Data file formats: Difference between revisions

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(introductory sentence)
(→‎List of supported formats: various improvements)
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''TODO: This should become a table of format - mime-type - activities supporting the format - a link to sample files for each file format.''
''TODO: This should become a table of format - mime-type - activities supporting the format - a link to sample files for each file format.''


* [[choosing image formats|Image formats]]
* [[Image file formats]]
** [[JPEG 2000]] (? does not work in Browse). [http://www.fnordware.com/j2k/relax.jp2 Sample file]
** [[JPEG 2000]] (? does not work in Browse). [http://www.fnordware.com/j2k/relax.jp2 Sample file]
** [[GIF]]
** [[GIF]]
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** [[DJVU]] (coming some day to [[Read]], see <trac>6223</trac>). [http://djvu.org/docs/ Sample files]
** [[DJVU]] (coming some day to [[Read]], see <trac>6223</trac>). [http://djvu.org/docs/ Sample files]
** [[PDF]] (in [[Read]] via [[Evince]])
** [[PDF]] (in [[Read]] via [[Evince]])
* [[Multimedia]] formats:
** [[Music/formats|Sound formats]]
*** [[Ogg]] Vorbis (supported by the [[Totem plugin]] for [[Browse]]).[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Tromboon-sample.ogg Sample file], also there are sample files in some OLPC builds in OLPC Library > media > music ([http://dev.laptop.org/pub/content/Library/music/bundle_index.html equivalent web version].
*** WAV (supported by the Totem plugin for Browse). [http://www.nch.com.au/acm/index.html Sample files]
*** the Totem and Gnash plugins for [[Browse]] claim to support other formats, enter <tt>about:plugins</tt> in the Browse location field.


* [[Music/formats|Sound formats]]
** Video formats
*** [[Ogg]] Theora (supported by the [[Totem plugin]] for [[Browse]])
** [[Ogg]] Vorbis (supported by the Totem plugin for [[Browse]]). [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Tromboon-sample.ogg Sample file], also there are sample files in some OLPC builds in OLPC Library > media > music ([http://dev.laptop.org/pub/content/Library/music/bundle_index.html equivalent web version].
*** [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DV DV] format ? (/usr/lib/libdv present)
** WAV (supported by the Totem plugin for Browse). [http://www.nch.com.au/acm/index.html Sample files]
** the Totem and Gnash plugins for [[Browse]] claim to support other formats, enter <tt>about:plugins</tt> in the Browse location field.

* Video formats
** [[Ogg]] Theora?
** [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DV DV] format ? (/usr/lib/libdv present)


* General formats
* General formats
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* OLPC-specific formats
* OLPC-specific formats
** [[Activities]] are made available to download as ".xo" [[bundles]]
** [[Content]] is a made available to download as ".xol" [[bundles]]
** [[Journal entry bundles]] (a zip file with the ".xoj" extension and mime type 'application/vnd.olpc-journal-entry')
** [[Journal entry bundles]] (a zip file with the ".xoj" extension and mime type 'application/vnd.olpc-journal-entry')



Revision as of 23:30, 23 November 2008

This page is about the various file formats that the XO may encounter.

This article is a stub. You can help the OLPC project by expanding it.

Introduction

Because the OLPC has limited storage and limited RAM, it is not a good idea to support every data format used on regular PCs. It makes more sense to use our PCs to convert data than to put that burden on the OLPC.

The libraries and packages in the build support various file formats. Some of this support is exposed through the various Activities and the files they load. Most activities list the mime types they support in their activity.info file. In a Terminal activity,

 cat ~olpc/Activity name.activity/activity/activity.info

and there will be a mime_types line.

On some activities' wiki pages the infobox lists some of the mime types they support, e.g. Browse.

List of supported formats

TODO: This should become a table of format - mime-type - activities supporting the format - a link to sample files for each file format.

  • General formats
    • XML
    • SQLite (a lightweight relational database that is included in Python 2.5)
    • Gnu gdbm (supported by Python's dbm module)
    • Berkeley db version 4.3.0.1 (supported by Python's bsddb module)
  • Compression formats
    • Uncompressed (this is listed because the JFFS2 filesystem on the OLPC will compress all compressable files)
    • GNU Zip (supported by Python's zlib module, and by Etoys)

See also