Codes Registry and Status options
The WMO Codes Registry is designed to provide immutable URLs that users and systems can rely on. In general, a term or a registry should never be removed! However, when necessary, this guidance should be followed.
| Use Case | Recommendation | Status of original entry |
|---|---|---|
| Entry needs typographical edits or additional information to add and the notation does not change | edit entry | Stable |
| Entry needs updates and the concept remains the same, but edits will change the 'notation' that becomes part of the URL | supersede with new entry | Superseded |
| Entry needs edits and the fundamental concept or definition changes | keep entry and create a new entry with new concept | Stable |
| Entry is too broad and needs to be broken up into more precise terms | keep entry and create new more precise terms (it is impossible to supersede one entry by many) | Stable or Retired |
| Multiple entries are too narrow and there needs to be a broader term | supersede multiples entries with one entry | Superseded |
| Two entries represent the same concept | supersede one of them with other | Superseded |
| Entry is no longer relevant and there is no substitute | change status to retired | Retired |
| Entry is obviously wrong or is an error and there is no substitute | change the status to invalid (this should be very rare) | Invalid |
| Label | Status | Application |
|---|---|---|
 |
submitted | for initial inclusion of a term or registry, not used in production registry |
 |
experimental | not yet approved or operational |
 |
stable | approved and operational |
 |
superseded | remains in registry, visible to public, URL provides link preferred term or registry |
 |
retired | remains in registry, visible to public with label |
 |
invalid | remains in registry, not visible to public, URL returns a 404 |
- Edit
- administrator runs a program to programmatically add or update from GitHub (don't use the UI edit function manually!)
- new codes get a status of experimental
- status of updated codes do not change
- Set status
- administrator uses UI to change status
- submitted ==> experimental, stable, or invalid
- experimental ==> stable, invalid, or retired
- stable ==> invalid, retired, or superseded
- superseded ==> invalid
- retired ==> invalid
- invalid ==> cannot change or reverse
- Delete
- Not recommended - results in hard removal of content and the URL returns a 404
- programmatic updates do not delete anything, manual action only
Case: Entry is considered "invalid" ==> remove entry from table
Case: Entry is considered "retired" ==> remove entry from table
Case: Entry is superseded by another entry ==> remove entry from table and include the superseded entry in the file superseded.txt
Example:
URL from, URL to
https://codes.wmo.int/wmdr/ObservingMethodAtmosphere/326,https://codes.wmo.int/wmdr/ObservingMethodAtmosphere/183