Created attachment 183919 [details] No difference between Author and Sender ODF 1.2 (the most recent version I could download - I am aware that 1.3 is current) defines _Subsequent Authors_ as the second and following authors of a document (7.3.6.1). I was expecting to be able to retrieve ALL contributors to a document without the need to manually record this information manually as every contributor edits it (therefore could be omitted if strict discipline is not followed). Also, since there are two fields "Author" and "Sender" (7.3.6.1 explains this name comes from the original 1.0 specification), I expected that "Author" would report current author, which it does, and "Sender" would be the previous author. But "Author" and "Sender" report exactly the same value. ODF records these data in <meta:initial-creator> and <dc:creator>. It is not clear at all if multiple <dc:creator>s may coexist. In some clause of the standard (but I don't remember which), it is allowed to record several element of the same type, the older ones being copied unaltered when the document is saved. From what I saw in <office:meta>, there is a single <dc:creator> ever stored. How can I capture the subsequent authors of a document? Is the present behaviour an interpretation of the ODF standard where LO developers intentionally limited the number of "senders" to one? At least, there should be a difference between "Author" and "Sender" in order to retrieve the previous author (the value of <dc:creator> when opening the file). The attached file was edited while changing User Data between each session. It shows that: - Sender has only a single value (a scalar, not a vector) - Sender is the same as Author
Regina, can you give some insights on the problem described?
(In reply to ajlittoz from comment #0) I became curious how the data processing will evolve further also according to mentioned software areas.
Regina, I thought you might give some information about the mentioned ODF specifications. Thank you.
ODF 1.3 has the text, "The <dc:creator> element specifies the name of the person who last modified a document (<office:meta>)". Thus it does not provide a history but shows only the last author. As far as I know there exists no element in ODF, that could provide a history of authors. The request for a history of authors could be considered by the ODF TC, when working again on change tracking. But that project is on hold because it is not receiving enough support from application programmers. An application using current ODF 1.3 could use <meta:user-defined> elements to preserve the history of authors or add an own xml-file to the package, similar as the VersionList.xml file LO writes for included versions. As that is not done by LibreOffice, authors need to take care themselves. Currently I see no way to automatically update such information in the document other by using a macro bind to the "Document is going to be closed" or another suitable event. I consider this report as valid feature request to somehow implement an automatic history of authors. When such a feature will be implemented, it is urgently necessary to contact the ODF TC at an early stage.
Thanks Regina. Then what is the difference between <dc:creator> and <meta:initial-creator>?
(In reply to ajlittoz from comment #5) > Thanks Regina. > > Then what is the difference between <dc:creator> and <meta:initial-creator>? <meta:initial-creator> is the person who has first created the file, as the element indicates. To see the difference do this: 1. Make sure you have your name entered in Tools > Options > LibreOffice > User Data. 2. Create a new file, write some text, save the file and close it. 3. Change the name in User Data. 4. Open created file, make some changes, save and close it. 5. Change the User Data back to your usual entry. 6. Inspect the meta.xml in the file package or open the file again and look at File > Properties. You should see the name of step 1 in <meta:initial-creator> and the name entered in step 3 in <dc:creator>.
Thanks again and, since this is the time, best wishes for this new year. I followed the procedure but some field insertions returned void. I then saved .fodt. I found the <dc:creator> with <dc:date>. However, there is no <meta:initial-creator> despite the presence of <meta:creation-date>. This explains why the Created>Author field returns void. Test done under 7.4.6.2, Fedora 39 (linux), VCL: kf5 (cairo+xcb)