dhis2-devs team mailing list archive

[Jason Pickering <jason.p.pickering@xxxxxxxxx>]

Yeah, well, there is no easy way out here. One only need to review
this  http://www.mail-archive.com/dhis2-devs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/msg02059.html

I had a situation recently when implementing a logistics dataset,
which would have worked great with categories. The problem was that
categories are hard-wired like this..

A+B+C+D=E

My use case looked like this..

A+B-C+D=E

So, do we force the users to enter negative numbers for C in order to
enforce the sign? Seems no way to do it really, since data elements
are validated at the data element level (number, positive integer,
negative integer...) and not at the level of the category option.
Categories did not work here, and since indicators are not
multidimensional (yet) I would need to implement about 300+ indicators
in order to derive the "total", E. Painful, but no easy way around it
with McDonalds, so I did not use it.

Why not have a category "Gender" (not sex, but this is another
discussion Bob) with Male/Female/Unknown for all your data elements.
If "Unknown" does not apply, it is going to be null in all cases
anyway and not matter.

Regards,
Jason


On Mon, Jun 6, 2011 at 7:29 PM, Bob Jolliffe <bobjolliffe@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 6 June 2011 17:44, jason.p.pickering@xxxxxxxxx
> <jason.p.pickering@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>> KISS. Don't use categories as the model does not fit the use case. Three
>> plain old data elements will  work.
>>
>> Just a thought.
>
> Tempting thought ... with a few downsides. Its not just 3.  60 job titles x
> 3 would be 180 dataelements.  Also the existing sdmx-hd transforms I have
> developed map sdmx-hd dimensions onto our dhis categories.  Much though I
> might have reason to regret some of this, that is the way it is at the
> moment.  And it works ok as long as you don't want to add options to
> categories :-(
>
>>
>> Sent from my HTC
>>
>> ----- Reply message -----
>> From: "Bob Jolliffe" <bobjolliffe@xxxxxxxxx>
>> Date: Mon, Jun 6, 2011 18:11
>> Subject: [Dhis2-devs] adding categoryoption
>> To: "dhis2-devs" <dhis2-devs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>
>> The folk in Zanzibar have an interesting problem with linking with iHRIS.
>> iHRIS has data on staffing usually disaggregated by Male/Female but
>> occasionally not.  So they need an extra code Male, Female and Unknown.
>>
>> Now the Zanzibar database has a Sex category with Male and Female defined.
>> But *adding* a new categoryoption seems difficult.  After all there are
>> many
>> categorycombos using Sex as an axis.  And catoptcombos would need to be
>> regenerated etc.  Is there any sensible way to do this?
>>
>> The alternative is to make a brand new category, say Gender, and fill this
>> with the three options though that is far from ideal.  For one thing we
>> could not reuse the Male/Female codes so would have to use MALE/FEMALE or
>> what have you.
>>
>> Any thoughts?
>>
>> Regards
>> Bob
>>
>>
>
>