Re: Getting Back to Basics - How to describe Dates and Times andEvents?

["William J. Kammerer" <wkammerer@foresightcorp.com>]

Phil Goatly thinks "there should be some kind of rule to decide whether
something is a 'coded list' or whether it is a 'class' i.e tag."  For
example, he thinks "it would be silly if every country were to be a
class i.e tag e.g <UK> </UK> etc. even worse it would be silly to have
each UN-LOCODE as a tag (there are about 30,000 of these)."  "But," Phil
continues, "should each party have its own tag?"

It certainly would be silly for each Country or UN/LOCODE to be tagged.
The reason that they're codified in the first place is so they can be
used as *codes*!

A location core component - something to hold a UN/LOCODE, EAN GLN or
DUNS+4 - might be modeled on the C517 LOCATION IDENTIFICATION UN/EDIFACT
composite, at http://www.unece.org/trade/untdid/d01a/trcd/trcdc517.htm.
By default, if the 1131/3055 qualifier pair are omitted, then it's
understood the D.E. 3225  Location name code is a UN/LOCODE.  Else, if
D.E. 3055 Code list responsible agency is "9" then we're talking about
an EAN GLN.  On the other hand, if D.E. 3055 is "16" - meaning "DUNS
(Dun & Bradstreet)" - people take that to mean a DUNS, or a DUNS+4,
depending on the length of the number in D.E. 3225 Location name code!
There is a black art to the UN/EDIFACT mess.

So XML'ized examples are:

   <Location>
      USCMH
      <Notation>Port Columbus Int'l Airport, Columbus, Ohio</Notation>
   </Location>

   <Location>
      4012345500004
      <Agency>9<Notation>EAN GLN</Notation></Agency>
   </Location>

   <Location>
      1465226281604
      <Notation>
         Dick's Cold Storage,
         3080 Valleyview Dr.  Columbus, OH 43204
      </Notation>
      <Agency>16<Notation>DUNS+4</Notation></Agency>
   </Location>


If by "party" Phil means any of the millions of possible parties in the
world (e.g., each DUNS or EAN GLN), then again, these are codifications
and are meant to be used as *codes*, not tags.  On the other hand, there
are only a finite number of *roles* of party, which EDIFACT has
conveniently defined in D.E. 3035 Party function code qualifier, at
http://www.unece.org/trade/untdid/d01a/tred/tred3035.htm.  Whether you
used a generic "PartyRole" which was qualified by one of these
attributes or codes or you generated class names like "PartyToBeBilled"
or "Employer" is problematical.

William J. Kammerer
FORESIGHT Corp.
4950 Blazer Pkwy.
Dublin, OH USA 43017-3305
+1 614 791-1600

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