4.3 Eliminating Choice Children

A Choice Element allows only one of the elements contained in its definition to be present within the containing element.  In the user interface, it is represented as a dropdown list:

A schema is often designed for many different use cases and some choice elements may be irrelevant to one reporting entity. In this case it is beneficial to mask some of the choice elements in the schema to better match your reporting requirements. 

Each item selectable from a list (choice child) will be represented by a different table in your source data.

NB! Because this will have an impact on the fields and tables of your data sources, it is recommended that you complete your schema masking before you begin integrating it with your data sources.

Eliminating Choice Children

To eliminate superfluous choice children, enter Schema Masking mode by clicking the Mask Schema Elements button on the Home ribbon:

With the toggle button activated, the individual element masking toggle buttons will appear next to each choice child:

The choice child will remain in the list until the Mask Schema Elements toggle button on the Home ribbon is deactivated. Once deactivated, the choice child will be eliminated in the drop-down list and its table will no longer be required in the source data:

Converting a Choice Element into an Element

If all but one choice element has been eliminated, the choice element will appear and behave as an element.

In addition to the elimination of the tables that would be needed for each choice child, the user interface and data source requirements will be further simplified as described in the example below.  

Practical Example

In the AEOI schema, the Account Data Definition allows for either an Account Number (in which case an Account Number Type and a Value must be provided), or an Account Identifier (in which case only an Account Identifier must be provided):

In the source data, a separate table would be required for each of the choice children and their primary keys will have to be inserted into the Account Data table as foreign keys to maintain relationships between the tables.

If the choice child Account Number will not be used, it can be eliminated as described above.  This will convert it to a normal element and will simplify the presentation of the schema and the source data requirement by eliminating the need for tables for BOTH choice children AND the need to use foreign keys to maintain the relationship:

The user interface will display the element as a normal element and a single column labelled Account Identifier will be required in the Account Data table in the source data.