EIDX Glossary of Terms

Daemon - A background program that runs on a computer expecting to receive requests from other computers to perform some action.  For example, an HTTP daemon runs on a Web server, just waiting for someone's browser (an HTTP client) to send a request.  If the request is valid (e.g. well-formed HTML was used to generate the request), the daemon interprets the request and forwards it to the appropriate program or process.

Data - A representation of facts, concepts or instructions in a formalized manner suitable for communication, interpretation or processing by human beings or by automatic means. [ISO 9735]

Data Attribute - Structure information that establishes the context of the data and gives it meaning. Also used to refer to the descriptive structure information of a field in a data record.

Data Compression - Process by which the contents of a data file are changed to enable the information to take up less disk space. This procedure eliminates repeating items in the data and has a code to show different lengths for certain character sequences. Data compression can make a regular text file about half its original size.

Data Confidentiality - Security, policies, and practices, which assure that data collected by or offered to a Web site will be held in confidence.

Data Dictionary - A repository that stores meta-data (data about data).  A data dictionary can typically stores field names, their descriptions/semantic meaning, relationships among fields, origin, usage, field types, sizes and formats, and so on.  A data dictionary can also store aliases. data models, record layouts, data flows, data structures, and other attributes.

Data Element - Basic units of information in the standards containing a set of values that represents a singular fact. They may be single-character codes, literal descriptions, numeric values, or may have a specific size, type, and range.

• A unit of data which, in a certain context, is considered indivisible. [ISO 2382/4]
• UN/EDIFACT says a unit of data for which the identification, description and value representation have been specified. [ISO 9735]

Data Element Attribute - A defined characteristic of a data element.

Data Element Directory - A listing of identified, named and described data element attributes, with specifications as to how the corresponding data element values shall be represented. [ISO 9735]

Data Element Length - Range, minimum to maximum, of the number of character positions available to represent the value of a data element. A data element may be of variable length with range from minimum to maximum, or it may be of fixed length in which the minimum is equal to the maximum.

Data Element Name - One or more words in a natural language identifying a data element concept. [ISO 9735]

Data Element Reference Number - Reference number assigned to a data element as a unique identifier.

Data Element Representation - The format of a data item.  Examples:

• "yyyymmdd" for date representation
• "last, first" for representation of a name

Data Element Requirement Designator - Code defining the need for a data element value to appear in the segment if the segment is transmitted. The codes are mandatory (M), operational (O), or conditional(C).

Data Element Separator - A character used to separate data elements in a variable length data segment. [ISO 9735]

Data Element Tag - A unique identifier for a data element in a data element directory. [ISO 9735]

Data Element Type - Data element may be one of six types:

• numeric
• decimal
• identifier string
• date
• time

Data Element Value - The specific entry of an identified data element represented as specified in a data element directory.

Data Exchange Service Provider - A third party that performs gateway functions as a service.  A company using a DESP generates or receives whatever file formats are built natively into the back-end application to the DESP, who performs the conversion (translation/mapping/parsing), validation, and routing to or from trading partners, including managing partner profiles.  Most VANs have always offered these types of services.

Data integrity - Accuracy of file data. Data integrity ensures that the data are pure and not corrupted.

Data link - Actual connection through which data can be transferred from one computer device to another. This type of link is used to connect any two or more devices that have the capability to send or receive data.

Data Maintenance (DM) - Term used to describe the X12 processes of evaluating, approving and recording revisions to the standards based on work requests. DM is the term used to identify a work request after a DM number has been assigned.

Data Mart - See definition of Repository.

Data Mining - A business intelligence method that looks for hidden patterns in data to allow the building detailed profiles that may or not be sold to third parties.   Also refers to solutions that perform data mining processes.

Data Transfer - Process of moving data from one physical location to another either through internal means in a computer by transferring data from memory to disk, disk to tape, or hard disk to floppy, or through external means by transferring data between computers on a network or through a communications link.

Data Unit - A segment, segment group, composite data element, data element as defined in a directory and its message type specifications.

Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) - Nine-position company identification code issued by the Dun and Bradstreet Corporation to identify businesses in its automated files.

Data Warehouse - See Repository.

Date/Time Stamp - To append or attach a digital notation, such as a signature or certificate, which indicates the date, time, and identity of the person appending or attaching the notation.

Decision Support System (DSS) - Software designed to aid in decision making; the architecture generally relies on one or more data bases that feed into a specialized data warehouse that captures information that will be queried and analyzed. 

For DSS purposes, "real time" is a myth. To achieve proper synchronization between event and state data, file creation must occur when the system is stable, and preferably at rest . That usually means nightly backup time, which happens in 24 different global time zones, which means you are doing well to produce a global, synchronized portrait of the supply chain every 24 hours.

