File Naming

Contains the structure and naming conventions for folders and files in a data submission

File Structure

The file structure of a submission should follow the example seen in the image below:

An example of this structure can also be found in the Datasets folder on the GitHub repository.

Naming Conventions

File/Folder Name	Example	Description
StateAbbreviation-BeginYear-EndYear	TN-2023-2024 OR FED-2023-2024	This is the folder that holds the entire submission. Here is a link to the state abbreviations that will be accepted. If the scope of the dataset is federal legislation, instead of using the StateAbbreviation, the abbreviation 'FED' should be used instead.
bills.csv	bills.csv	Contains the data for each bill in the scope of the data set. The name will always be bills.csv.
history.csv	history.csv	Contains major updates to the bill through the session. The name will always be history.csv.
metadata.xml	metadata.xml	Contains the metadata for the submission. Check the MAP for required fields.
Supplemental/BillName	Supplementary/HB1661	This is a folder for all supplemental documents for each bill in the data set. If the name of the bill is HB1661 in bills.csv, then the folder will be named HB1661.
OriginalDocumentName.pdf OR OriginalDocumentName.txt	HB1661Draft.pdf	These supplemental documents retain their original name from where they were downloaded.
manifest.txt	manifest.txt	Contains the manifest as mentioned in the Collection Policy.
description.txt	description.txt	Contains the description of the data set as mentioned in the Collection Policy.