How to open Flat Opendocument in Writer (not Math)

[cmahte]

I have a spreadsheet which outputs valid XML and loads into LibreOffice Writer with all my styles preconfigured.

This allows me to change the base font, or page size, or columns etc, and have all 650ish styles come in with compatible settings, so that text remains "registered"... text lines on the every page remain on a similar grid so that printing on thin paper isn't ugly.

However, when I attempt to load these files into OpenOffice Writer, I end up looking at a blank page in OpenOffice Math, not Writer.

Is there a way to open .fodt files into OpenOffice Writer, not Math?

Example Stylesheet

Example complete document

[Villeroy]

LibreOffice does the job.

[cmahte]

Yes. I developed and built it in and for libre office. But LO development is unstable and focused only on ui and regular releases. I want to implement some adjustments to an actual app, that will make typesetting the result easier. But the frenetic pace of lo, I'm concerned my efforts will be negated before I can complete them.

Open office is stable, that's a plus for the amount of time I want to put in, for the time I can use the result. That is open office means 90% user, maybe 10% developer. Libre office I expect those numbers to reverse.

[Villeroy]

OpenOffice development is non-existant. The Open Document Format is very stable and LibreOffice is the reference implementation.

[cmahte]

exactly. a program with no changes except security releases.

Not a program that intentionally releases on a date, knowing before they even set the date bugs aren't going to be removed by the date.

[Villeroy]

If this would be the case, a huge number of issues on this forum would remain unsolved. Installing LibreOffice is the solution to this problem and hundreds of other problems.

[cmahte]

The question is about Open office, as the title and content of the question shows. If you want to continue discussing LO, feel free to contact me off list.

Please stop selling LibreOffice on the OpenOffice discussion group. I've made it more than clear I'm asking about the program itself and not a solution to flat opendocument. I do participate on Ask LO too. and the LO users mailing list, and the LO facebook groups. I asked here for a reason.

[Villeroy]

User community support forum for Apache OpenOffice, LibreOffice and all the OpenOffice.org derivatives

You know the solution to your problem. Your Linux distibution comes with a working version of LO. File an issue on the AOO bug tracker but don't hold your breath.

[cmahte]

The question... this topic starts with what you keep repeating.

What I originally wrote:


-----

"I have a spreadsheet which outputs valid XML and loads into LibreOffice Writer ....

However, when I attempt to load these files into OpenOffice Writer, I end up looking at a blank page in OpenOffice Math, not Writer.

Is there a way to open .fodt files into OpenOffice Writer, not Math?

-----

Thank you for restating the first part of my question (4 times now?) but "use LibreOffice" isn't what I'm asking. I asked you to stop selling LibreOffice after suggesting I use it. I used it to make the calc sheet, which breaks every update of LO, and the book you said opened, which doesn't break, but I'm doing simple orthography... Based on what I read, Thai, or Hindi, or Arabic wouldn't be so successful surviving updates. I can't/won't try to develop LO into a platform that is stable over decades because it clearly won't be. the life cycle for these projects will be in the 1-5 year timeframe. To develop on LO that means having your work survive 2-12 updates without crashing completely. With files that use Latin, Cyrillic or Greek letters that seems likely. For Arabic/Thai/Hindi that doesn't seem likely.

I know OpenOffice isn't a good solution for complex typography either, but developing in a stable environment, I'll be able to make progress. Then fixing the rendering engine seems more doable considering the time I have to spend on this initiative. The Alternative, developing on LO, I foresee having to restart every few months because LO updated, then spend months patching my code to the next version. I don't think I could even keep up with the patches, much less make progress on implementing good typography tools into LO.

The topic starts with the known fact that LibreOffice Writer will open this type of file. We've covered it, I discussed it after you suggested it. Can we please be done discussing off topic issues now? I didn't ask about LibreOffice, I asked about OpenOffice Writer. Continuing to suggest "LibreOffice Writer" is the solution to "Is there a way to open .fodt files into OpenOffice Writer" does not contribute to this discussion and seems to be spam advertising your chosen application.

[Zizi64]

Is there a way to open .fodt files into OpenOffice Writer, not Math?

Please launch the OpenOffice. Use the File - Open menu. Check the available file formats in the dropdown list. Can you see any .fods, .fodt filename extension in the list? I just checked it in my Portable AOO 4.1.12 version.
The answer is: NOT. It means: the Apache OpenOffice have NOT Import Filter for the Flat .ods/.odt file types.

Then please check same feature of the LibreOffice. You will see that LO has much more supported file types than the AOO has.

The only one way is:
Use the LibreOffice.

