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.
Letter Assignments
Letter | Categories Related To... |
|---|---|
A | Address |
B | Case Header |
C | Issues |
D | Actions |
E | Products |
F | Case Enclosure |
G | Case Texts |
H | Case Letters |
I | Phone |
J | Enclosures |
K | Standard Paragraphs |
L | Script Page |
N | Other Internal Categories |
O | Reporting Categories |
P | Extended Address Attributes |
Q | Order Management |
R | Service Line |
T | Issue Detail |
U | System User |
Z | System Categories |
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, see 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 | 4000 |
B | Case Header | B01–B79 | 4000 |
C | Issues | C01–C99 | 4000 |
C | Issues (Defined Type) | CA0-CFF | Defined by administrator |
D | Actions | D05–D09 | 40 |
E | Products | E05–E99 | 4000 |
F | Case Enclosure | F06–F70 | 40 |
G | Text Type | G01 | 40 for codes; |
G | Text Keywords | G02 | 40 for codes: |
G | Send Text with SMS or Chat | G03 | 40 for codes; |
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 | 4000 |
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 | 4000 |
T | Issue Detail | T01–T31 | 40 (except T31 which is 2000) |
U | System User | U01–U15 | 4000 |
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.
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.