Bug 61606 - LibreOffice should import and export custom XML parts in Office Open XML documents
Summary: LibreOffice should import and export custom XML parts in Office Open XML docu...
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: filters and storage (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
3.6.5.2 release
Hardware: All All
: medium critical
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: dataLoss, filter:ooxml
Depends on:
Blocks: MSO-Formats
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2013-02-28 10:16 UTC by Wolfgang Silbermayr
Modified: 2023-12-29 11:40 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
A file with a custom XML part inside. (5.84 KB, application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet)
2013-02-28 10:16 UTC, Wolfgang Silbermayr
Details

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Description Wolfgang Silbermayr 2013-02-28 10:16:27 UTC
Created attachment 75682 [details]
A file with a custom XML part inside.

The Office Open XML document format allows custom XML files to be included in the zip file (Spec Part 1, ยง15.2.5). This is for programs to store information in these files and they should be kept there even when an office program opens and saves the file.
When opening such a document in LibreOffice and saving it again, the custom parts are lost. Depending on the workflow of the third-party tools, this can cause loss of data which is expected to be kept in the document.

Steps to reproduce:
1. Open the attached file "file-with-custom-xml.xlsx" with a zip program, and see the contents. There is a folder called "custom" with a file called "custom.xml", and the files "/[Content_Types].xml" as well as the "/_rels/.rels" contain references to this file.
2. Open the file in MS Office 2007 or later, save it under a new filename. See the contents of the file, the "custom" folder with the file inside is still there.
3. Open the file in LibreOffice, save it under a new filename. See the contents of the file, the folder is gone.

It would be nice if LibreOffice ignores the contents of these files, so one is not limited to putting XML inside. Microsoft Office ignores the contents, so any other file type can be used.

When there is no reference in the [Content_Types].xml or the .rels file, the custom files can be safely deleted.
Comment 1 Joel Madero 2013-04-15 00:43:17 UTC
This one is a tricky one as technically it is an enhancement request but since MS Office allows it in its specs, seems like it is a bug that we do not - and the data loss is quite serious.


I am tentatively going to mark this as a bug, major (loss of data), high (default) - please be aware that a developer may disagree and say that this is in fact an enhancement request.

I am also changing the version to 3.6.5.2 as I can confirm this behavior on it (version is oldest version which we see the issue, not the latest it has been tested, we use comments for this)
Comment 2 QA Administrators 2015-04-19 03:20:52 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 3 Wolfgang Silbermayr 2015-04-23 06:56:48 UTC
>    *If the bug is present, please leave a comment that includes the version
> of LibreOffice and your operating system, and any changes you see in the bug
> behavior

The bug is still there.
OS: debian jessie
Libreoffice version: 4.4.2.2 deb from libreoffice website.
Comment 4 QA Administrators 2016-09-20 09:33:16 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 5 eisa01 2018-03-31 20:04:00 UTC
Still there

Version: 6.1.0.0.alpha0+
Build ID: a488c7ad2763b944713997911c1ddb0315d8c93f
CPU threads: 2; OS: Mac OS X 10.12.6; UI render: default; 
TinderBox: MacOSX-x86_64@49-TDF, Branch:master, Time: 2018-03-26_00:38:29
Locale: en-US (en_US.UTF-8); Calc: group
Comment 6 QA Administrators 2019-04-01 03:25:03 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 7 eisa01 2019-04-20 18:02:59 UTC
Still present

Version: 6.3.0.0.alpha0+
Build ID: ea9c13be02ba731074fa4207944ff7df40a0fb5c
CPU threads: 2; OS: Mac OS X 10.13.6; UI render: default; VCL: osx; 
TinderBox: MacOSX-x86_64@49-TDF, Branch:master, Time: 2019-04-10_20:43:17
Locale: en-US (en_US.UTF-8); UI-Language: en-US
Calc: threaded
Comment 8 QA Administrators 2023-02-06 03:19:23 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 9 eisa01 2023-12-29 11:40:03 UTC
Still present

Version: 24.2.0.0.beta1 (AARCH64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 5f390384195b7264c6e52add9e90a39790285249
CPU threads: 10; OS: macOS 14.2; UI render: Skia/Metal; VCL: osx
Locale: en-US (en_US.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded