Relationship between data dictionary and code tables

The Data dictionary is the key place that you go to obtain information about RefTracker fields. But Code tables provide additional information that supplements the Data dictionary. Therefore there is a structured hierarchical relationship between the Code tables, Data dictionary, and functionality of RefTracker such as the Request forms, DeskStats and the Answering processes.

What this means is that what you define in the Code tables feeds into, or augments, the Data Dictionary. But it is the Data dictionary that is the structure that supports the RefTracker functionality.

Therefore the relationship between Code tables, the Data dictionary and the RefTracker functionality is hierarchical. Changes that you make at the higher levels automatically feed through to the lower levels. For example, if you set the Age/Group Code table to Mandatory in the Code tables, it will automatically reset it to Mandatory in the Data dictionary and reset all uses of the field in Request forms to Mandatory. These cascading changes make it very easy to implement a policy change. For example, if the collection of information about the client’s reason for using your library (Reason Code table) is no longer required – just change the Reason Code table to Disabled in System>Code tables and your new policy is implemented! The Reason code table will automatically be disabled in the Data dictionary, and all uses of the Reason code in your Request forms and other RefTracker functionality like DeskStats, will also be disabled (i.e. they will no longer display).

Setting fields or code tables to Optional provides the greatest level of flexibility as an Optional setting allows lower levels in the hierarchy to be set independently. For example, if Age/Group is set to optional in its Code table, you can still manually set the Question table of the Data dictionary to Optional to provide flexibility in designing Request forms, and the DeskStats data table of the Data dictionary to Disabled so that Age/Group does not have to be collected in DeskStats. But then in each Request form, you can then individually set the type of each use of the Age/Group field to Mandatory to ensure that this data is ALWAYS collected for full questions.

Here is an example of how the relationship between Code tables, the Data dictionary, and the Request forms works: