A harmonized dossier is a named list containing one or more data frames,
which are harmonized datasets. A harmonized dossier is generally the
product of applying processing to a dossier object. The name of each
harmonized dataset (data frame) is taken from the reference input dataset.
A harmonized dossier also contains the DataSchema and
Data Processing Elements used in processing as attributes.
A DataSchema is the list of core variables to generate across datasets and
related metadata. A DataSchema object is a list of data frames with elements
named 'Variables' (required) and 'Categories' (if any). The 'Variables'
element must contain at least the name column, and the 'Categories'
element must contain at least the variable and name columns to be usable
in any function. In 'Variables' the name column must also have unique
entries, and in 'Categories' the combination of variable and name columns
must also be unique.
A taxonomy is a classification schema that can be defined for variable
attributes. A taxonomy is usually extracted from an
Opal environment, and a
taxonomy object is a data frame that must contain at least the columns
taxonomy, vocabulary, and terms. Additional details about Opal
taxonomies are
available online.
The object may be specifically formatted to be compatible with additional
Maelstrom Research software,
in particular Opal environments.