicateSubfields condition (returns true), a set of the records is created.

Each IF clause action can have one of the following formats:

Applies if a specific condition is not true, for example: addControlField "{element}" if(not exists "{condition}")
Applies if a specific condition is true, for example: addControlField "{element}" if(exists "{condition}")
Applies unconditionally, for example: addControlField "{element}"

The Boolean OR operator can be used in a consequence statement by using the pipe (|) symbol, for example: removeField "866" if (not exists "866.8.0|99". If the pipe symbol is part of the value, use four backslashes (\\\\) to escape it, for example: removeField "866" if (exists "866.8.0\\\\|99")

There is a known issue, where the "|" is not escaped. To be fixed in upcoming releases.

List of Actions

The following table provides a list of available actions.

List of Actions
Action	Format / Example	Comment
Replace fields and subfields with other fields and subfields	changeControlField "<tag>" to "<new tag>" Example: changeControlField "007" to "008"	Changes the tag identifier of a control field; does not modify contents.
	changeField "<tag>" to "<new tag>" Example: changeField "245" to "246"	Changes the tag identifier; does not modify indicators or subfields.
	changeSubField "<tag>.<code>" to "<new code>" changeSubFieldOnlyFirst "<tag>.<code>" to "<new code>" changeSubFieldExceptFirst "<tag>.<code>" to "<new code>" Example: changeSubField "035.b" to "a"	Changes the subfields (or only the first subfield, or all except the first subfield) "<code>" to the subfield "<new code>" in field "<tag>".
	changeFirstIndicator "<tag>" to "<value>" changeSecondIndicator "<tag>" to "<value>" Example: changeFirstIndicator "245" to "3"	Sets the value of the specified indicator in tag <tag>.
	combineFields "<tag>" excluding "<comma-separated subfield list>" Example: combineFields "852" excluding "a,b"	Combine all fields of the specified number. Copy all subfields from the second and subsequent lines to the first line, excluding the named subfields; only the first occurrences of excluded subfields are copied, and only if they do not already exist in the first line.
Add fields and subfields	addField "<tag>.<code>.<value>" addField "<tag>.{<ind1>,<ind2>}.<code>. <value>" Example: addField "999.a.RESTRICTED"	Adds the field to the MARC record. Sets the value of the subfield to the indicated value.
	addControlField "<tag>.<value>" Example: addControlField "008.820305s1991####nyu###########001#0#eng##"	Adds the control field to the MARC record.
	addSubField "<tag>.<code>.<value>" addSubField "<tag>.{<ind1>,<ind2>}.<code>.<value>" Example: addSubField "245.h.[Journal]"	Adds the subfield <code> with value <value> to field <tag>. If the field does not exist, nothing is done.
	addSystemNumber "<element>" from "<tag>" prefixed by "<prefix tag>" Example: addSystemNumber "035.a" from "001" prefixed by "003"	Makes the data field <element> equal to the contents of the second control field <prefix tag> in parentheses followed by the contents of the first control field <tag>. For example, if 001 has the value 9945110100121 and 003 has the value DAV, the example condition on the left will produce 035 with the value ‡(DAV)9945110100121.
Copy fields	copyField "<tag>" to "<new tag>" copyField "<tag>.<code>" to "<new tag>.<new code>" copyField "<tag>" to "<new tag>.{<ind1>,<ind2>}" Example: copyField "971.a" to "100.u"	Copies the field to another field. In the first version, the subfields are not specified (<code> and <new code>), and the new field contains all the same subfields as the old field. In the second version, if just <new code> is not specified, the new subfield is the same as the one specified by <code>. copyField creates a separate field rather than adding it to any existing field. You may want to combine the new field with any existing fields (see combineFields).
Remove fields and subfields	removeControlField "<tag>" Example: removeControlField "009"	Removes all occurrences of the control field. Note that if you remove control field 008, Alma immediately recreates it if you don't. Consider re-adding the field after removing it, for example: rule "remove 008" when (TRUE) then removeControlField "008" addControlField "008.######s2013####xx######r#####000#0#eng#d" end
	removeField "<tag>" Example: removeField "880"	Removes all occurrences of the field <tag>.
	removeSubField "<tag>.<code>" Example: removeSubField "245.h"	Removes all occurrences of the subfield <code> from the indicated field.
Replace text in fields or subfields	replaceControlContents "<tag>.{<position>,<length>}. <value>" with "<new value>" Example: replaceControlContents "LDR.{7,1}.s" with "m"	Replaces <value> with "<new value>" in starting position <position> to <position>+<length> of control field <tag>. Replaces only the text that matches <value>.
	replaceContents "<tag>.<code>.<value>" with "<new value>" replaceContentsOnlyFirst "<tag>.<code>.<value>" with "<new value>" replaceContentsExceptFirst "<tag>.<code>.<value>" with "<new value>" Example: replaceContents "245.h.[Journal]" with "[Book]"	Replaces the matching strings (or every instance of the matching string in the first matching subfield, or all matching strings in all matching subfields except the first matching subfield) <value> in the subfield <code> of field "<tag>" with "<new value>". The string or part of the string that does not match <value> is not modified.
	replaceSubFieldContents "<tag>.<code>" with "<tag>.<code>" Example: replaceSubFieldContents "245.b" with "100.a"	Replaces the subfield's contents with the contents of another subfield.
	replaceFixedContents "<tag>.{<1_ind>,<2_ind>}.<code>.{<position>,<length>}.<value>" with "<new value>" Example: replaceFixedContents "100.{1,2}.a.{0,8}.20150226" with "20220724"	Replaces <value> with <new value> in UNIMARC and CNMARC 1XX fixed position fields. Relevant only for UNIMARC/CNMARC 1XX fields.
