<type name="Magento\Framework\View\Element\UiComponent\DataProvider\CollectionFactory">
    <arguments>
        <argument name="collections" xsi:type="array">
            <item name="catalog_rule_data_source" xsi:type="string">
                catalogRuleSearchResult
            </item>
        </argument>
    </arguments>
</type>

This is a type configuration.

This configuration is for the base area. Base area configurations will apply to all the sub-applications.

This configuration tells the Object Manager that when a user wants a Magento\Framework\View\Element\UiComponent\DataProvider\CollectionFactory object that the following arguments should be used in the foo object's constructor.

• $collections = [...items...];

<virtualType name="catalogRuleSearchResult"
             type="Magento\Framework\View\Element\UiComponent\DataProvider\SearchResult">
    <arguments>
        <argument name="mainTable" xsi:type="string">
            catalogrule
        </argument>
        <argument name="resourceModel" xsi:type="string">
            \Magento\CatalogRule\Model\ResourceModel\Rule
        </argument>
    </arguments>
</virtualType>

This is a virtual type configuration.

This configuration is for the base area. Base area configurations will apply to all the sub-applications.

This virtualType configuration tells the Object Manager when a user wants a virtual catalogRuleSearchResult object that it should return a Magento\Framework\View\Element\UiComponent\DataProvider\SearchResult object.

This configuration tells the Object Manager that when a user wants a catalogRuleSearchResult object that the following arguments should be used in the foo object's constructor.

• $mainTable = "catalogrule";
• $resourceModel = "\Magento\CatalogRule\Model\ResourceModel\Rule";