In further developing my application profile, new things occurred to me.

For example, in my domain description, I stated that users “might want to know
how many cards are in a given deck.” However, I’d forgotten to include such an
element, so I went back and created one under my ‘DeckDetails’ wrapper. Also,
for records dealing with individual cards, under the ‘SuitCard’ wrapper, I realized
that I specified the element ‘CardRank’ as a numerical value. However, Court
cards are a type Suit card (e.g., Knight of Wands), but lack a numerical rank, so I
amended my specification to reflect this.
Implementing the schema by creating an example record also revealed
several errors, albeit minor, that had previously escaped my notice. For example,
for the ‘DateCreated’ element, I had selected the type as ‘xs:date,’ since this
adhered to the ISO 8601 format of YYYY-MM-DD. However, I also stated in my
specification that “if full calendar date is unavailable, use year only.” Using this
type disallows this option, as anything less than the full date gives an error
message. Using the type ‘xs:integer’ would allow for a numerical value for year,
but would then disallow the hyphens for a full date, so I had to select ‘xs:string’ to
allow for both. I also had to use ‘xs:string’ for my ‘CardNumber’ element, since
some decks use Arabic numerals, whereas others use Roman (which would
register as a letter in the schema). Finally, when attempting to validate my
record, I got several error messages which seemed to indicate problems with
sequencing (expecting one element after another); I was concerned about having
to manipulate the compositors somehow, until I realized I had mislabeled several
optional elements as ‘min occurs = 1,’ so I had to go through them all and make
certain they matched my specification.
Unlike many of my classmates, I have neither professional experience to
draw upon nor background knowledge (aside from INSC 520), so virtually
everything I’ve learned over the course of this semester has been new to me.
Having gone from a state of nigh abject ignorance to developing my own
application profile has been an exhilarating if somewhat daunting experience.
However, given that the assignments progressed logically, each building upon the
one before, it has made a significant undertaking much more manageable.
Considering that I intend to pursue cataloging as a career, the skills I’ve acquired
here should prove invaluable.