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3.1 Change
14. Reference Data
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3.1.14. Reference Data:
Public: UK Town names. UK County names. Country names. Base Currency names and codes. Timezone names and offsets. VAT code and rate. Month names. Day names. Active-Inactive flag. Yes-No flag.
Bespoke: Standard Industry Code (SIC) names. Airline names and flight codes. Airport names and codes.
Private: Email Domain names. Language names. Occupation (Job Title) names.
Private: Contact Method options. Kind of Business Associate. State of BA. Kind of Task. State of Task.
ASP: Welcome page; Role; Hours; Days; Check; Expiry; Place; ISP.
Private: Gender; Function; Ethnic. Type of DBS. Type of Transaction.

Simplicity:
Reference data design may be optimised for ease of development or ease of maintenance.   A simplistic design is to store all reference data in a table with a common maintenance spread sheet - ease of development.   But this implies that all reference data is the same - sorry it is not all the same and different storage methods can be beneficial.

Classification:
Reference data has been analysed in detail and the following "kinds" of reference data have been identified:-
1. Private and confidential business reference data such as the state of a task that may be improved occasionally as the business evolves.
2. Public reference data such as county, country, language, timezone and currency names that are very unlikely to evolve.
3. TIES reference data such as library names, month names, welcome pages and security factors that may be pseudo logic - data used by functions.
4. Lookup reference data where the quantity of data demands a unique file store such as 1500 UK Town names or 2000 Airport names.

Implementation:
1. WOP is the ASP reference data facility to store TIES code/description reference data - WOP is only accessible by ASP office.
2. UOP is the business reference data facility to store private code/description reference data - UOP is accessible by Head Office HRM application - user managed.
3. Public and Lookup reference data may be stored as CSV files or bespoke tables - only available from ASP dashboard.

Code-Description:
1. Codes are stored in business data as an 8 digit key in a 4 byte integer (replacing a 3 character code in 4 bytes).
2. Where extra data is needed such as a timezone hours offset, then a bespoke table or CSV file is deployed.
3. Descriptions are up to 32 characters in WOP and UOP. Where a longer description such as a Standard Industry Code is needed, then a CSV file is deployed.

Expansion:
Where reference data is stored in a file, it can be beneficial to store only a 3 digit key.   When the list key is stored in business data, the 3 digit key is assigned a 5 random digit prefix so it looks like a normal 8 digit key.   When the list key is selected from business data, its 5 digit prefix is removed.
A benefit is that common options are stored as unique 8 digit keys.   For example: "England" is a common country name, but each instance is stored with a unique 5 digit prefix with a common 3 digit country key.   This will make it harder to identify where the country data is stored.