ODF Inspector.

A C++ tool for inspecting Open Document Format (ODF) files, useful for LibreOffice development and debugging.

What is ODF?

ODF (Open Document Format) is an open standard for office documents (text, spreadsheets, presentations). Files include:

• .odt - Text documents
• .ods - Spreadsheets
• .odp - Presentations
• .odg - Graphics

ODF files are ZIP archives containing XML files and resources.

Features

• Extract and list all files in an ODF archive
• Display XML content with pretty formatting
• Show document metadata (content.xml, meta.xml, styles.xml)
• Inspect manifest and document structure
• Useful for understanding ODF structure before contributing to LibreOffice

Building

Prerequisites

• C++17 compatible compiler (GCC, Clang, MSVC)
• CMake 3.15 or higher
• zlib library
• libxml2 library

Windows (with vcpkg)

vcpkg install zlib libxml2
cmake -B build -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=[vcpkg-root]/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake
cmake --build build

Linux/macOS

# Install dependencies
# Ubuntu/Debian:
sudo apt-get install zlib1g-dev libxml2-dev

# macOS:
brew install zlib libxml2

# Build
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make

Usage

./odf-inspector <path-to-odf-file>

Examples:

./odf-inspector document.odt
./odf-inspector spreadsheet.ods
./odf-inspector presentation.odp

Project Structure

odf-inspector/
├── include/           # Header files
│   ├── ODFInspector.h
│   └── ZipReader.h
├── src/              # Implementation files
│   ├── main.cpp
│   ├── ODFInspector.cpp
│   └── ZipReader.cpp
├── CMakeLists.txt    # Build configuration
└── README.md

How It Works

1. ZIP Extraction: ODF files are ZIP archives, so we use zlib to extract contents
2. XML Parsing: Extract and parse key XML files (content.xml, meta.xml, styles.xml)
3. Display: Pretty-print the structure and metadata

Key ODF Files

• mimetype - Identifies the ODF document type
• content.xml - Main document content
• meta.xml - Document metadata (author, date, etc.)
• styles.xml - Style definitions
• settings.xml - Application settings
• META-INF/manifest.xml - File manifest
• Pictures/ - Embedded images

Contributing to LibreOffice

This tool helps you:

• Understand ODF file structure
• Debug document issues
• Test file generation
• Learn the format before contributing to LibreOffice core

Resources

• ODF Specification
• LibreOffice Development
• LibreOffice Core Repository

License

MIT License - Feel free to use and modify for your LibreOffice contribution work!..