Why did the same crosswalk generate a new autogenerated value instead of replacing the old one during a POST /entities with alwaysCreatedDCR turned on?

Question

We have an autogenerated attribute LID in the Location entity. For Entity ID: 2R26EEB and 3RNIu9J, we see that 2 LIDs are from 1 crosswalk. Ideally, even if we get 2 LIDs, only one should suffice as incremental. 

The API that was used was:

POST https://<envirnoment>.reltio.com/reltio/api/<tenantID>/entities?alwaysCreateDCR=true&options=partialOverride

Request body

[
{ "type" : "configuration/entityTypes/HCO",
"attributes" : {
  "Address" : [ {
    "value" : {
      "AddressLine1" : [ {
        "type" : "configuration/entityTypes/Location/attributes/AddressLine1",
        "value" : "2308 PINE RIDGE RD"
      } ],
      "AddressLine2" : [ {
        "type" : "configuration/entityTypes/Location/attributes/AddressLine2",
        "value" : "N"
      } ],
      "City" : [ {
        "type" : "configuration/entityTypes/Location/attributes/City",
        "value" : "NAPLES"
      } ],
      "StateProvince" : [ {
        "type" : "configuration/entityTypes/Location/attributes/StateProvince",
        "value" : "FL"
      } ],
      "Zip" : [ {
        "value" : [ {
          "Zip5" : [ {
            "type" : "configuration/entityTypes/Location/attributes/Zip/attributes/Zip",
            "value" : null
          } ]
        } ]
      } ],
      "Country" : [ {
        "type" : "configuration/entityTypes/Location/attributes/Country",
        "value" : "US"
      } ],
      "AddressTypeN" : [ {
        "value" : {
          "AddressType" : [ {
            "type" : "configuration/relationTypes/HCOHasAddress/attributes/AddressTypeN/attributes/AddressType",
            "value" : "BUS"
          } ],
          "Status" : [ {
            "type" : "configuration/relationTypes/HCOHasAddress/attributes/AddressTypeN/attributes/Status",
            "value" : "A"
          } ]
        }
      } ],
      "LID" : [ {
        "type" : "configuration/entityTypes/Location/attributes/LID",
        "value" : null
      } ]
    },
    "refEntity" : {
      "type" : "configuration/entityTypes/Location",
      "crosswalks" : [ {
        "type" : "configuration/sources/VEEVA",
        "value" : "Surrogate"
      } ]
    },
    "refRelation" : {
      "type" : "configuration/relationTypes/HCOHasAddress",
      "crosswalks" : [ {
        "type" : "configuration/sources/VEEVA",
        "value" : "KM866024-53106VJ7W~34109~2308 PINE RIDGE RD~N~NAPLES~FL"
      } ]
    }
  } ]
},
"crosswalks" : [ {
  "type" : "configuration/sources/VEEVA",
  "value" : "KM866024-53106VJ7W"
} ]
}]

Could you please let us know why these 2 locations have 2 LIDs from the same crosswalk?

{
                    "label": "LID",
                    "name": "LID",
                    "description": "Location ID",
                    "type": "Int",
                    "hidden": false,
                    "important": false,
                    "system": false,
                    "required": false,
                    "faceted": false,
                    "searchable": false,
                    "autoGenerated": true,
                    "generator": "SEQ_LS_LOC_LID_tsUhTVIvcav0Cu1",
                    "autoGenerationPattern": "{value}",
                    "generateIfEmpty": true,
                    "generateIfNotEmpty": false,
                    "generatedValueUniqueForCrosswalk": true,
                    "attributeOrdering": {
                        "orderType": "ASC",
                        "orderingStrategy": "LUD"
                    },
                    "uri": "configuration/entityTypes/Location/attributes/LID",
                    "skipInDataAccess": false
                }

Answer

• If generateIfEmpty is set to true during a POST /entities call with the alwaysCreateDCR option turned on, the auto-generated field will have its value generated if it wasn't provided in the request.
• When generatedValueUniqueForCrosswalk is set to true, and the autogenerated field is defined in the POST /entities payload with alwaysCreateDCR as an option, the existing value by crosswalk will be reused instead of generating a new one.
• If generateIfNotEmpty is false during a POST /entities call with the alwaysCreateDCR option turned on, the autogenerated field will not be generated if a value is explicitly sent in the request.
• If you are using a null or a new "ungenerated" number when you use alwaysCreateDCR=true, then a newly generated LID is created. When you set "generateIfNotEmpty": false, the attribute is considered ordinary. When you provide a value, it stores it just like a non-autogenerated attribute with the same rules, depending on the crosswalk supplied with the update.  Therefore, when the DCR is approved and updated, you will see the re-creation of the LID value.