The RESO Data Dictionary establishes standard names and locations for resources, fields and lookups (aka enumerations); however, different providers support different data elements and there are sometimes multiple ways to express standard data elements.
For example, there are flattened ListAgent fields in the Property Resource, but there is also a ListAgent expansion that allows end users to combine the information from the Member Resource into the ListAgent field in the Property Resource directly.
Not all providers offer expanded Member Resource information and, even if they do, data consumers might not have access to expanded Member Resource data in their feeds. Additionally, this information can change over time, whereas Member Resource information flattened into the Property Resource usually reflects information at the time of entry.
There are also cases where some providers will support YN fields on their own (HorseYN), in their corresponding feature fields (HorseAmenities) or both.
End users should be prepared to support obtaining information from different locations supported by the standard. RESO is currently working on eliminating unnecessary duplication from the Data Dictionary.
However, some “duplication” in the Data Dictionary is useful. For example, PoolPrivateYN communicates similar information to the Private lookup option of the PoolFeatures field, although they have different uses. In this case, the PoolFeatures field can provide other descriptions of the pool, in addition to it being private (e.g., In Ground, Heated). The PoolPrivateYN field can only communicate whether or not the pool is private but these types of fields can be more useful for high-level filtering by data consumers.
For questions or comments, contact dd@reso.org.
See the DD Wiki for more info on fields described when discussing Differences in Data Dictionary Implementations.
