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I have a problem with the "Engraving files (Sibelius and MusicXML)", ref. #305788. If you download this you get a zipped file. After unzipping this you get a directory structure under wich a ".mxl" file appears. This is however not (as the header suggests) a standard MusicXML file but probably a proprietary file format or a compressed MusicXML file. In any case: I can't import it.

Nor the XML standard nor the MusicXML reference says something about compression. Placing an uncompressed MusicXML file in a zip container would normally compress it. So this ".mxl" file has obviously been compressed twice.

BTW: on the internet a page suggests that you can read ".mxl" files with MuseScore. But this file failed also with MuseScore.

Edgar Huckert

Please rename the .mxl file as .zip, and then unzip it. This will create the uncompressed .xml file.

I'm not sure whether this is an officially recognized procedure, anyway it works!

Max

My experiences are: Sibelius 6 cannot open the .sib file, but it can open the .mxl file

Thank you, Choralia and Notenschreiber.

for Choralia: yes, this works. After following your procedure I was able to import the XML file in Capella (there were some warnings). This confirms my theory: this was compressed twice - 1st time by a notation editor (the XML file says "Sibelius 7.0.0") and a second time by the user via zip. The .mxl file produced by Sibelius is technically spoken a container file (like .tar or .jar files) containing compressed files.

for Notenschreiber: this may be a version problem - you mentioned Sibelius V6 and the XML file says it was written by Sibelius V7.

But my major point is: the header "containing MusicXML" should be corrected or a "readme.txt" file should be added in the zip container saying how to proceed with this file.

To be pedantic (I am a professional computer scientist): if you call a file a "MusicXML" file then it should not be compressed: the XML standard and the MusicXML reference say nothing about compression. The ".mxl" format used here is probably a proprietary Sibelius format derived from MusicXML. Capella btw uses a similar approach: they call the corresponding format "capx".

Edgar Huckert

According to the MusicXML article on Wikipedia, zip compression with MXL extension is part of the MusicXML v2.0 specification. Details are available here. So I don't think that it can be regarded as a proprietary format.

Max

to choralia:

Yes, you are right: I have found a notice in the documents for MusicXML V2.0 (in file container.dtd):

"Starting with Version 2.0, the MusicXML format includes a
standard zip compressed version. These zip files can contain
multiple MusicXML files as well as other media files for
images and sound. The container DTD describes the contents
of the META-INF/container.xml file."

I knew that there was a newer version of MusicXML but I didn't know the details. The DTD (=document type definition) document specifies the DEFLATE compression algorithm and a container structure similar to JAR from the Java world. It allows also other
companion documents like PDF etc. in addition to the XML encoded score which was normally uncompressed in V1.0.

So it's up to your application to understand this compressed container format.

Edgar Huckert