Two of the file formats supported for ParLocTime datasets are (Delwaq) HIS and MAP.
These file formats have a limit to the length of the parameter names and the location ID’s: they can only be 20 characters long. To overcome this problem, DelftIO offers an upward/downward compatible 'version' of the HIS and MAP files: it uses an additional file, the 'HIA' (HIs Aliases) file or 'MAA' (MAp Aliases) file, which contains the parameter names and the location ID’s that are longer then 20 characters.

This way the limits are extended to:

• 80 characters for parameter names
• 132 characters for location ID’s

The Hia/Maa  file has the same name as the HIS/MAP file, but the ‘.his’/‘.map’ extension has been replaced by the extension ‘.hia’/‘.maa’.

Description of the HIA/MAA file

The Hia File (see the example below) contains 4 groups:

• [General]
  General information on file type and DelftIO version
• [DioCheck]
  Information that is checked against the related HIS or MAP file, to be sure that the HIA/MAA file indeed is the complement of the HIS or MAP file. All items that present in the [DioCheck] group are checked against the related HIS or MAP file
• [Long Parameters]
  The names of the parameters with a length that exceeds 20 characters
• [Long Locations]
  The names of the location ID’s with a length that exceeds 20 characters

When DelftIO generates a HIS or MAP file for a ParLocTime dataset, it first checks whether there is already a HIA/MAA file for that HIS or MAP file. If so, this file is deleted, unless it contains: