Types of Identifiers

Historically, it has not been possible to differentiate between identifiers in the II datatype. However, an MnM resolution at the May, 2006 WGM recommending the introduction of an II.useCode property should differentiate this (see the Datatypes R2 Issue 57 proposal).

• Business Identifier: This is a commonly used identifier associated with a particular object. It is often a publicly exposed identifier which is known to providers and may be printed on reports or forms. It remains consistent as a class undergoes state transitions, including suspend, resume, revise, abort and complete. It is the truest identifier of the "object", given the MnM paradigm that an object persists across state transitions.

• Version Identifier: This is a type of identifier introduced in some jurisdictions to allow referencing a particular business object as it existed at a given point in time. They can be considered identifiers of a static snapshot of the object. This type of identifier changes with each state transition on the object. I.e. The version identifier of an object prior to a 'suspend' state transition is distinct from the identifier of the object after the state transition. Each version identifier can be tied to exactly one ControlAct event which brought that version into being.

• Information Instance Identifier: This is an identifier for the exact information items that are included within a static model instance. This identifies a view of the business object at a particular point in time, and as such identifies a set of data items that can be digitally signed and/or attested. This is in contrast to the Version Identifier which identifies the object at a specific time, but not the amount of information being asserted about the object.

See Types of Updates for a discussion of the link between Types of Identifier and updates of objects.