Making a Deck Definition

Deck definitions determine what image files are required by a deck skin and what each card means in a reading. This is represented by an xml file.

The topmost element of any deck definition should be a deck element with an attribute name, followed by at least one author and at least one source element:

<deck name="Elder Futhark">
	<author />
	<source />
<!-- contents -->
</deck>

The author and the source tags allow the creator of the deck meanings to be properly cited. If you know them, you should fill them out like the following in the case of a website:

<!-- ... -->
	<author>Brigit Esselmont</author>
	<source>http://www.biddytarot.com/tarot-card-meanings</source>
<!-- ... -->

Under these three elements, one needs to create at least one suit:

<!-- ... -->
<suit name="Freyr's Aett" affinity="Things that relate to Freyr">
	<!-- some cards -->
</suit>
<!-- ... -->

The name attribute of the suit element is what the suit should be called and affinity describes a property that holds all the cards in that suit in common. In the case of Freyr's Aett, well...there's not much to it except that they're things relating to Freyr. Once a suit is created, one needs to create a card element:

<!-- ... -->
<card name="Fehu">
	<number />
	<file>fehu.png</file>
	<meaning>
		<normal>
		</normal>
		<reversed>
		</reversed>
	</meaning>
</card>
<!-- ... -->

The name attribute, again, specifies the name of the card. The number element of the card represents the number associated with the card. The meaning element contains what the card means in its normal position and the reversed position (rotated 180 degrees). Normally the normal element of the meaning should not be empty. The reversed element maybe empty, as some cards in a deck cannot be reversed.

To simplify editing (until I make a dedicated editor for the deck definitions), I highly recommend qxmledit.