Writing risx datasets
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## Writing risx datasets

XML documents using the risx DTD are an alternative way to add datasets to RefDB databases. You can use your favourite SGML/XML editor to edit these datasets. You can also use DSSSL or XSLT scripts to transform bibliographic data available as SGML or XML documents to risx.

This section provides a quick outline of risx datasets. For a description of all available elements and their relationships, please visit the risx documentation.

As usual, start the document with the processing instructions, followed by the document type declaration. Make sure to include the character encoding if it is different from the default (UTF-8). The other encodings supported by RefDB are UTF-16, ISO-8859-1, and US-ASCII. The first line might then read:

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

The top-level element of a risx XML document is either `ris` (if the file provides multiple datasets) or `entry`, which corresponds to a single dataset. The `ris` element holds one or more `entry` elements. The `type` attribute specifies the type of the reference. These are the same types as described above for the RIS TY tag. The `id` and `citekey` attributes specify a numeric ID (which will only be used if you update references) and a citation key, respectively. The latter should be all uppercase if you intend to use the references with SGML documents.

Each `entry` element contains up to five subelements, the first three of which provide the bibliographic information proper. risx distinguishes three levels of bibliographic information. Each `entry` can specify one or more of these levels:

- The `part` element corresponds to the analytical level of bibliographic information. This element specifies the information of a work that has been published as a part of a publication. This can be a journal article in a periodical, or a chapter in a book. The `part` element usually contains information about the authors and the title of the part, as well as volume, issue, and page information.

- The `publication` element corresponds to the monographic level. This is essentially an individual item that you can find on the shelves of a library, like a book or a journal. The `publication` element contains information about the authors/editors and the title of the items.

- The `set` element corresponds to the series level. This provides information about individual items that have been published as a part of a series, like a book about cats within a series of books about mammals. This element usually adds the information about the title of the series and the series editors.

Please refer to the risx documentation for further details about the structure of these elements.

The `libinfo` element contains the local "housekeeping" information of a particular user. Each dataset may contain `libinfo` elements of one or more users who are specified with the `user` attribute. Use this element to specify the notes, the reprint status, and the availability information.

The `contents` element specifies, you've guessed right, the contents of the reference, i.e. an abstract and an unlimited number of keywords for indexing purposes.

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