Rule-based dry run methodology in an information management system

A method of processing candidate data in an information gathering system, comprising:

• receiving a set of candidate data records;
• obtaining a first set of processing rules, wherein each processing rule in the first set defines an operation applicable to an individual record from the set of candidate data records but not applicable to the set of candidate data records as a whole;
• conditionally obtaining a second set of rules, wherein each rule in the second set defines an operation applicable to the set of candidate data records but not applicable to an individual data record from the set of candidate data records;
• obtaining a first expectation value associated with one of the rules in the second set of rules;
• applying the first set of rules to each record in the set of candidate data records to produce a set of record quality indicators;
• applying the second set of rules to the set of candidate data records to produce a set of aggregate quality indicators;
• conditionally applying the set of candidate data records to a database associated with the information gathering system based on the set of record quality indicators and on the set of aggregate quality indicators.

A method of processing candidate data in an information gathering system, comprising:

• obtaining a campaign set of processing rules associated with a first campaign from a merchant, wherein the campaign is associated with the merchant and the first campaign is associated with the first campaign identifier;
• obtaining a first system set of processing rules from the information gathering system, wherein each processing rule in the first system set of processing rules defines a manner of individually processing a single record;
• obtaining a second system set of processing rules from the information gathering system, wherein each processing rule in the second system set of processing rules defines a manner of processing a collection of data records;
• obtaining a set of threshold values indicative of a tolerable error rate;
• receiving a set of candidate data records;
• receiving a campaign identifier associated with the set of candidate data records;
• if the received campaign identifier matches the first campaign identifier:
• applying the campaign set of processing rules to the set of candidate data records to produce a first set of quality indicators;
• applying the first system set of processing rules to the set of candidate data records to produce a second set of quality indicators;
• applying the second system set of processing rules to the set of candidate data records to produce a third set of quality indicators;
• processing the first set of quality indicators, the second set of quality indicators, the third set of quality indicators, and the set of threshold values to divide the set of candidate data records into a first set, a second set, and a third set;
• preventing the candidate data records in the first set from being applied to a database associated with the information gathering system;
• applying the candidate data records in the second set to the database;
• and
• partially applying the candidate data records in the third set to the database, wherein at least one data field associated with a record in the third record is prevented from being applied to the database and at least one data field associated with a record in the third record is applied to the database.