[Mountaineer]

As you wrote

...
Open office is stable, ...

so it is not to expect the misding feature you need will come in some near future. (I read changing the text given when stumbling on ODF1.3 was now "cherry-picked" for the new release after being available for 2 years, and that's only changing a message... https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/plu ... /217389375 )

IMHO your only way to use AOO is converting your xml to a classic .odt-file by adding manifest etc.

J

PS: You could maybe cheat a bit and copy the necessary code from the source of LO. (Quite interesting, how they managed to do this, while supposedly being focused on the UI)

PPS: Another way to cheat: Try if you can use the convert-to function of LibreOffice. If this works put this in a docker container, wich will never be updated and use this to convert your .fodt. (On Windows I'd suggest the portable Version)

[Hagar Delest]

The question is about Open office, as the title and content of the question shows. If you want to continue discussing LO, feel free to contact me off list.

Please stop selling LibreOffice on the OpenOffice discussion group

This is not an Apache OpenOffice discussion group, see the forum banner:

User community support forum for Apache OpenOffice, LibreOffice and all the OpenOffice.org derivatives

exactly. a program with no changes except security releases.

Then if what's good for AOO is stability by lack of new feature, this additional flat document filter will hardly be supported in AOO, ever.
Then the answer to your question is just: no, there is no way to open .fodt files into OpenOffice Writer. End of the discussion.
Except if workarounds as proposed by Mountaineer above can help.

[Mountaineer]

...platform that is stable over decades ...

Have you considered to use TeX? (Sorry I know you didn't ask about, but as you wrote decades my choice would be TeX by Donald Knuth and nothing else.)

J.

[robleyd]

I was able to open your style-sheet with AOO 4.2, but I'm not sure that what I see is what is expected:

Edit: I could open it before installing the filter mentioned below.

fodt.png (58.87 KiB) Viewed 4132 times

See this topic for some filters you can add to AOO to provide Flat XML support. I tried the Text one on my setup and it produced a .fodt file that AOO and LO can open.

I did notice however that the structure of a .fodt produced by both AOO and LO is quite different from the samples you provide. First few lines of your stylesheet:

Code: Select all

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en" data-color-mode="auto" data-light-theme="light" data-dark-theme="dark" data-a11y-animated-images="system">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
  <link rel="dns-prefetch" href="https://github.githubassets.com">
  <link rel="dns-prefetch" href="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com">
  <link rel="dns-prefetch" href="https://github-cloud.s3.amazonaws.com">
  <link rel="dns-prefetch" href="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/">
  <link rel="preconnect" href="https://github.githubassets.com" crossorigin>
  <link rel="preconnect" href="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com">
  First few lines of LO produced file:
 [code] <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<office:document xmlns:officeooo="http://openoffice.org/2009/office" xmlns:grddl="http://www.w3.org/2003/g/data-view#" xmlns:xhtml="htt
p://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xfo
rms="http://www.w3.org/2002/xforms" xmlns:dom="http://www.w3.org/2001/xml-events" xmlns:script="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:s
cript:1.0" xmlns:form="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:form:1.0" xmlns:math="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:draw="urn:
oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:drawing:1.0" xmlns:dr3d="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:dr3d:1.0" xmlns:text="urn:oasis:names:
tc:opendocument:xmlns:text:1.0" xmlns:style="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:style:1.0" xmlns:formx="urn:openoffice:names:experim
ental:ooxml-odf-interop:xmlns:form:1.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:ooo="http://openoffice.org/2004/office" xmlns
:loext="urn:org:documentfoundation:names:experimental:office:xmlns:loext:1.0" xmlns:office="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:offic
e:1.0" xmlns:fo="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:xsl-fo-compatible:1.0" xmlns:field="urn:openoffice:names:experimental:ooo-ms-int
erop:xmlns:field:1.0" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:meta="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:meta:1.0" xmlns:conf
ig="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:config:1.0" xmlns:calcext="urn:org:documentfoundation:names:experimental:calc:xmlns:calcext:1
.0" xmlns:svg="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:svg-compatible:1.0" xmlns:of="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:of:1.2" xmlns:
chart="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:chart:1.0" xmlns:rpt="http://openoffice.org/2005/report" xmlns:table="urn:oasis:names:tc:o
pendocument:xmlns:table:1.0" xmlns:css3t="http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-text/" xmlns:number="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:datastyl
e:1.0" xmlns:ooow="http://openoffice.org/2004/writer" xmlns:oooc="http://openoffice.org/2004/calc" xmlns:tableooo="http://openoffice.or
g/2009/table" xmlns:drawooo="http://openoffice.org/2010/draw" office:version="1.2" office:mimetype="application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.
text">

And from an LO created file (not yours)

