Tim ,
I believe it is far too doctirnaire to say that codes should not/never
be used for meta-data.
I do however concur that if one is a particular industry - communicating
with another member of that industry- then using codes for meta-data may be
unnecessary.
However if a particular party, like a carrier has to deal with many
industries - up to say 20 - then using meta- data to represent 'Product
Attributes' is one way to reduce the plethora of data formats, that the
carrier will have to deal with, unless meta data is used.
e.g.
If a carrier deals with: Retail for example he will need :
size,color,SKU,Season,washing instructions etc
If he also deals with metals (Aluminium) he will need :
Weight,Volume,Various Analyses and SKU Color etc will be irrelevant.
At the same time he may have to deal with TractorParts,
Automobiles,Coal,
Iron,Food, Aircraft parts,Oil etc
Believe me for a carrier many of these pieces of data are
required in separate fields - you can't just have a non-parsable 'Goods
Description' string
If he has to maintain different data strucutres for all these possibilities,
he will curse us or just won't do it.I suspect the latter.
I hear what is being said but I think a total ban is asking for trouble
Cheers, Phil
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim McGrath" <>
To: <>
Sent: Monday, April 29, 2002 7:11 AM
Subject: [ubl-comment] UBL comments on ebXML Core Components Technical
Specification v1.8
