Reference Data Module

The reference data module is a helper module designed to unify the access to reference data. Typically there are many sources for reference data: some data is managed by customs authorities (e.g. list of customs offices), some data is managed by national and international standards (e.g. country and language codes), some data is coming from other governmental agencies, etc. In addition to the multitude of possible sources of reference data, there are also many formats and protocols that are used to access the reference data.

Due to the modular nature of Customs Engine, it makes sense to develop single technical protocol for accessing the reference data that will be used inside CuE modules.

Reference data module proxies the reference data, originating from different sources, available using different protocols and makes it available to the rest of CuE modules using unified API.

The reference data module supports collecting information from various sources:

• locally managed reference data. Reference data module provides means to define new classifiers and to manage their contents.

• reference data distributed by DG TAXUD in the form on Information Exchange messages. Reference data module can be set up to automatically receive and update the reference data managed by DG TAXUD.

• generic "push" interface. Other information systems can "push" the reference data updates to reference data module.

• various "pull" interfaces. Reference data module can be set up to "pull" information from other systems.

All the information is stored by reference data module in unified and historized form. This allows to provide other modules with fast and reliable reference data information service.