XML file format

1. Introduction

The overall scope of BMDW development phase two is to receive more data from our listing organisations and to make these data available through our Search & Match Service. However, old format (DOT20) is not an appropriate format when you have many different fields. therefore, we had to move to another file format. The new file format is an XML (Extensible Markup Language) file which is considered an industry standard that is extendable, robust and easy to use. 

Several people from the community formed a working group to create the required XML Sschema Definition (XSD) files. These files define the elements that are allowed in the XML file, the order of the elements and the values that will be accepted. The names of the elements are based upon EMDIS specifications and aligns with the EMDIS Data Dictionary when appropriate. Several elements are basic elements that should be included in all files, but there are also elements that are specific for only donors or only cord blood units (CBUs).

We will now explain the composition of the XML file and how you should use the XSD reference files.

2. XSD schema files

We provided two XSD sxhema files that define the structure of your XML file basicTypes.xsd and Inventories.xsd.

The Inventories file describes the structure of the XML file and the order of the elements. Here you can also find if a certain field is mandatory or not (minOccurs="0"-> not mandatory). This file includes many "complexType" : an XML element that contains other elements and/or attributes. In the file you can see that the values of the elements can be defined here, like the elements GRID and ID, or that after the name of the field a "type" is defined. For example for the element with name BIRTH_DATE you see type="bareDateType". The definition of "bareDateType" is described in the basicTypes.xsd file.

 We will now describe the global structure of the XML file and the elements.

2.1 InventoryType elements

2.2 ItemBaseType elements (for Donors and CBUs)

2.3 hlaType elements

HlaType fields can be divided in hlaSerFieldsType and hlaDnaFieldsType

hlaSerFieldsType: HLA values obtained by serological typing methods

hlaSerFieldsType = “<FIELD1>” string of max length 5 “</FIELD1>”, “<FIELD2>” string of max length 5 “</FIELD2>”;

Example: <SER><FIELD1>1</FIELD1><FIELD2>5</FIELD2></SER>

Serological typing results can be given for loci that are defined as hlaLocusType. These loci include HLA-A, -B, -C, -DRB1, -DQB1.

hlaDnaFieldsType: HLA values obtained by DNA based typing methods

hlaDnaFieldsType = “<FIELD1>” string of max length 20 “</FIELD1>”, “<FIELD2>” string of max length 20 “</FIELD2>”;

Exanple: <DNA><FIELD1>01:01</FIELD1><FIELD2>05:01</FIELD2></DNA>

DNA typing results can be given for loci that are defined as hlaLocusType and hlaLocusDnaOnlyType. These loci include HLA-A, -B, -C, -DRB1, -DQB1, -DRB3, -DRB4, -DRB5, -DQA1, -DPA1, -DPB1.

Finally, '01:XX' is equivalent to '01'. Both codes '01:XX' and '01' are allowed.

2.4 kirType elements

The kirType Field Definitions consists of the type: kirLocusType. This is defined as a String with 3 characters: "POS" or "NEG". "POS" means "Presence of KIR gene", "NEG" means "Absence of KIR gene".

The following elements are possible and in this specific order:

<KIR2DL1>,<KIR2DL2>,<KIR2DL3>,<KIR2DL4>,<KIR2DL5A>,<KIR2DL5B>,<KIR2DS1>,<KIR2DS2>,<KIR2DS3>,<KIR2DS4>,<KIR2DS5>,<KIR2DP1>,<KIR3DL1>,<KIR3DL2>,<KIR3DL3>,<KIR3DS1>,<KIR3DP1>.

There is another field called <KIR_GL> (URI that refers to a GL-string registered with a GL-service or direct GL-string for absence / presence) this field is not used at the moment and must be empty.

2.5 idmType elements

There are many infectious disease markers (IDM) possible in the element IDM. Many IDM elements can have either the values idmValueType or idmValueExtType

idmValueType includes the following values: "P","N"

idemValueExtType include the following values: “P”,“G”,“M”,“B”,“H”,“O”,“N”

2.6