use of flat xml formats

users
#1

Readers,

Is there a logical reason why xslt filters need to be selected
manually for installation? Flat xml file formats are a very good
feature, especially for document version control. Why is flat xml not
the default file format for LO?

#2

Hi "e-letter",

e-letter schrieb:

Readers,

Is there a logical reason why xslt filters need to be selected
manually for installation? Flat xml file formats are a very good
feature, especially for document version control. Why is flat xml not
the default file format for LO?

I think, that flat xml is inconvenient for embedded pictures.

Kind regards
Regina

#3

I am not sure which filters come installed in the base configuration
because I tend install all the filters.

The ODF formats are default because they are official (ISO?) standards
for general purpose office type documents. Because ODF formats are an
international standard producers of office suites - in theory - should
support the latest version (1.2) allowing users to easily share
documents no matter what program produced the original. MS has not
implemented 1.2 support yet in MSO 2010. I believe the ODF formats are a
type of compressed xml file. The issue of flat xml is whether other,
particularly commercial, suites directly support the format. My
suspicion is FLOSS projects probably do but commercial support may be
erratic.

#4

Hi planas,

planas schrieb:

Readers,

Is there a logical reason why xslt filters need to be selected
manually for installation? Flat xml file formats are a very good
feature, especially for document version control. Why is flat xml not
the default file format for LO?

I am not sure which filters come installed in the base configuration
because I tend install all the filters.

The ODF formats are default because they are official (ISO?) standards
for general purpose office type documents. Because ODF formats are an
international standard producers of office suites - in theory - should
support the latest version (1.2) allowing users to easily share
documents no matter what program produced the original.

The flat xml format is ISO standard too.

  MS has not

implemented 1.2 support yet in MSO 2010. I believe the ODF formats are a
type of compressed xml file.

Is it not one file zipped, but a whole folder is zipped. You can rename an odt-file to zip and unpack it to see the content.

Kind regards
Regina

#5

Regina

Hi planas,

planas schrieb:
>
>> Readers,
>>
>> Is there a logical reason why xslt filters need to be selected
>> manually for installation? Flat xml file formats are a very good
>> feature, especially for document version control. Why is flat xml not
>> the default file format for LO?
>>
>
> I am not sure which filters come installed in the base configuration
> because I tend install all the filters.
>
> The ODF formats are default because they are official (ISO?) standards
> for general purpose office type documents. Because ODF formats are an
> international standard producers of office suites - in theory - should
> support the latest version (1.2) allowing users to easily share
> documents no matter what program produced the original.

The flat xml format is ISO standard too.

  MS has not
> implemented 1.2 support yet in MSO 2010. I believe the ODF formats are a
> type of compressed xml file.

Is it not one file zipped, but a whole folder is zipped. You can rename
an odt-file to zip and unpack it to see the content.

I was not quite sure of all the details, thanks.

#6

Cfr. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument_technical_specification

#7

Your use case is very practical and very desirable.

And yes, producing a single-file ODF document (XML format) would work
great for similar applications, including creation of feature-test
documents, etc.

There are major practical reasons why the single-file XML format
is not the default format. It is odd that it is not a supported
format, however, especially for input.

I believe there were, at some point, separate transform scripts that
could be added to OpenOffice.org to accomplish input and output of
the single-file format. I don't know where those are and if they
still work.

It is an useful thing to research. I will dig into my files, but
I am not hopeful.

Keep asking around.

- Dennis

#8

On 09/27/2011 12:05 PM, Dag Wieers wrote:
,

I am writing an AsciiDoc backend to produce ODF files directly from
AsciiDoc. I was also looking for a flat file importer. Currently
LibreOffice and OpenOffice want to open such a .fodt (or .xml) file as
text rather than an pure ODF file.

I suspect it's a Windows version issue. I can easily open .fodt, .fods
in linux LO 3.3.4 & 3.4.3. Windows versions act (using the same test
files) do as you suggest and only open as text.

Perhaps it's related to this bug report:

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=35580
[fods file from recent documents opened like xml text file and not as
libreoffice spreadsheet]
You might want to join that bug report and add your test comments.

...

