Overview

The MeetingAttendance XML document provides attendance data for meetings over a specified period, including averages by month and individual meeting details. This document is designed for processing with XSLT stylesheets to generate formatted reports.

XML Structure

Root Element: MeetingAttendance

Namespace: http://www.publictalksoftware.co.uk/msa

The root element contains all attendance data and configuration settings.

Child Elements

1. Settings

Contains configuration and localization settings for the document.

Child Elements:

  • LanguageCode - Language code (e.g., "en" for English)
  • Direction - Text direction ("ltr" for left-to-right, "rtl" for right-to-left)
  • Today - Current date with comprehensive formatting attributes

Attributes for Today element:

  • Day - Day of month (1-31)
  • DayShort - Abbreviated day name (e.g., "Mon")
  • DayFull - Full day name (e.g., "Monday")
  • Month - Month number (1-12)
  • MonthShort - Abbreviated month name (e.g., "Dec")
  • MonthFull - Full month name (e.g., "December")
  • Year - Full year (e.g., "2025")
  • YearShort - Short year (e.g., "25")

Content: Formatted date string (e.g., "22/12/2025")

2. Period

Contains attendance data for a specific time range.

Attributes:

  • startYear - Starting year of the period
  • startMonth - Starting month of the period (1-12)
  • months - Number of months covered in the period

Child Elements:

  • Average (at period level) - Overall averages for the entire period
    • Midweek - Average attendance for midweek meetings
    • Weekend - Average attendance for weekend meetings
  • Month - One element for each month in the period (repeating)
Month Element

Represents attendance data for a specific month.

Attributes:

  • value - Month number (1-12)
  • year - Year (e.g., 2024, 2025)
  • name - Full month name (e.g., "September")
  • short - Abbreviated month name (e.g., "Sep")

Child Elements:

  • Average (at month level) - Monthly averages
    • Midweek - Average attendance for midweek meetings in this month
    • Weekend - Average attendance for weekend meetings in this month
  • Meeting - Individual meeting records (repeating)
Meeting Element

Represents a single meeting's attendance data.

Attributes:

  • Day - Day of month (1-31)
  • Type - Meeting type ("Midweek" or "Weekend")

Child Elements:

  • InPerson - Number of attendees present in person
  • Online - Number of attendees participating online
  • Total - Total attendance (InPerson + Online)
  • Date - Formatted date with comprehensive attributes

Attributes for Date element:

  • Day - Day of month (1-31)
  • DayShort - Abbreviated day name (e.g., "Thu")
  • DayFull - Full day name (e.g., "Thursday")
  • Month - Month number (1-12)
  • MonthShort - Abbreviated month name (e.g., "Sep")
  • MonthFull - Full month name (e.g., "September")
  • Year - Full year (e.g., "2024")
  • YearShort - Short year (e.g., "24")

Content: Formatted date string (e.g., "Thu, Sep 05")

Example Usage

For a complete, working example of this XML structure with actual data, see the MeetingAttendance XML Sample Document.

Basic structure overview:

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

<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="AttendDB--AveragesByMonth.xsl"?>

<MeetingAttendance xmlns="http://www.publictalksoftware.co.uk/msa">

    <!-- Settings and Period data as shown in the example -->

</MeetingAttendance>

Processing Instructions

  • The XML declaration specifies UTF-8 encoding
  • The XML-stylesheet processing instruction links to an XSLT file for transformation
  • All numeric values are provided as strings but represent decimal or integer values
  • Dates are provided both as structured attributes and formatted strings for flexibility

Data Relationships

  1. The Period element contains aggregate data for the entire reporting period
  2. Each Month contains both monthly averages and individual meeting records
  3. Meeting records are grouped by month but maintain their chronological order within the month
  4. Averages are calculated separately for Midweek and Weekend meeting types at both period and month levels

Typical Use Cases

  • Generating monthly attendance reports
  • Calculating trends in in-person vs. online attendance
  • Comparing midweek vs. weekend attendance patterns
  • Creating visualizations of attendance data over time
  • Exporting data for further statistical analysis