Before the introduction of IDD, match paths had been used strictly to define match columns and match rules. The match path definition works equally well to define child relationships in IDD.

To add a child to a subject area, you must create a new match path for that child if one does not exist. When you create a match path, it must be based on ROWID_OBJECT.

Match paths can also be used to enable search on related tables that are not part of a subject area. For example, suppose you have a Party that is related to a Product. Product would not be part of the Party subject area. However, a match path can be defined from Party to Product. Using this match path, an IDD application user could search for a Party based on the attributes of a related Product.