# General Info

## Standard practices in the Emporix API

Here you can find descriptions of practices, concepts, and data formats that are commonly used across the Emporix API services.

### Data standardization

To ensure consistency between the Emporix API services, some data types use standardized formats:

| Data type           | Description                                                                                                                                                                  |
| ------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Countries**       | Countries are indicated through two-letter codes compliant with the [ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 standard](https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:pub:PUB500001:en).                         |
| **Currencies**      | Currencies are indicated through three-letter codes compliant with the [ISO 4217 standard](https://www.iso.org/iso-4217-currency-codes.html).                                |
| **Dates and times** | All dates and times are stored as instantaneous moments in the UTC timezone, compliant with the [ISO 8601 standard](https://www.iso.org/iso-8601-date-and-time-format.html). |
| **Languages**       | Languages (including regional variants) are indicated through codes compliant with the [IETF BCP-47 standard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IETF_language_tag).              |

Check the below for specific practices:

* [Mixins](/api-references/standard-practices/mixins.md)
* [Translations](/api-references/standard-practices/translations.md)
* [Query Parameter](/api-references/standard-practices/q-param.md)
* [Upsert](/api-references/standard-practices/upsert.md)
* [Custom ID](/api-references/standard-practices/custom-id.md)
* [Bulk Request Limits](/api-references/standard-practices/bulk-request-limits.md)


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://developer.emporix.io/api-references/standard-practices/general-info.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.