Add text in subfields	prefix "<tag>.<code>" with "<value>" Example: prefix "035.b" with "(OCoLC)"	Adds a prefix to the value of subfield "<code>" in the field "<tag>". The new value will be <value> followed by the old value.
	prefixSubField "<tag>.<code>" with "<source tag>.<source code>" Example: prefixSubField "910.a" with "906.a"	Adds the value of the subfield "<source code>" in the field "<source tag>" as a prefix to the subfield "<code>" in the field "<tag>". The new value will be the value of the subfield "<source code>" in the field "<source tag>" followed by the old value.
	suffix "<tag>.<code>" with "<value>" Example: suffix "035.b" with "(OCoLC)"	Adds a suffix to the value of subfield "<code>" in the field "<tag>". The new value will be the old value followed by <value>.
	suffixSubField "<tag>.<code>" with "<source tag>.<source code>" Example: suffixSubField "910.a" with "907.c"	Adds the value of the subfield "<source code>" in the field "<source tag>" as a suffix to the subfield "<code>" in the field "<tag>". The new value will be the old value followed by the value of the subfield "<source code>" in the field "<source tag>".
Maintain agency information in bibliographic and authority records For example, this syntax can be used in normalization rules that are selected in the MARC 21 Bibliographic Metadata Configuration Task List to normalize Network Zone bibliographic records upon save. This functionality is under construction. To enable this syntax, contact Ex Libris Support.	addCreatingAgency "<tag>.<code>" Example: addCreatingAgency "040.a"	Adds the creating agency ISIL code to the subfield in "<code>" in the field "<tag>".
	addModifyingAgency "<tag>.<code>" Example: addModifyingAgency "040.d"	Adds the modifying agency ISIL code to the subfield in "<code>" in the field "<tag>". If there already is a modifying agency in the "<tag>.<code>", this adds another agency ISIL code.
	replaceModifyingAgency "<tag>.<code>" Example: replaceModifyingAgency "040.d"	Adds the modifying agency ISIL code to the subfield in "<code>" in the field "<tag>". If any modifying agencies already exist in the "<tag>.<code>", all of them are replaced.
Split subfields	splitSubField "<tag>.{ind1,ind2}.<code>.<delimiter>" to "<tag>.{<ind1>,<ind2>}.<code>" addSeq "<code>" Example 1: splitSubField "866.a.;" to "555.{0,0}.a" addSeq "8" Example 2: splitSubField "555.a. – " to "859.{0,0}.a" addSeq "8" Example 3: splitSubField "859.a.\\\\." Example 4: splitSubField "999.a.;" to "555.a" addSeq "8"	The tag is mandatory. The indicators are optional. Since the split is at the subfield level, the code is mandatory. The delimiter can be any string. If the delimiter does not exist, the full subfield is copied as the first (and only) occurrence, and the sequence is added. The to component is optional. If it is specified, multiple occurrences of the to tag.code are created, each with the data until the delimiter. See examples 1 and 2. If the to component is not specified, the subfield is split to the additional same subfields in the same field as shown in example 3. The addSeq component is optional. It is not relevant if the to component is not specified. When addSeq is specified, the subfield with a sequence will be added as in Example 1; and if the subfield already exists in the original field, a sequence (preceded by a period) is added to that field as in Example 2.
Remove duplicate subfields	correctDuplicateSubfields "<tag>" "<code>" Example: Removes duplicate subfields x, y and z from fields 610 and 630. rule "Remove duplicates" priority 1 when (TRUE) then correctDuplicateSubfields "610,630" "xyz" end	Corrects duplicate subfields (for instance, subfields with the same code AND the same value) by keeping the first occurrence and removing the others from the current record according to the fields and subfields that were passed as parameters. You may want to use recordHasDuplicateSubfields to create the set that you supply to your normalization rule that uses correctDuplicateSubfields. See Example 6 for more information. For deduplication of subfields with different values, see: How to remove all but one of several similar subfields in the same field in MD Editor.
Move subfields	moveSubfieldsToEndOfField "<tag>" "<code>" Example: Moves subfields 9 and 2 to the end of field 650. rule "Move subfields to end of field" priority 1 when (TRUE) then moveSubfieldsToEndOfField "650" "92" end	Moves the first occurrence of each subfield to the end of the field and removes all other occurrences of the same subfield. If more than one subfield is specified, they are placed at the end in the same sequence as identified in the rule. In this example, subfield 9 is placed at the end followed by subfield 2. Note that the if statement is not supported with the moveSubfieldsToEndOfField action.
Correct duplicate fields for the current record	correctDuplicateFields "{fields}" Example: correctDuplicateFields "610,630,650"	This action takes one parameter, fields, that contains comma-separated field values such as 610,630,650. This action corrects duplicate fields for the current record according to the fields that were passed as parameters. This action can only be used to identify and correct duplicate data found between multiple instances of the same field.
Find duplicate fields (Indication Rules; see Working with Indication Rules)	recordHasDuplicateFields "{fields}" Example: recordHasDuplicateFields "610,630,650"	This action takes one parameter, fields, that contains comma-separated field values such as 610,630,650. This action can be either true or false. It returns true if duplicate fields were found for the current record according to the fields that were passed as a parameter. This action can only be used to identify and correct duplicate data found between multiple instances of the same field.

