Met with SD yesterday to discuss his questions and concerns about the structure of the XML file. He's been proofing the data for the last couple of weeks. As a result of his reading, he's realized that the current XML structure is lacking in a few areas. So, we're going to make the following changes:

• recorder_report (rec_rep in the XML) currently "has many" cases (case in the XML). rec_rep also "has one" rec_rep_head, which has rec_rep_start_date, rec_rep_end_date, rec_rep_pub_date, and rec_rep_notes elements. According to SD, in some cases the recorder report dates can change for each case within the same recorder report. So rather than rec_rep_head being a direct child of rec_rep, it will be moved to being a child of each case WITHIN the rec_rep. So the hierarchy will be: rec_rep -> HAS MANY case -> HAS ONE rec_rep_head
• respite elements will have a child respite_ref field so that SD can add in any possible references for a respite.
• A new element, "judge_respite", is being added as a trial_file child. Unlike the trial file -> HAS MANY respites relationship, a trial file only HAS ONE judge_respite.
• execution_mode, which is a child of outcome, is going to be expanded to allow for multiple elements. So the relationship will become: trial file -> HAS MANY outcomes -> HAS MANY execution_modes. This is an optional field.

I also approached SD about using an Excel spreadsheet to gather his raw data, rather than a word processor (which is his current method). Since the current method to convert his raw data to XML is quite cumbersome and error-prone (not by any fault of SA, who did an admirable job with GREP), moving SD to a spreadsheet will make the conversion process faster and more streamlined. I think it'll also make his own work simpler since he'll be able to find and manipulate his data much more easily.