XML InDesign Q: Why are paragraph returns disappearing?

Hi, excellent mass mind of the Forums!
I have a question. I thought this would be a piece of cake, but it's turning out not to be: how can I make sure that imported XML respects the paragraph returns I have in my InDesign document? I've done it fine in the past, but THIS! agh!
No matter how I try I can't get the paragraph returns to stay in after I import the XML. I *do* have these mapped to separate paragraph styles.
The document can look just like this before I export the XML:
The exported XML looks like this:
−
     <Root>
<LOGO href="filepathremovedforprivacy"/>
−
     <Story>
<FIRSTNAME>Export</FIRSTNAME>
<MIDNAME>J</MIDNAME>
<LASTNAME>Testdata</LASTNAME>
<TITLE>President</TITLE>
<COMPANY>Testcompany</COMPANY>
<EMAIL>[email protected]</EMAIL>
</Story>
</Root>
And when I import it the paragraph returns disappear:
What am I missing?

Hi Eva,
I've done it into an empty box before and it *has* brought in paragraph returns, which is why this is so frustrating!
Is it possible that you had the "Do not import contents of whitespace-only elements" option unchecked when you did that? (That might not be the real reason, however -- XML's always a bit of a tricky customer!)
I'm not leaving tags because I don't necessarily know if each person is going to have all the information in each field. Some might have a company name, for instance, some not, and I don't want to leave blank lines on the nametag.
The option "Delete elements, frames, and content that do not match imported XML" is designed to make sure that never happens. It does so very well, but you'll have to make sure you have your paragraph returns in the right places, inside or outside the relevant tags, as required.
The more you do this sort of stuff the more you realize how much trial and error is involved. My advice is to get some sample XML, exactly like the stuff you'll be using when you get your template worked out, in all respects but size.
I know this job would be much easier to do as a data merge, but the client specifically asked for XML.
There is a little "trick" for turning data merge into XML by putting data merge stuff onto a master page. I messed about with it a bit last year, but got bored, and I've forgotten it all at this stage. Worth bearing in mind though.
Trial and error is definitely the way to go with this stuff.
Jeremy

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