Customisable options for direction ("operation character")

[pwalsh]

Description

Fiscal Data Package v0.3 has a direction concept. There are two fixed directions of "expenditure" and "revenue". We have clear examples of the limitations of this from Australian budgets, from Israeli budgets, and US budgets.

Additionally, the idea of direction is strongly tied to "expenditure" and "revenue". The OpenBudgets.eu Data Model calls this "Operation Character", which I think is preferable.

@akariv has a solution for Operation Character as a customisable sequence for Fiscal Data Package v1.0.0. We'll share a draft here.

See prior discussion here

Tasks

• @akariv to share draft implementation / example / wording

[pwalsh]

@akariv also related, this discussion on supporting non-monetary measures: openspending/fiscal-data-package#138

[akariv]

I think we should remove the strict set of options from the spec, especially as properties of measures.

• Certain fiscal system have more than just the two basic directions
• Certain files will have both income and expenditure rows.

The proposed solution would be to:

• For files with just one direction for all rows:
  • Do nothing
  • Create a constant virtual column with a direction column-type and the direction name as the value
• For files with multiple directions for rows:
  • Map the column that states the direction to the direction column-type

[akariv]

BTW, same goes for phase and currency.

[pwalsh]

@akariv

Can you:

1. Add here a brief description, and a sample snippet, of the new syntax/handling being proposed for v1.
2. Additionally, link to the current text of the v1 spec in whole.

[akariv]

This is the working draft of the v1 FDP spec: https://hackmd.io/BwNgpgrCDGDsBMBaAhtALARkWsPEE5posR8RxgAzffWfDIA=?view

This new spec removes the strict rules on 'direction'. Direction is now a ColumnType, meaning it could be used to describe an existing column of the data, or as a 'constant value' column, adding this information as meta-data. It could also be omitted completely by the users, in cases it's not applicable.
There are no restrictions on the values of direction, and that's left for the users of the data to interpret based on local context.