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<office:document xmlns:officeooo="http://openoffice.org/2009/office" xmlns:grddl="http://www.w3.org/2003/g/data-view#" xmlns:xhtml="htt
p://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xfo
rms="http://www.w3.org/2002/xforms" xmlns:dom="http://www.w3.org/2001/xml-events" xmlns:script="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:s
cript:1.0" xmlns:form="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:form:1.0" xmlns:math="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:draw="urn:
oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:drawing:1.0" xmlns:dr3d="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:dr3d:1.0" xmlns:text="urn:oasis:names:
tc:opendocument:xmlns:text:1.0" xmlns:style="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:style:1.0" xmlns:formx="urn:openoffice:names:experim
ental:ooxml-odf-interop:xmlns:form:1.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:ooo="http://openoffice.org/2004/office" xmlns
:loext="urn:org:documentfoundation:names:experimental:office:xmlns:loext:1.0" xmlns:office="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:offic
e:1.0" xmlns:fo="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:xsl-fo-compatible:1.0" xmlns:field="urn:openoffice:names:experimental:ooo-ms-int
erop:xmlns:field:1.0" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:meta="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:meta:1.0" xmlns:conf
ig="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:config:1.0" xmlns:calcext="urn:org:documentfoundation:names:experimental:calc:xmlns:calcext:1
.0" xmlns:svg="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:svg-compatible:1.0" xmlns:of="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:of:1.2" xmlns:
chart="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:chart:1.0" xmlns:rpt="http://openoffice.org/2005/report" xmlns:table="urn:oasis:names:tc:o
pendocument:xmlns:table:1.0" xmlns:css3t="http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-text/" xmlns:number="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:datastyl
e:1.0" xmlns:ooow="http://openoffice.org/2004/writer" xmlns:oooc="http://openoffice.org/2004/calc" xmlns:tableooo="http://openoffice.or
g/2009/table" xmlns:drawooo="http://openoffice.org/2010/draw" office:version="1.2" office:mimetype="application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.
text">
 <office:meta><meta:initial-creator>David Robley</meta:initial-creator><meta:creation-date>2016-11-24T10:09:41</meta:creation-date><dc:
date>2021-04-21T19:15:14</dc:date><dc:creator>David Robley</dc:creator><meta:editing-duration>P29DT19H46M16S</meta:editing-duration><me
ta:editing-cycles>43</meta:editing-cycles><meta:generator>LibreOffice/6.4.6.2$Linux_X86_64 LibreOffice_project/40$Build-2</meta:generat
or><meta:document-statistic meta:table-count="1" meta:image-count="3" meta:object-count="0" meta:page-count="4" meta:paragraph-count="2
9" meta:word-count="898" meta:character-count="4790"/></office:meta>
 <office:settings>
  <config:config-item-set config:name="ooo:view-settings">
   <config:config-item config:name="ViewAreaTop" config:type="long">58420</config:config-item>
   <config:config-item config:name="ViewAreaLeft" config:type="long">0</config:config-item>
   <config:config-item config:name="ViewAreaWidth" config:type="long">31064</config:config-item>
 

[cmahte]

Thanks David!

Re: Looks Different

Those links in my original question open github pages that show the code behind the .fodt files. You can download the file itself once you land at github. It appears you've saved the github page, not the fodt file.

-----

I remember seeing .fodt in star office. I remember the first time I started working down this trail I was using OpenOffice.org (not sure if it was oracle or the first AOO. I've been on Linux since the Star Office days, so these filters being removed makes sense why I remembered things differently when I reinstalled it.

[Villeroy]

The attached file has been generated by AOO and shows file types supported by AOO. No change in 10 years at least. No fodt anywhere.

[robleyd]

Ah, the link looked like a direct download, so I just right clicked and saved

Having got the correct download, I can confirm that by using the filters from the link in my earlier post, AOO opens the .fodt file without issue.

[Villeroy]

Having got the correct download, I can confirm that by using the filters from the link in my earlier post, AOO opens the .fodt file without issue.

My AOO 4.1.13 crashes when I try to install any of the filters. A new user profile makes no difference.

[cmahte]

Ah, the link looked like a direct download, so I just right clicked and saved

Having got the correct download, I can confirm that by using the filters from the link in my earlier post, AOO opens the .fodt file without issue.

I'm also getting a app crash when I try to load XML packages into Writer or Calc (running both as user and root.). What Java environment are you running? And is there anything else not listed that enables these in the open menu.. I don't think I see the items already listed, but there are a lot of filetypes in that list... maybe i'm just not seeing them.

[robleyd]

java.png (26.25 KiB) Viewed 3951 times

huntsman@studio:~/Downloads$ java -version
java version "1.8.0_161"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_161-b12)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.161-b12, mixed mode)

Would assume that is part of the Slackware install, but need to check the install medium to be sure. If needed I'll do that tomorrow; it's about bedtime now.