dhis2-devs team mailing list archive

[Ime Asangansi <asangansi@xxxxxxxxx>]

Interesting...
My experience is that the same data element can be called different things by different installations e.g. in different states or projects - for example, "Malaria cases in children under five" and "Malaria - under five", etc. Sometimes the range of synonyms becomes so large between databases that importing for cross-database analysis becomes so difficult and a tiring process. 
At other times there are just two synonyms. In this case having an "alternative name" or "old name" seems to be useful.

This "match-making" process during import is one requirement for an "alternative name" or "old name" or whatever it wants to be called...but perhaps there is a better way of solving this?

Ime

--- On Thu, 4/28/11, Bob Jolliffe <bobjolliffe@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> From: Bob Jolliffe <bobjolliffe@xxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: [Dhis2-devs] Alternative names
> To: "Hieu Dang Duy" <hieu.hispvietnam@xxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: "Ola Hodne Titlestad" <olati@xxxxxxxxxx>, "DHIS 2 developers" <dhis2-devs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: Thursday, April 28, 2011, 12:18 PM
> On 28 April 2011 10:09, Hieu Dang Duy
> <hieu.hispvietnam@xxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > We have to be careful in misunderstanding of the
> meaning of alternative
> > name. The I18n translation functionality which is only
> the support one for
> > Multilingual. But in this case alternative name which
> could understand that
> > a another name of a specified object. One data
> element, ie. it could be
> > having many other alternative name. I'm not familiar
> with the health words.
> >
> > But for example in Chemical field, if you say CH3-OH
> so everyone would know
> > that is Methanol or Metilic alcohol.
> >
> > Just a small comment.
> 
> Fair point.  AlternativeName does invite the user to
> use it like this
> in the absence of any other guideline.
> 
> In general many things do have many names (I am Bob, my
> passport says
> Robert and the University of Oslo has me as Bo).  What
> is important on
> the output side is to know the context in which a
> particular name is
> appropriate.  In the I18n case, the context is
> determined by locale
> which seems to me to be the right way of determining which
> alternative
> name to use (assuming, as Ola says, that it works).
> 
> I am not sure if there is really a requirement for
> supporting other
> sorts of naming contexts - I haven't seen one, but there
> might be.
> For example different programs might have different names
> for the same
> indicator.  Facilities are perhaps an interesting case
> because they do
> occasionally get renamed so you might have current name and
> old name.
> Which is not a very serious problem when we don't use the
> name as the
> primary identifier.
> 
> It would be easy enough to have a table for alternative
> names of any
> and all identifiable objects.  In fact it might even
> be a good idea.
> What would be more complicated is to decide the context in
> which to
> use which name.  The simplest approach would be to not
> try and be too
> artificailly intelligent about it and provide the report
> designer with
> the set of alternative names to pick from if he/she so
> chose.
> 
> But without a clear requirement there's no need to make our
> lives
> complicated.  So to go back to my original question,
> do we have an
> existing use case (outside of I18n) where people are using
> alternativename differently?  eg synonymns for
> methanol.  My guess is
> that this is more a requirement in clinical systems than in
> aggregate
> reporting of datelements and indicators.  Except
> perhaps facilities
> ...
> 
> Cheers
> Bob
> 
> >
> > On Thu, Apr 28, 2011 at 1:37 PM, Ola Hodne Titlestad
> <olati@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > wrote:
> >>
> >> Not 100% sure, but I think Alternative Name is
> used to store the English
> >> translations of the Swahili data elements in the
> Tanzanian databases, as an
> >> ad-hoc i18n approach. This can of course be
> replaced by a using the i18n
> >> functionality (given that it works properly, and
> that it is also possible to
> >> show lists/reports etc. showing both languages).
> >>
> >> Ola
> >> --------
> >> ----------------------------------
