READ ME - File Performance XML

The XML File Format Used for Performance Data

The XML file format used for performance data contains two distinct sections called traits and animals respectively.

The traits section corresponds roughly to the previous parameter file (i.e. 603 format) and the animals section contains the data from the previous performance file plus the data in the ET file and the officials files (i.e. 602 + 604 + 605 format).

The Traits Section

The traits section consists of a sequence of trait definition nodes. Each of those trait definition nodes has a header (the XML node) that defines the default values for some attributes of the trait (those attributes not usually specified per animal, i.e TYPE, EBREED, RCOU, mpe, etc) and a unique identifier to be able to refer to this trait definition from the animals (in attribute IDX). The trait definition node contains a sequence of nodes namned "e" (short for environment effect) that defines ETYPE, COL and VALUETYPE for each environment effect that the trait consists of. The ETYPE attribute has to have a value of "R", "F" or "X" corresponding to random, fixed and covariate effects respectively. The COL attribute is the "name" of the effect and the VALUETYPE attribute specifies the type of the values for this effect.

The Animals Section

The animals section consists of a sequence of nodes named "a" (short for animal), each representing an animal, that have a header containing attributes id (for the AID), twin (for the TWIN value of this animal) and et (for the ET value of this animal). Each of the animal nodes contain a sequence of trait reference nodes (also called trait like the trait definition nodes). These trait reference nodes has a header containing attributes like herid, status and dep, but also the IDX attribute that explicitly references the trait definition with the same IDX attribute. Trait reference nodes contain a sequence of "e" nodes corresponding to the similar sequence of "e" nodes defined in the referenced (via the IDX attribute) trait definition. These "e" nodes simply contain the value of the environment effect with a ETYPE/COL/VALUETYPE of the "e" node in the corresponding position in the trait definition.

The special situation when an animal have no associated performance data, only ET status, is handled by having an animal "a" node without any contained trait reference nodes (i.e. only the header) and also without the twin attribute. There is a restriction that "a" nodes must contain at least one other node, this is handled by inserting a placeholder node "empty" under ET "a" nodes. For an explicit example, see the animal with id="LIMCZEM000575463142" below.

Example

The above description is perhaps made clearer by using a minimal example:

<interbull type="performance" subtype="interbeef" version="2.0">
  <traits>
    <trait TYPE="aww" EBREED="LIM" RCOU="CZE" ref="210" h2="11" cgn="1"
           twin="N" dam="Y" mpe="Y" pev="N" IDX="aww1">
      <e ETYPE="R" COL="HYS" VALUETYPE="Int"/>
      <e ETYPE="F" COL="ASEXTWIN" VALUETYPE="Int"/>
      <e ETYPE="F" COL="AACA" VALUETYPE="Int"/>
      <e ETYPE="F" COL="YEAR" VALUETYPE="Int"/>
    </trait>
  </traits>

  <animals>
    <a id="LIMCZEM000555163041" twin="1" et="0">
      <trait herid="CZE004200053400" dep="279.0" IDX="aww1">
        <e>0</e>
        <e>1</e>
        <e>3</e>
        <e>2012</e>
      </trait>
    </a>
    <a id="LIMCZEM000575463142" et="1">
      <empty/>
    </a>
    <a id="LIMCZEM000575163043">
      <trait TYPE="aww" status="05" Drel="35" Mrel="35" IDX="aww1"/>
    </a>
    <a id="LIMCZEM000123163044" twin="1" et="0">
      <trait herid="CZE004200053400" dep="222.0" status="05" Drel="55" Mrel="55" IDX="aww1">
        <e>0</e>
        <e>2</e>
        <e>3</e>
        <e>2002</e>
      </trait>
    </a>
  </animals>
</interbull>

In the above example, we can see a trait definition with IDX "aww1" that is of TYPE aww, EBREED LIM, etc that have four environment effects HYS/ASEXTWIN/AACA/YEAR.

In the animals section, the first animal (LIMCZEM000555163041) has a trait reference to that definition with herid, status and dep specified and the corresponding environment effects values 0/1/3/2012. The second animal (LIMCZEM000575463142) demonstrates the special situation when an animal have ET status, but no performance data. The third animal (LIMCZEM000575163043) shows when an animal have official status, but no performance data. The situation that an animal have both performance data and official status is demonstrated in the fourth animal (LIMCZEM000123163044).

Final Remarks

• The calving traits have an almost identical structure, the only real difference is the TYPE and IDX attribute values.

• The above description of the structure of the XML file for performance data is valid for autumn/winter of 2019, and replaces the previous version (used for 1904t).