UI - Library Match Types

This article covers in detail the different matching types that can occur for different libraries across the organization.

Each library presented inside the inventory has one of these match types associated: Exact Match, Best Effort Match, Filename Match, Suspected Match.

Each of these matching types plays different roles which will all be explained in the following section:

Exact Match - this type of match means that the library has been populated inside the inventory based on its SHA1 value. So, at all times, a SHA1-based match will be considered an "Exact Match" inside the application.

Best (Effort) Match - this type of match is encountered in the case of source libraries, as they are not populated by the application based on their SHA1, but rather based on a file matching algorithm.

The application detects source files and selects the most suitable source library for them based on one of the matching algorithms: SmartMatch, Weight, Rank, Date (enabled from Integrate > Advanced Settings> Source file matching). Source libraries (that can be identified by the yellow letter S in front of the library name in the inventory- as in the above picture) will always be identified based on the "Best Effort Match”.

Filename Match - this type of match is encountered for libraries that were matched based on their filename. For libraries to be matched by filename the associated setting must be enabled in the UI from Integrate > Advanced Settings > Match libraries by filename. When enabled, this matching type only takes effect if no SHA1 match was found. So, when this setting is enabled, we still try to match by SHA1, and only then, if there’s no match, we will try to match by the filename.

Note: The Filename match type might be witnessed even when the option for "Match libraries by filename" is unchecked. In such cases, it means the library was matched based on a special type of synthetically calculated checksum, which is more accurate than a filename match but less than a SHA1 match.

Suspected Match - this match type is rare and is displayed when the library match is approximated and will be updated with the Exact Match soon.