Decryption - Decoding of encrypted or specially coded information to allow use of the data in a normal manner. This is a form of guarding information to help ensure limited access.

Dedicated Line - See leased line.

Delimiter - A character used for syntactical separation of data. [ISO 9735]  Also known as a separator character or service character.  A delimiter marks the beginning or end of a string of data.  It may be a single character or a string of characters.  To avoid misinterpretation, the character used as the delimiter should not be part of the data stream itself.  If the delimiter must be used for its original purpose as part of the data, a Release Character may be used if the syntax rules of the given computer language allow it.  In HTML/XML  "Escape Sequences" are used.  See also the Character Sets Table.

Demand - Information concerning forecasted or firm requirements over a future time period; represents what a customer wishes to purchase and implies that the customer has the means to make the purchases.  The reason that business processes are as complex as they are is that demand and supply are virtually never in balance.

Denial of Service Attack - One, or a series of illegal actions on the part of hackers that prevent access to Web sites, in effect shutting the site down temporarily.

Depositor - One who deposits something into an account.  Used in logistics to describe a party (client) that contracts with a third-party warehouse to manage their inventory.  The term "depositor" applies regardless of who physically deposits inventory into the warehouse; if a buyer contracts with a third-party warehouse, the buyer is the depositor, even though the seller launches the physical shipment to the warehouse.  Just as an employee may have her employer directly deposit her pay into her bank accounts, from the bank's perspective the employee is the depositor - the owner of the account.

Design Win - From a broad perspective, a design win has been achieved whenever a customer, prospective customer or customer's agent (such as a distributor) notifies a supplier that its product has been selected for integration into the customer's product.  At this broader level, there are usually financial incentives involved beyond the securing of the customer's business.   More specifically, design win refers to a program whereby a supplier offers financial incentives in the form of bonuses, rebates, Ship-from-Stock and debit authorizations and/or off book pricing when its product is designed into another company's product and agreed upon sales quotas or other conditions are met.  If the supplier is working directly with the end-customer, the supplier's sales force achieves the "design win" when the customer designs in the product; the customer gets financial awards in the form of rebates, debit authorizations and/or special pricing once conditions for incentives are met; if a distributor is brokering the design work, the distributor achieves the "design win" when the distributor's customer designs in the supplier's product, and financial awards realized when the conditions for incentives are met. 

Dial-up Service - A connection which uses the public telephone network to make a connection to a network.  If you are using an analog modem connected to your telephone line to connect to an ISP, you are not making an Internet connection directly.  You are connecting to the ISP's network, and issuing commands to the ISP's server, through a shell, and the ISP's server communicates with the internet connections for you.  The good news is that dial-up is almost universally available.  However, while analog modems today can deliver speeds up to 56.6 kilobytes per second, which is fine for a casual user, it is too slow for a power user wanting to download large files or a telecommuter or business wanting to use online remote collaboration tools.  Many people are replacing dial-up connections with ISDN or DSL.  Large companies with high internet traffic volumes are increasingly returning to leased lines for communicating with VANs and ISPs.  Dial-up connection types include PPP and SLIP.

Digital Certificate - A password protected file that includes information, including the holder's public encryption keys, that can be used to verify the Digital Signature of the holder.  Digital certificates are issued by certificate authorities, and are valid only for a limited time period.  The digital certificate itself contains the digital signature of the certificate authority, so that the recipient can verify that the certificate is real.

Digital Communications - A method of transmitting signals where data is represented by binary digits - zeroes and ones - making all signals fixed-length.  Opposite of analog.

Digital Envelope - The encrypted private key used to decode an accompanying encrypted message, such as financial information necessary to transact an online purchase order. The sender's software first randomly generates the private key and uses it to encrypt the data, and then encrypts the private key itself using the recipient's public key. The message and digital envelope (the encrypted key) are sent to the recipient. The recipient uses his/her private key to decrypt the message envelope and then uses the decrypted private key to decode the actual message.

Digital Marketplace - See eMarketplace.

Digital Signature - A digital code that authenticates - uniquely identifies - the sender. Digital signatures can be attached to electronic purchase orders, contracts, email, etc. They were awarded legal status in the United States in July 2000. 

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) - A technology that uses existing copper wiring found in almost every home or office to provide a high-speed connection to the Internet.  DSL can also be used to connect to a LAN.  Special hardware is attached at both ends of the line to allow data to transmit over the wires at a far greater speed than the normal analog speed of your POTS.  A DSL is convenient for individual households and small offices in that you only need one phone line to carry both voice and data signals.