Re: frt - r27479 - abiword/trunk/plugins/openxml/imp/xp

Hi Firat,

What good will warning users do? There's nothing they can do to correct it.

IMO, we should just import invalid documents, export valid ones, and
the users should be none the wiser.

#4 is worthwhile. I question the usefulness of #s 1-3.

Best,
Dom

On Sun, Aug 2, 2009 at 4:42 PM, Firat Kiyak<firatkiyak@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Kamran,
>
> I agree on that we should still try to import the broken file and let
> the user know that the file is broken. I think this is the default
> behavior on Word 2007 as well. I still think that having a fully
> implemented validity checker will be useful for importer and later for
> exporter as well, so here is what I will do:
>
> 1. Implement validity checker in full, but relax it so that we still
> accept the broken documents
> 2. Instead of rejecting broken files, I will generate warning messages for users
> 3. We should link the OpenXML importer to the UI so that warning
> messages propagate to users.
> 4. I need to improve the defense in the OpenXML importer and make sure
> we don't have any assumptions about the input file leading to crashes
> or bad things.
>
> By implementing a strict validity checker, I was planning to avoid
> step 4, but I think we will need it. Thanks,
>
> Firat
>
> On Sun, Aug 2, 2009 at 12:49 AM, sum1abi@gmail.com <sum1abi@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Sun, Aug 2, 2009 at 2:54 AM, <cvs@abisource.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > Author: frt
>> > Date: 2009-08-02 08:54:03 +0200 (Sun, 02 Aug 2009)
>> > New Revision: 27479
>> >
>> > Modified:
>> >   abiword/trunk/plugins/openxml/imp/xp/OXMLi_ListenerState_Valid.cpp
>> >   abiword/trunk/plugins/openxml/imp/xp/OXMLi_ListenerState_Valid.h
>> >   abiword/trunk/plugins/openxml/imp/xp/OXMLi_StreamListener.cpp
>> >   abiword/trunk/plugins/openxml/imp/xp/OXMLi_Types.h
>> > Log:
>> > OpenXML importer added checks for some valid keywords (main document story, paragraphs)
>> >
>>
>> Hi Firat,
>>
>> I'm not sure this sort of validation is a good idea for (at least) two reasons:
>>
>> - AbiWord has been producing invalid files for a while (Bug 12180).
>> If you only accept invalid input, you're going to break compatibility
>> with old files.
>>
>> - Office programs should handle a wide variety of input.  It doesn't
>> serve the needs of users to reject technically invalid documents that
>> could be imported otherwise.  In fact, a lot of work has been done
>> during 2.7.x to make AbiWord accept broken files.
>>
>>
>> I don't think the importer should _require_ strict validity.  Instead,
>> the code would probably be most helpful as a means of warning users of
>> broken files (and accepting them regardless), and also as a way to
>> help developers validate files that AbiWord produces.  Beyond that, I
>> see it causing more problems than it solves.
>

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