Understanding Categories and Codes

Categories and Codes form the basis for much of the information that is available to users of Emplifi Agent. A thorough understanding of these concepts is crucial to being able to successfully administer the system.

What is a Category?

In general terms, a category in Emplifi Agent defines a domain of values. Each category typically corresponds to a field somewhere on the Case page, or on some other page in the system.

The number of categories that are available for you to use varies depending on the data element (case, address, issue, etc).

Category Names

In Emplifi Agent, all categories have a predefined name.

The name is always three characters in length, and always begins with a letter. The first letter in the category name identifies the specific data element within the system to which that category is related.

Because of this convention, you will often hear categories referred to as "A-codes," "B-codes," etc. If someone says that you need to create a "C-code," what they are really saying is that you need to create a category related to issues.

Types of Categories

When you define a category for use in the system, you begin by choosing what type of data is represented by that category. The following are the basic category types. (Within each type, there can be multiple sub-types. For more information, refer to Category Types. )

Types of Categories	Description
Category Code	You will define all the possible data values that can be entered for this category. Each of these values is referred to as a "code." Category codes can be arranged in a logical hierarchy up to 6 levels deep.
String	The basic format for this category is a string value. For strings, you still have some amount of control over the entries by defining the length, capitalization rules, and format.
Date / Time	The entries in this category will contain either a date or time value (or both). There are several different types and formats available.
Numeric	The entries in this category will all be numeric values. You can define the format.

 

Available Category IDs and Their Max Size

The following table provides a list of the types of categories, the available Category IDs, and the max size in characters of the column in the table.

Letter	Categories Related To...	Available Category IDs	Max Column Size
A	Address	A01–A80	40 (except A26 which is 2000)
B	Case Header	B01–B79	40 (except B10 and B20 which are 2000)
C	Issues	C01–C99	40 (except C31, C61, and C91 which are 2000)
C	Issues (Defined Type)	CA0-CFF	Defined by administrator
D	Actions	D05–D09	40
E	Products	E05–E99	40 (except E31, E61, E91 which are 2GB)
F	Case Enclosure	F06–F70	40
G	Text Type	G01	40 for codes; 255 for description
G	Text Keywords	G02	40 for codes: 255 for Text Replace
G	Send Text with SMS or Chat	G03	40 for codes; 255 for description 1, 2, 3
G	Case Texts	GF4	2GB
H	Case Letters	H01–H02	H01 is 40 H02 is 12
I	Phone	I01–I02	I01 is 40 I02 is 255
J	Enclosures	J05–J20	40
K	Standard Paragraphs	K01	2GB
L	Script Page	L01	40
N	Other Internal Categories	N01–N03	40
O	Reporting Categories	O01–O10	40
P	Extended Address Attributes	P01–P99	2000
T	Issue Detail	T01–T31	40 (except T31 which is 2000)
U	System User	U01–U15	40
Z	System Categories	Z01–Z08	40

 

Best Practices for C-Codes

Before setting up C-codes, we recommend you use text data codes for category code or string, and user-defined codes for numeric or date/time data types.

There are two groups of C-codes:

• C01 through C99 are stored as text data. As a best practice, use these categories for string or category code.
• CA0 through CFF are stored in the format of the defined type, making these categories better for dates and numbers. However, they can be used for additional string and category code fields.

When you define C-codes as numbers, they are easily used in calculations, and make database queries and updates more productive. For example, when sorting a date field using a column defined as a date, it sorts based on the actual date. With text-based fields, it defaults to sorting alphabetically. During implementation we suggest using codes C05 through C99 as string or category codes. Use codes CA0 through CFF as numeric or date/time fields.

Note: For categories C01-C99, setting the Type field to "Real Integer" for a number has no effect. Instead, you should use the extended categories CA0-CFF which causes it to behave as a true number.

 

Related Topics about Categories and Codes

Related Topics about App Setup