SPIKE: Research versioning for new electronic filing specifications

fecgov / fecfile-web-api

Back-end API for FECfile application

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SPIKE: Research versioning for new electronic filing specifications #1104

Open lbeaufort opened 3 days ago

lbeaufort commented 3 days ago

What does web upload expect for amendments filed to reports with older spec versions? What about backwards incompaibility?
How long do vendors have to implement new specs?

PaulClark2 commented 3 days ago

The hypothetical I presented was a new report was filed using v8.2 and the amendment will be filed today (v8.4).

The amendment must be in v8.4
Reports filed using out-of-date specs are rejected.
FECFile software builds .fec file as per the current format specifications. All fields from previous versions will be mapped to latest version.

PaulClark2 commented 3 days ago

Generally EFO gives vendors a two week comment period and an 90 day implementation period.

EFO provides the layouts and a list of changes including an explanation of the changes (RAD) two weeks prior to the start of the 90-day implementation period allowing vendors to review the changes and provide feedback.
Once the format specs are finalized and published, we give the vendors 90 days to implement the changes.

lbeaufort commented 2 days ago

@PaulClark2 this is really helpful, thanks!

What happens when an amendment needs to be filed but the current spec has a new field that didn't exist in previous specs? Is the filing software supposed to generate data to populate the new field?