OpenOffice XML

OpenOffice XML
Name	OpenOffice XML
Type	Document file format
Introduced	2000s
Owner	Apache Software Foundation; derived projects
Extensions	.sxw, .sxc, .sxd (legacy)
Genre	Office document interchange

OpenOffice XML is a family of XML-based document file formats developed in the context of office productivity suites and open-source software initiatives. It arose amid efforts by projects and organizations to standardize office documents for interchange among applications such as OpenOffice.org, LibreOffice, AbiWord, KOffice, and proprietary suites like Microsoft Office and Apple iWork. The formats intersect with standards and bodies including OASIS and the World Wide Web Consortium, and they were part of debates involving projects such as Sun Microsystems, IBM, Novell, and the Apache Software Foundation.

History

OpenOffice XML traces origins to document formats used by suites like OpenOffice.org and predecessors linked to StarDivision and StarOffice. During the 2000s, competition intensified among formats associated with Microsoft Office 2007, Office Open XML, and standards promoted by OASIS and the International Organization for Standardization. Corporate and community actors including Sun Microsystems, Oracle Corporation, Red Hat, Canonical (company), and Novell influenced format development, while projects such as LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice continued independent engineering. High-profile events touching format politics included debates in the European Commission, commentary from the Free Software Foundation, and discussions within the Apache Software Foundation community.

Specification and Format

The specification model for OpenOffice XML-based formats employed XML schema techniques similar to those in Office Open XML and OpenDocument Format. Work involved standards processes at OASIS, technical inputs from contributors tied to Sun Microsystems and later Oracle Corporation, and review by implementers from IBM, Novell, and community projects like The Document Foundation. Specifications referenced technologies and standards from the World Wide Web Consortium for XML namespaces, and relied on packaging conventions analogous to those later standardized by formats used in Microsoft Office 2007. The format family defined element vocabularies for document content, styles, metadata, and binary object embedding, influenced by research at institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Cambridge, and Tsinghua University.

File Structure and Components

Typical OpenOffice XML-based files comprised multiple XML parts and binary streams organized into archive containers. Components included content XML for body text, style XML for formatting, meta XML for metadata, and manifest or settings parts for application-specific configuration. Embedded objects like images and spreadsheet data used binary streams referenced by XML, paralleling mechanisms seen in Office Open XML and OpenDocument Format. Packaging drew on zip-based conventions similar to approaches in OpenDocument Format and implementations from Apache Commons Compress. The component model allowed separation of presentation, layout, and semantic structure, a design also explored by researchers at Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley.

Implementations and Software Support

Implementations spanned open-source and proprietary applications. Projects that implemented or provided partial support included OpenOffice.org, LibreOffice, Apache OpenOffice, AbiWord, Calligra Suite (formerly KOffice), Gnumeric, and components within Microsoft Office compatibility layers. Commercial vendors such as Corel Corporation and SoftMaker addressed compatibility in their products. Libraries and toolkits for parsing and generating the format were developed in ecosystems like Apache POI, libreofficekit, and bindings used by GNOME-based desktops and KDE environments. Build and test systems for implementations often leveraged continuous integration services used by companies like Travis CI and Jenkins.

Compatibility and Interoperability

Interoperability efforts involved converting documents between OpenOffice XML-based formats and competing standards such as Office Open XML and OpenDocument Format. Compatibility testing occurred in cross-vendor initiatives and government interoperability programs in regions like the European Union, with involvement from national agencies and standards bodies. Tools for conversion and validation were produced by projects including LibreOffice, Apache OpenOffice, and converter libraries integrated into Google Docs and server-based document processing stacks. Challenges paralleled those experienced in legacy migrations such as the transition from Rich Text Format and proprietary binary formats used in older Microsoft Office releases.

Adoption and Use Cases

Use cases for OpenOffice XML-style formats included archival workflows in cultural institutions, document interchange in academic publishers and research organizations like Elsevier and Springer Nature, and deployment in public-sector IT systems in countries that promoted open formats. Education sectors at universities such as Harvard University, University of Oxford, and University of Melbourne experimented with open-source office suites using these formats. Enterprise document management platforms from vendors including Alfresco and SharePoint integrated converters and filters to handle such files. The formats were also used in templating systems, automated report generation, and content repositories in organizations like Wikipedia-affiliated projects and digital libraries.

Criticism and Controversies

Criticism addressed fragmentation among competing standards, governance disputes involving corporations like Sun Microsystems and Oracle Corporation, and the slow pace of achieving broad, formal standardization through bodies like OASIS and the International Organization for Standardization. Stakeholders such as the Free Software Foundation and community projects raised concerns about vendor influence, patent encumbrances, and implementation complexity. High-profile controversies mirrored debates seen in the approval processes for Office Open XML and in procurement decisions by governments and institutions in the European Union and other jurisdictions. Technical critiques noted difficulties in guaranteeing byte-for-byte fidelity across implementations and in handling legacy binary artifacts originating from suites like Microsoft Office 97.

Category:Open formats