The RMSCC Data Attribute Coding System (DACS) is a simple coding model that provides a method of structurally codifying attributes used by industry software systems for the purpose of passing information - unambiguously - along the supply chain.
The attribute coding model is made up of 5 segments:
1. Attribute authority This identifies the authority or organisation that is responsible for the definition and maintenance of the characteristics of the attribute. An example is the Australian Business Register (ABR) which is part of the Australian Government and responsible for issuing Australian Business Numbers (ABNs).
2. Attribute type This defines the classes of attribute types. An example "Attribute Type" is the class of attributes used for entity (or organisation, company, business) identification attributes.
3. Attribute function This is the individual attribute defined in general purpose or function. An example is Australian Business Number (ABN) which is an attribute with a defined purpose. The ABN can have various use cases such as the Buyer's ABN, the Seller's ABN, the transporter's ABN, etc. Each of these use cases create a unique variate of the general ABN attribute that is required to be used when passing information along a supply chain.
4. Attribute unit, format and/or precision. This defines one or more units, formats and/or precision for an attribute. Some attributes have a self-evident unit, format and/or precision, such as the Australian Business Number (ABN), which by its very nature is self-defining. Attributes like mass (weight), volume, length, area, date, time, etc., can have one or more defined units, formats, and/or precision. When passing data information along a supply chain the units, formats and/or precision need to be unambiguous.
5. Attribute-specific use case This defines the various use cases for an attribute. Many attributes may only have one use case and are easily understood. Some attributes, for example the ABN, can have various use cases such as the Buyer's ABN, the Seller's ABN, the transporter's ABN, etc. Each of these use cases creates a unique variant of the general ABN attribute that is required to be used when passing information along a supply chain.
Each unique value of the segment has a short descriptive code allocated to allow for ease of understanding. An example for the Australian Business Number (ABN) attribute function is descriptive code "abn". The ABN attribute is an attribute with the Attribute Type of "Country Registry Entity Identification" as the ABN is used to uniquely identify legal entities within Australia. The descriptive identifier for the "Country Registry Entity Identification" attribute type is "idEntityCountry". The attribute authority for the ABN attribute would be the Australian Business Register (ABR) with the descriptive code "abr". When these segments are joined the result would be the code "abrIdEntityCountryAbn". The attribute unit, format and/or precision for an ABN is self-evident as the ABN values are set by the Australian Business Register (ABR). The descriptive code for self-evident units is "selfDefined". The number of possible attribute-specific use cases can be extensive. For the attribute ABN that can be many use cases. An example is the buyer's ABN in a commercial transaction between trading partners. In this example the attribute specific use case descriptive code is "buyer". When all 5 segments are joined for this ABN example the total descriptive code would "abrIdEntityCountryAbnSelfDefinedBuyer".
The attribute coding model supports representing the joined 5 segments as a fixed-length, 15-character hexadecimal (hex) DACS code. This provides a robustly structured code to facilitate transmission of data between trading partners. Each of the 5 segments has three-character hexadecimal (hex) values. This provides a range of values from HEX 000 (decimal 0) through to HEX FFF (decimal 4,095) - a total of 4,096 possible values for each of the 5 attribute coding model segments.
Data Attribute Coding System (DACS) tool
The simple tool below provides a method to create a Data Attribute Coding System (DACS) code. NOTE: Not all combinations of the 5 segments would be realistic, usable or possible
When the 5 segments - each of three -character hexadecimal (hex) values - are joined together, they create the 15-character hexadecimal (hex) DACS code with a possible 1,152,921,504,606,846,975 unique attribute identifiers. For the ABN buyer example, the attribute identifier DACS code would be "A00102022A00101".
When shown as a key-value pair with an ABN value, the combination would appear as A00102022A00101=51824753556.
As a JSON key-value pair (also called a "name/value pair" or "property") the basic syntax would be "A00102022A00101": "51824753556".