Title: BML - first cut discussion document
Gregg,
My
experience shows that when trying to define a structured token, such as a
ballot, semantics are of much higher importance than the notation used to
express them. Therefore we should probably start by describing "what" goes into
a token, and only after that start thinking about the actual tags and
identifiers. Tags/IDs are easy and will come rather natural, once you know what
they are to contain.
Doing
it another way - i.e. by hacking an XML/XSL before there is an agreement on the
content, would be simply wrong and wasteful, IMHO.
And
another one - should we be using xml schemas (XSD) instead of DTDs? In addition
to the obvious advantages offered by the schemas, I found them being
a much greater presentation tool (using XMLSpy).
Best
regards
Michael
-----Original Message-----
From: McGilvray, Gregg
[mailto:]
Sent: Tuesday, 12 June 2001
8:45
To: Election Services Committee (E-mail)
Subject: BML
- first cut discussion document
Here is a first cut for the Ballot Markup Language
(BML). There is a sample XML, DTD, and XSL
file at the end. The sylesheet ballot.xsl will display a simple ballot
in HTML format.
If you create
separate files for each of them with the proper names you may try to open
ballot.xml
in an XML compliant
browser. I used IE 5.5 to view the results.
Please use this as a starting point for discussions
about how to start the development and approval of
the EML standard. This is not a comprehensive description and
will need to be embellished. We will formalize
the document as we go along.
I used a DTD for this example which is not to imply
that DTD's will be used instead of schemas. I also
used only elements in favor of attributes which does not
necessarily mean it is the best method.
A few definitions:
The term ITEM is meant to represent the thing voted
upon whether it is an office, position-elect
or referendum. This is a very generic term and can be replaced if
necessary. The term SELECTION refers
to the candidate, answer, etc which is the option or choice for
election. Each ballot has a unique ID as
do the ITEMS and SELECTIONS. The VOTELIMIT defines the number of
vacancies to be filled in that particulat ITEM.
The UNDERVOTE element indicates whether it is allowable to vote for
fewer than the allowable SELECTIONS. The
WRITEIN element describes the number of write in candidates
allowed. The ITEM_TYPE element describes the type
of ITEM (such as first-past-the-post, plurality,
proportional vote, etc.) and will need to be discussed further.
Structure:
Each ballot will be enclosed with the tags
<ballot>...</ballot>. The ballot has a description (such
as
Nassau County, ED1,SD1) and a unique
number. There are as many <item>...</item> pairs as there
are
offices to be voted upon. Each has a
unique number, a description, an ID which describes the voting
characteristics of this ITEM, the number of
vacancies (VOTELIMIT), whether the number of selections may be
less than the number to be voted upon, and
if write in votes are accepted. There will be a number of
<selection>...</selection> pairs as
there are candidates (selections) running for that office. Each
SELECTION
has a unique number and
description.
This structure will generically accommodate a large
number of eletion possibilities.
Ballot.xml
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl"
href="ballot.xsl"?>
<!DOCTYPE ballot
SYSTEM "ballot.dtd">
<ballot>
<ballot_id>1</ballot_id>
<ballot_description>US
Election 2000 Test</ballot_description>
<item>
<item_id>1</item_id>
<item_type>1</item_type>
<item_description>President of the United
States</item_description>
<votelimit>1</votelimit>
<undervote>Y</undervote>
<writeins>0</writeins>
<selection>
<selection_id>10</selection_id>
<selection_description>Al Gore</selection_description>
</selection>
<selection>
<selection_id>11</selection_id>
<selection_description>George W. Bush</selection_description>
</selection>
</item>
</ballot>
Ballot.xsl
<?xml version='1.0'?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-xsl">
<xsl:template match="/">
<html>
<H1><CENTER><xsl:value-of
select="/ballot/ballot_description"/></CENTER></H1>
<body bgcolor = "TEAL">
<table border="2"
bgcolor="yellow">
<xsl:for-each
select="/ballot/item">
<tr>
<th>
<xsl:value-of select="item_description"/>
</th>
</tr>
<xsl:for-each
select="/ballot/item/selection">
<tr>
<th>
<xsl:value-of select="selection_description"/>
</th>
</tr>
</xsl:for-each>
</xsl:for-each>
</table>
</body>
</html>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
Ballot.dtd
<!ELEMENT ballot (ballot_id ,
ballot_description , item+ )>
<!ELEMENT ballot_id (#PCDATA )>
<!ELEMENT ballot_description (#PCDATA
)>
<!ELEMENT item (item_id , item_type ,
item_input_type , item_description , votelimit , undervote , writeins ,
selection+ )>
<!ELEMENT item_id (#PCDATA )>
<!ELEMENT item_type (#PCDATA )>
<!ELEMENT item_input_type (#PCDATA
)>
<!ELEMENT item_description (#PCDATA
)>
<!ELEMENT votelimit (#PCDATA )>
<!ELEMENT undervote (#PCDATA )>
<!ELEMENT writeins (#PCDATA )>
<!ELEMENT selection (selection_id ,
selection_description )>
<!ELEMENT selection_id (#PCDATA
)>
<!ELEMENT selection_description (#PCDATA
)>
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