Managing EDI Code Lists
One of the readers needs a recommendation on the best practices to support EDI code lists. In addition to responding directly, I deemed it an important enough clarification to post here in the blog.
The code lists are associated with the ID Data Type in the Data Element definitions and obviously there are many ways of supporting code lists. Two common approaches are: as a code list in an mdb file; or including the code list values as an enumeration/collection within the XSD schema itself. Both approaches have pros/cons.
The most efficient way of processing enumeration values/code lists at run time is to include them in the schema/definition (managed via the Enumeration Editor in Visual Studio/BTS Schema Editor) itself, as per screen shot available as an attachment with this Blog entry.
Namaste!
