[casual-dev]

You are much appreciated. I didn't even know there is term for this part of my work.

Down the line, we do everything you cautiously described. We extract single fields with pointers (in lack of a better term, english is not my main language) to the XML/JSON fields we like to extract. Our software then lets us use JS snippets to manipulate the contents. Problem is, once you define a rule, it may get 80-90% over hundreds of datasets. But breakage is not an option most of the time. It's pareto principle work: 80% in 20% of the time, 20% work in 80% of the time. In the end, they are just snippets, then a giant gap, then the projects my colleague does.

I get where you are coming from, regarding "never to do that again". This not the only work I do. I also build HTML from customer demands, many of which are pdfs meant for print use, but not for the web. I like it, but I only scratch the surface of what might be. Thanks to the resources in this thread, I have a good insight of what to come. So, thanks again.