> >> Ola Hodne Titlestad (Mr)
> >> HISP
> >> Department of Informatics
> >> University of Oslo
> >>
> >> Mobile: +47 48069736
> >> Home address: Vetlandsvn. 95B, 0685 Oslo, Norway.
> Googlemaps link
> >>
> >>
> >> On 27 April 2011 17:04, Bob Jolliffe <bobjolliffe@xxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> On 27 April 2011 15:24, Jason Pickering <jason.p.pickering@xxxxxxxxx>
> >>> wrote:
> >>> > +1 from me as well, assuming that we can
> migrate the existing
> >>> > alternative names to whatever object
> replaces it.
> >>>
> >>> To what extent to we have existing alternative
> names?
> >>>
> >>> >Also, if you can
> >>> > look into how  we can match on these
> names during import, similar to
> >>> > DHIS 1.4, this would be very useful in
> hetereogeneous, data
> >>> > warehousing situations where multiple
> data bases feed DHIS2, but which
> >>> > may have slightly different names of the
> same data element.
> >>> >
> >>> >
> >>> >
> >>> > On 4/27/11, Bob Jolliffe <bobjolliffe@xxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
> >>> >> 2011/4/27 Saptarshi Purkayastha
> <sunbiz@xxxxxxxxx>:
> >>> >>> I would actually suggest that
> multiple alternative names to be added
> >>> >>> for a
> >>> >>> dataelement or indicator.
> >>> >>> It would be similar to the
> representing synonyms for a data element
> >>> >>> or
> >>> >>> indicator.
> >>> >>
> >>> >> Saptarshi I think I agree with you in
> principle.  And probably the
> >>> >> best way to work towards this is to
> start by removing the hard coded
> >>> >> alternative name property. So +1 from
> me to the proposal.
> >>> >>
> >>> >>>
> >>> >>> ---
> >>> >>> Regards,
> >>> >>> Saptarshi PURKAYASTHA
> >>> >>>
> >>> >>> My Tech Blog:  http://sunnytalkstech.blogspot.com
> >>> >>> You Live by CHOICE, Not by
> CHANCE
> >>> >>>
> >>> >>>
> >>> >>> 2011/4/27 Lars Helge Øverland
> <larshelge@xxxxxxxxx>
> >>> >>>>
> >>> >>>> Hi all, we are currently
> investigating the core domain model in
> >>> >>>> order to
> >>> >>>> see how we can make the
> entities have a consistent set of
> >>> >>>> properties.
> >>> >>>> In that regard we are
> proposing to remove the alternative name
> >>> >>>> property
> >>> >>>> of
> >>> >>>> data element and indicator
> entities. It seems this property is a
> >>> >>>> ad-hoc
> >>> >>>>
> legacy internationalization effort and not really useful.
> Would it
> >>> >>>> be
> >>> >>>> okay
> >>> >>>> to remove it?
> >>> >>>>
> >>> >>>>
> >>> >>>> regards, Lars
> >>> >>>>
> >>> >>>>
> _______________________________________________
> >>> >>>> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~dhis2-devs
> >>> >>>> Post to     : dhis2-devs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >>> >>>> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~dhis2-devs
> >>> >>>> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
> >>> >>>>
> >>> >>>
> >>> >>>
> >>> >>>
> _______________________________________________
> >>> >>> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~dhis2-devs
> >>> >>> Post to     : dhis2-devs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >>> >>> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~dhis2-devs
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> >>> >>>
> >>> >>>
> >>> >>
> >>> >>
> _______________________________________________
> >>> >> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~dhis2-devs
> >>> >> Post to     : dhis2-devs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >>> >> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~dhis2-devs
> >>> >> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
> >>> >>
> >>> >
> >>> >
> >>> > --
> >>> > Jason P. Pickering
> >>> > email: jason.p.pickering@xxxxxxxxx
> >>> > tel:+260974901293
> >>> >
> >>>
> >>>
> _______________________________________________
> >>> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~dhis2-devs
> >>> Post to     : dhis2-devs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >>> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~dhis2-devs
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> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >> Post to     : dhis2-devs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~dhis2-devs
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> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Good health !
> >
> >
> 
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