# Terminology for lists of operations meant to be re-applied
**URL:** https://forum.openrefine.org/t/terminology-for-lists-of-operations-meant-to-be-re-applied/2064
**Category:** Development & Design
**Created:** [February 7, 2025, 9:29am UTC](https://forum.openrefine.org/t/terminology-for-lists-of-operations-meant-to-be-re-applied/2064 "2025-02-07T09:29:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@antonin\_d](https://forum.openrefine.org/u/antonin_d)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2025, 9:29am UTC](https://forum.openrefine.org/t/terminology-for-lists-of-operations-meant-to-be-re-applied/2064/1 "2025-02-07T09:29:11Z")
As part of the reproducibility project, I am working on improvements to the existing Extract/Apply dialogs to make them more usable.
To that end, I would like to introduce a term to refer to those lists of operations that are extracted to be re-applied later. Because they are currently exposed as a JSON blob to the user, they are currently often referred to as "a JSON", which I don't find very informative (JSON can be used to represent a lot of different things).
So I have been thinking about introducing a more descriptive term. I have considered the following options:
- a **recipe** , because it captures well the reusable aspect (and the list of steps)
- a **workflow** , which also refers to a sequence of steps, but feels perhaps more abstract. Also, @tfmorris does not like it when I use this term to refer to a list of OpenRefine operations, because it reminds him too much of ETL software where operations are directly combined together into a reproducible arrangement (as I understand it). So I have been trying to avoid using this term.
- a **pipeline**? If we embrace the "oil _refinery_" metaphor, then perhaps that makes for a consistent theme, but I am not so keen to go in that direction…
- a **script**? It might put more emphasis on the textual nature of the object, which would imply continuing to encourage users to edit those manually
- a **program**? It might scare off people who don't see themselves as programmers
- a **macro**? Perhaps too old-fashioned and gives the impression that the exact click positions are being recorded?
- anything else?
Let me know what your thoughts and preferences are!
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### Author:  [@abbe98](https://forum.openrefine.org/u/abbe98)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2025, 5:19pm UTC](https://forum.openrefine.org/t/terminology-for-lists-of-operations-meant-to-be-re-applied/2064/2 "2025-02-07T17:19:03Z")
We call these recipes in OpenRefine and sometimes "step" if talking about workflows in a more generic fashion. We use the term workflow to describe the whole import-\>recipe-\>export process.
We also use the term "snippets" for reusable GREL code.
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### Author:  [@thadguidry](https://forum.openrefine.org/u/thadguidry)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2025, 12:49am UTC](https://forum.openrefine.org/t/terminology-for-lists-of-operations-meant-to-be-re-applied/2064/3 "2025-02-08T00:49:58Z")
I like the workflow and recipe descriptions @abbe98 which aligns with how I used to train, and I think many in the GLAM space use the term workflow for their entire processes, often including pre/post data wrangling in other tools like MarcEdit, Koha and Evergreen APIs, TMS cataloguer, Python/PostgreSQL scripts (newsrooms), etc. Recipe was used and picked up simply because we in OpenRefine called the history of operations with particular use of reusable GREL snippets as a "recipe" and had this term in our old wiki and Google code since the beginning.
So, I'd rather stick to:
- Recipe - in OpenRefine, a set of data cleaning and transformation operations that may also include GREL expression snippets.
- Workflow - an entire data processing chain that might include use of OpenRefine in that chain.
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### Author:  [@antonin\_d](https://forum.openrefine.org/u/antonin_d)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2025, 2:25pm UTC](https://forum.openrefine.org/t/terminology-for-lists-of-operations-meant-to-be-re-applied/2064/4 "2025-02-10T14:25:14Z")
Thanks for the feedback! Great, it sounds like going for "recipe" is consensual so far, so I'll go with that for now.