[OASIS Issue Tracker] Commented: (OFFICE-3740) 4.8.14.2 ODF 1.2 Requiring <manifest:manifest> manifest:version breaks downlevel and early 1.2 implementations

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    [ http://tools.oasis-open.org/issues/browse/OFFICE-3740?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=31676#action_31676 ] 

Dennis Hamilton commented on OFFICE-3740:
-----------------------------------------

@Andreas,

It wasn't a bug at the time the producer used was released.

Or put differently, the bug was to claim that ODF 1.2 was being produced, when ODF 1.2 had not even achieved Committee Specification.  That is not exactly a bug.

Furthermore, the users who produced the documents did the usual thing of using recent versions of the producer implementation, and did so in some sort of happy disregard for ODF 1.2 (extended!) being the default output option when ODF 1.2 was not baked yet.

This is a real-world situation.  I am simply pointing out that it arose here.  There are now many such documents in the world.  There was a time when validators would report that those documents are fine and that the appearance of the <manifest:manifest> manifest:version was in error.  Now the later validators make the opposite determination.  Clearly, validators are easier to adjust and to have them make warnings about such small deviations, rather than grand statements about the entire document based on this one string of markup.

Similarly, the implementation of the ODF 1.1 consumer in Office 2007 in its performance of strict validation on documents did not encounter any difficulties accepting documents from these other producers until the manifest::version started showing up.  It appears there are several cases in the world:

 1. There are 1.2-identified producers that do not produce it and whose consumers are indifferent to its presence.  How those consumers respond to material differences in the manifest.xml is determined by other means.  (It appears that Office 2013 Preview is in this category.  Older versions of OpenOffice-lineage producers are also.)

 2. There are 1.2-identified producers that produce it and whose consumers are apparently tolerant of its absence.  These  will respond to other ODF 1.2-introduced manifest provisions depending on whether they are supported in that consumer or not.   (Relatively-recent OpenOffice-lineage 1.2 producers appear to be in this category.  Their consumers can still fail badly on provisions of the manifest that are not supported in all but the latest versions, e.g., in failing to recognize non-default encryption options.)

 3. There have been ODF 1.2-identified validators that accept and others that reject the attribuite, but most now require the attribute.  (These are the easiest to adjust, it seems.)

 4. There are downlevel consumers that are indifferent to its presence and will succeed or not depending on the presence of other features..

 5. In terms of *documents*, there are produced-as-ODF-1.2 document in the world that have the attribute and others that don't have the attribute and presence or absence of the attribute apparently tell us nothing about whether or not there is anythng in the manifest that requires ODF 1.2 provisions to be consumed properly.
 5. There are downlevel consumers (OpenOffice 2007 and 2010 being notable) that require manifest.xml to satisfy the ODF 1.1 manifest schema.  That is not a bug.

5. There are downlevel consumers that are 

> 4.8.14.2 ODF 1.2 Requiring <manifest:manifest> manifest:version breaks downlevel and early 1.2 implementations
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>                 Key: OFFICE-3740
>                 URL: http://tools.oasis-open.org/issues/browse/OFFICE-3740
>             Project: OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) TC
>          Issue Type: Bug
>    Affects Versions: ODF 1.2
>         Environment: This defect applies to ODF 1.2 Part 3 since Committee Specification 01.
>            Reporter: Dennis Hamilton
>            Assignee: Patrick Durusau
>             Fix For: ODF 1.2 Errata 01
>
>
> In ODF 1.2-3 4.8.14.2, the manifest:version="1.2" attribute is mandatory on <manifest:manifest> elements.  This attribute provision was introduced in ODF 1.2.  There were no manifest:version attributes for the <manifest:manifest> attribute in ODF 1.0 and ODF 1.1.
> The presence of this attribute prevents ODF 1.1 and earlier implementations that expect strict honoring of older <manifest:manifest> schemas from accepting ODF 1.2 documents for potential down-level acceptability.
> In addition, documents identified as ODF 1.2 documents produced before the provision was added to the ODF 1.2 specification will now be declared as non-conforming by document validators.
> The Catch 22 consists of the fact that expecting the attribute will invalidate previous documents that were identified as ODF 1.2 documents and that producing the attribute will cause error messages (at least) in down-level use of documents that may well have no specific dependency on material ODF 1.2 provisions whatsoever. 
> The provision is too brittle and causes more problems without solving very many.

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