Wildcards and Special Characters

While the use of regular expressions in Alma Normalization Rules is not currently fully supported, some regular expressions can be used – for examples of these, see Alma Normalization Rule Examples.

The subfield separator ($$) cannot appear anywhere in the rule, including the rule name.

A hash character (#) at the beginning of a line indicates that the rest of the line is a comment, and is ignored when processing the rule.

The hash character (#) is not treated as a space by the normalization rules function replaceControlContents. The hash (#) is not a wild card and is not supported by this function.

The asterisk (*) is used to match any string, including a string of zero length. For example, "<tag>.<*>.<value>" applies to all the subfields in the tag <tag> that have the value <value>. * is "greedy", so it matches as many characters as possible in the string. For example: if you have a string "a b c b d b e", the pattern "b*b" matches "b c b d b", not just "b c b".

Empty indicators (but not fields or subfields) are indicated by a hyphen (-). For example, "<tag> {-,<ind2>}" returns all the fields where the MARC tag is <tag>, the first indicator is not defined, and the second indicator is <ind2>.

If the text of a subfield contains a period as the last character, use four backslashes to match the period. For example:

rule "Replace '1 v.' to 'Leaves' in $a (unconditional)"

when

(TRUE)

then

replaceContents "300.a.1 v\\\\." with "Leaves"

end

Double quotation marks can be used in conditions (only). To use double quotation marks as part of a condition, use single quotation marks to enclose text in the rule (') instead of double quotation marks ("). This way you can use double quotation marks inside the text following a double backslash (\\).

rule "populate 008 7-10 2016"

when

(exists '245.{*, }.c.\"')

then

replaceControlContents "008.{7,4}" with "2016"

end

Hebrew dates can be used in conditions (only). (Hebrew reads from right to left, so the double backslashes in the following example are actually before the double quotes.)

rule "populate 008 7-10 2016"

when

((exists '260.{*, }.c.תשע\\"ו') OR (exists '264.{*, }.c.תשע\\"ו'))

then

replaceControlContents "008.{7,4}" with "2016"

end

Wildcards cannot be used as the first character of a condition or value.
To use a literal backslash (\), escape it with another backslash: \\.
Use four backslashes (\\\\) to escape a period when it is the last character in the string. When the period is immediately followed by another character, it does not require four backslashes (as in addField "907.a.F.L.T\\\\."). However, it is best practice to always use the four backslashes in the normalization rule to ensure the most consistent desired results. See the following examples.
As noted above, if a double quote is used in a condition (only) that is escaped using single quotes, or a single quote is used in a condition that is escaped using single quotes, you must further escape the double quote or quote with a double backslash.
If the pipe symbol is part of the condition, use four backslashes to escape it, for example: removeField "866" if (exists "866.8.0\\\\|99"). This is required only when using a pipe symbol in the condition.

Example: Using the Period in a Normalization Rule with replaceContents

Example record with periods:

245 00 $$a Feminist literary theory. : $$b a reader / $$c edited by Mary Eagleton.

246 0# $$a F.L.T.

Normalization rule for the example record above:

rule "remove the periods in 245 and 246 subfield a (and replace periods with nothing); precede period with four backslashes"

when

(TRUE)

then

replaceContents "245.a.\\\\." with ""

replaceContents "246.a.\\\\." with ""

end

See the figure below for the before and after examples.

Before and After Examples

Example: Using the Period in a Normalization Rule with addField

Below is an example of a record to which periods need to be added:

906 $$a Architecture.

907 $$a F.L.T.

Below is the normalization rule for the example record above using the best practice of always including slashes:

rule "Add field 906 with text Architecture and period at end and also add field 907 with F.L.T."

salience 100

when

TRUE

then

addField "906.a.Architecture\\\\."

addField "907.a.F\\\\.L\\\\.T\\\\."

end

See the figure below for the before and after record examples.

Before and After Examples

Normalization Rule Examples

For a list of over 100 normalization rule examples and other normalization rule documents, see Alma Normalization Rule Examples.