#9

...
Get's weirder... same .fods test file on Windows with 3.4.3 (after
uninstalling LO 3.3.4 + user profile) opens LibreOffice Math. .fodt
still opens as text.

#10

I am using Linux, however I found that the flat XML ODF files require an office:mimetype attribute to the office:document root-element. Not doing this will make LibreOffice (3.4.3) fail to open the document as ODF, but instead as plain text.

So adding:

     office:mimetype="application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text"

did the trick for me !

#11

Now opens as a regular Calc file *after* installing the Sample XSLT
filters (as e-letter pointed out at the begining of this thread). And
the .fodt file opens properly as well.

I'll uninstall 3.4.3 (including user profile) and reinstall 3.3.4 to see
if it does the same there to check to see if it was a profile issue).
First test will be with standard install (no Sample XSLT filters), and
then with the Sample XSLT filters installed.

Note: sorry for the almost blog... just trying to see if there is a
difference between 3.3.4 and 3.4.3 - w/wo filters.

#12

I use Ubuntu & I simply right-clicked the file in Nautilus & selected LO
Calc as the option to open. That added the mime type to my mime data so
I didn't have to add anything.

#13

OK. LO 3.3.4 (Windows) installed w/o any 'Sample XSLT' filters (same
test files as before):

- .fods & .fodt only open as text files.

Add the 'Sample XSLT' filters (setup.exe|Modify|Optional Components|XSLT
Sample Filters|

- .fods & .fodt open properly as ODF files

So it appears that this wasn't an LO package issue & perhaps was/is a LO
profile issue. I'll add my notes/tests to the
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=35580
bug report.

Apologies for the noise & we now return you to one of the original
questions in this thread asked by e-letter: "Is there a logical reason
why xslt filters need to be selected manually for installation?"

IMO: good question & hopefully e-letter will file a bug report regarding
that.

#14

,

I am writing an AsciiDoc backend to produce ODF files directly from
AsciiDoc. I was also looking for a flat file importer. Currently
LibreOffice and OpenOffice want to open such a .fodt (or .xml) file as
text rather than an pure ODF file.

I suspect it's a Windows version issue. I can easily open .fodt, .fods
in linux LO 3.3.4 & 3.4.3. Windows versions act (using the same test
files) do as you suggest and only open as text.

Correct, does not occur with linux. Avoid by not using version 34

Perhaps it's related to this bug report:

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=35580
[fods file from recent documents opened like xml text file and not as
libreoffice spreadsheet]
You might want to join that bug report and add your test comments.

...
Get's weirder... same .fods test file on Windows with 3.4.3 (after
uninstalling LO 3.3.4 + user profile) opens LibreOffice Math. .fodt
still opens as text.

See https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=40881 and also
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=31624,
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=35580

#15

Same observation with graphics documents; avoid LO34

#16

Do you know the location of the configuration file to change mime
types using a text editor?

#17

The requirement that the <office:document> office:mimetype attribute be
present and have a known MIME type has been a condition on ODF single-file
XML documents since ODF 1.0/1.1. It is a schema validation error for
the attribute to be missing.

The admissible office:mimetype values, and the consistency requirements
on the <office:document-content> element are a bit squishy. In ODF 1.2
there are strict provisions for what the agreement must be for a conforming
ODF (text, spreadsheet, presentation, ...) document. Most ODF 1.0/1.1
documents satisfy the stricter requirements already.

It is easy, but not OK, to miss this when hand-crafting or software-
generating a flat xml representation of an ODF document.

- Dennis

#18

Hi,

Is there a logical reason why xslt filters need to be selected
manually for installation? Flat xml file formats are a very good
feature, especially for document version control. Why is flat xml not
the default file format for LO?

No idea, because in the Mac version of LibO they are included by default, but then so is everything else, so that probably isn't much of an argument !!

From memory, in OpenOffice.org the FlatXML filters were originally designed to be able to export the former binary filter format files from StarOffice to be able to be read on PDAs of the time (Pocket Excel, Pocket Word, etc). They were thus an optional install on Windows. I guess that just kind of stuck as development of more widespread XML usage (and the development of ODF) progressed.

Alex