found drama

Needing a new side-project, and with the flurry of vinyl-to-MP3 transfers going on around this joint, I decided to start up my own little XML standard for marking up the records. After about 20 minutes, here’s what we’ve got:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!ELEMENT collection (record+)>

  <!ELEMENT record (artist, album, original, tracklisting, condition?)>

    <!ELEMENT artist (#PCDATA)>

    <!ELEMENT album (#PCDATA)>

      <!ATTLIST album released NMTOKEN #IMPLIED>

    <!ELEMENT original (format)>

      <!ATTLIST original condition ( 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 ) #REQUIRED>

      <!ELEMENT format (#PCDATA)>

    <!ELEMENT tracklisting (track+)>

      <!ELEMENT track (#PCDATA)>

To do…:

• Improve support for compilations (move ‘artist’ to a child element of track?)
• Better define condition element (function isn’t obvious in the DTD ‘as is’)
• Improve ‘released’ attribute to support exact dates where applicable (while avoiding simple “#CDATA” (non-)mark-up)
• Increase robustness of the tracklisting element
• Create attribute definitions for format element
• Better spec out required vs. optional elements
• Fill in the blanks (e.g., genre, BPMs, mood, comments, etc.)

About Rob Friesel