RODA maintains four different types of identifier for activities. They differ according to where the identifier comes from, what it's used for, and what rules it has to conform to. The identifiers are named:
- Previous Identifier
- Partner Organisation Identifier
- RODA Identifier
- Transparency Identifier
For activities that come from ingest of historical data from IATI, this is the identifier contained in the ingested data. It is stored verbatim; RODA does not modify the ingested value before storing it.
If an activity has a Previous Identifier stored, then that will be used to identify the activity when re-exporting information about it to IATI.
This is the identifier by which a Partner Organisation refers to the activity in their own records. It has no syntactic restrictions; it can contain any characters the user wants and RODA does not assume anything about its structure or about the other systems that use this identifier.
The Partner Organisation Identifier should not be used for anything within RODA other than displaying it so that a Partner Organisation can cross-reference with their own records. It should not be exported to third-party organisations.
It can be explicitly added to an activity via the service, and it may be edited at any time.
This identifier is also populated by the ingest process -- RODA makes a best
guess as to what the Partner Organisation Identifier for an ingested activity is,
based on the Previous Identifier. It removes the strings GB-GOV-13-, GCRF-,
and NEWT- from the start of the Previous Identifier, and stores the result as
the Partner Organisation Identifier.
Starting with activities reported in Q2 2021-2022, the previous RODA identifier scheme was replaced with a new one. Activities prior to this retain their existing RODA identifier, but any new activities will have a new, auto generated one assigned.
The RODA identifier still reflects the hierarchy of activities, with each level adding to the parent identifier. For this reason, new activities added to older parents will have a hybrid identifier.
The main motivation for this change was to remove both DSIT and partner organisations from the creation of the identifiers, which was a heavy burden and slowed the reporting process drastically, users no longer have to enter any information into the service in order to create a new activity and its identifier.
The RODA identifier retains the constraints of the legacy version.
For each new activity in the hierarchy we create a unique, seven character string for each new activity, from the following characters:
23456789ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZ
The RODA identifier also includes the fund code (level A activity code), this is achieved by adding these two values to the identifier for top level activities (level B).
With the launch of ISPF, which will include non-ODA activities, the rules for the RODA identifiers of such activities have been expanded to include the addition of the prefix "NODA", to make it easier to distinguish non-ODA activities at a glance.
The identifier by which RODA knows an activity, and should be regarded as the canonical identifier for an activity. It is used to identify the activity in exported data. It must be globally unique; no two activities within RODA, at any level, may have the same RODA Identifier.
Because of restrictions imposed by organisations we export data to, the RODA
Identifier has a maximum length of 40 characters and may only contain letters
(A to Z in upper or lower case), digits (0 to 9), and the characters
-, _, / and \.
The RODA Identifier is strictly hierarchical; the Identifier for an activity is
a prefix for all the activities sitting under it. For example, if a level A
activity has the Identifier GCRF, then all level B activities sitting under it
will have identifiers beginning GCRF-.
Within the service, users enter only the component of the identifier for the
level, and RODA combines them automatically. For example, when entering the RODA
Identifier for a level B activity under the level A activity GCRF, if the user
enters UKSA then the combined RODA Identifier for the level B activity becomes
GCRF-UKSA.
The full schema for a RODA Identifier at level D is A-B-CD, where A is the
component from level A, B the component from level B, and so on. DSIT will set
the identifiers at levels A and B, and the A-B portion must be at most 18
characters long. Partners Organisations will set the identifiers at levels C and D,
and the CD portion must be at most 21 characters long.
Because these identifiers are used to identify activities in exported data, they must remain stable, so they cannot be edited after first being set. Because of the length validation, an activity can only have a RODA Identifier added after its parent has been given one.
RODA Identifiers are not assigned by the ingest process, they are only set by end users.
This identifier is a transformed version of the RODA Identifier that's
compatible with the IATI rules. Any string of characters in the RODA Identifier
that are not letters, digits, or - are replaced with -, and the
organisational prefix GB-GOV-26- is prepended to the result.
This identifier is not set by the ingest process or assigned directly by end users; it is derived from the RODA Identifier when that is set.
The Transparency Identifier is used to identify activities in data exported to IATI, if the activity does not have a Previous Identifier stored.