AP 2.5.7 not opening IDML - BUG Report?

[stevenh]

This is an IDML generated from Quark 2025. It opens in ID 2025 quite correctly. It is completely ignored by Affinty Publisher. No errors, no reaction at all.

Can anyone else verify this is the case? Curious to see.

AP 2.5.7 WILL open older IDML files, but what has changed..? IDK

GoldShield-SPD.v1_2025.idml

[MikeTO]

Same for me. I'm not totally surprised that some minor difference in how XP writes an IDML file is causing Affinity to fail to open it, but I am surprised that there is no error message or even a flash of the status control showing that it's trying to load the file.

I don't have InDesign or else I'd try opening and re-saving it and then trying to figure out what the difference is that's causing Affinity fail to load it.

[stevenh]

Thanks for trying. I even installed a slightly earlier version of Java (jre-8u371-macosx-x64.dmg), but same result.

Quark_2025 = Create and will Open

InD CC_2025 = Will Open

Affinity = Just a blank stare

Attached is the super simple test file. 

Project2.idml

[MikeTO]

Oh, so it's any IDML file exported from Quark and not just a specific one. That should make it an easier issue to track down. It appears to be well formed XML so it's possibly just that Affinity is expecting something that InDesign writes to IDML that Quark chose to omit. Quark does seem to be writing a simpler file than InDesign.

[MikeTO]

I'm linking together the two threads in which the Quark IDML issues are being discussed.

 

[joe_l]

10 hours ago, stevenh said:

Can anyone else verify this is the case? Curious to see.

One, for Affinity Publisher crucial file seems to be missing in your IDML file. A file called mimetype. I opened a Quark IDML and an Indesign IDML and compared them. Indesign generated this file.

I copied it over to to the "root" of your first file and it opened in Affinity Publisher. It is a plain textfile with just application/vnd.adobe.indesign-idml-package in it as text. File is attached so that you copy over the file to your Quark IDML

mimetype

[stevenh]

Thanks for checking this out joe_l

This sounds interesting... but I do not know how to "open" the IDML.

VS code says it is unsupported

TextEdit just shows unreadable code... Can you walk me through the method you used to view, edit and then preview the "corrected" file?

If the missing mimetype is the issue, Affinty needs to know this as well

[werfox]

Hi @stevenh,

IDML files are just ZIP archives containing several folders and files.

So you can just open such a file with an unzip utility of your choice (I did with 7-zip)
and get a folder which looks similar to this in case of your sample file Project2.idml:

There you can place the mimetype file gracefully provided by @joe_l and zip the whole structure again:

It is important not to zip the whole folder created while unzipping the idml file
but its contents: e.g. if you get a folder called Project2 then place the mimetype file inside
and compress the following files and folders:

MasterSpreads
META-INF
Resources
Spreads
Stories
XML
designmap.xml
mimetype

to a new zip archive that first remains inside that folder.

Then rename the resulting archive from .zip to .idml and voilá: the formerly "incomplete" idml file from QuarkXPress opens fine in APub.
The same with your file in the opening post: just add the mimetype file and it opens fine in APub (2.5.7).

For a short technical description of the internal IDML structure: Anatomy of IDML.

 

Regardless of the rather simple workaround I think it’s worthy to mark this as a bug.

 

Best regards

Edited December 23, 2024 by werfox
decription of zipping the contents of the decompressed idlm archive, link to Anatomy of IDML

[loukash]

1 hour ago, stevenh said:

I do not know how to "open" the IDML

On Mac, BBEdit can open *.idml directly with the individual editable xml files within. It should work even with the free version, as far as I recall: barebones.com/products/bbedit

However, it seems that it's not possible to "insert" files into the compressed IDML package this way, so you still may need to unzip, re-zip and rename it, as outlined above by @werfox.

[loukash]

44 minutes ago, werfox said:

rename the resulting file from .zip to .idml and voilá: the formerly "incomplete" idml file from QuarkXPress opens fine in APub.

Hm… I just tried that but it doesn't work for me on Mac.

[werfox]

I just edited my post and inserted a potentially crucial information:

Quote

It is important not to zip the whole folder created while unzipping the idml file but its contents

I made the mistake first and the resulting idml was unusable.

[stevenh]

Fantastic - Thank you all, I will give this a try.

Just an FYI - On a Mac I used the free utility Unarchiver and it opened the IDML perfectly. Also Apple's Archive Utility will open it.

On initial test, neither Quark nor AD opened the "repaired" idml. I'll do a restart and poke around a bit more later.

Really appreciate the great feedback from the community.

Not sure how MikeTO combined these threads - but maybe he can turn them into a bug report as well - LOL

[werfox]

@stevenh:

Quote

On initial test, neither Quark nor AD opened the "repaired" idml.

Please take notice of my edited post above. I made probably the same mistake first and re-zipped the "outside" folder instead of its contents.
The internal structure od the idml file/archive must not contain a single folder but the files and folders mentioned above.

[stevenh]

That was the secret sauce! Thanks for the clarification. That works perfect.

I'll try a few more  - but the Werfox/Loukash method looks like the key.

I feel privileged to have the assistance of so many knowledgeable people here

[werfox]

Kudos to @joe_l for research and finding out the missing mimetype file!

[dark_rider]

Thank you all for this workaround, however I unzipped the idml, added the mimetype file, zipped altogether again (the contents, not the whole folder) and renamed it to .idml, but now AfPub complains that the file would be damaged.

Also my source is generated from QuarkXPress, but I use AfPub 1.10.6.1665.

Is there something else I could have overseen?

[dark_rider]

Realized my mistake: I re-zipped the whole in 7z format instead of standard zip format. Now zipped as "real" zip, it works and the resulting .idml can be opened also in AfPub. Thank you a lot again!

[dark_rider]

PS: The content of the plain text file to be added named "mimetype" is just "application/vnd.adobe.indesign-idml-package". So it can also by self-generated via text editors.

[Komatös]

Hi @dark_rider and welcome to the forums.

A little hint. If you want to make changes or additions to a post, click on the symbol with the three dots to the right of your name. Then select Edit and make the change/addition. This keeps treats clearer.

[stevenh]

Just a quick follow-up:

I reported this bug to Quark just before the Holidays, but they did not really respond.

They said because the IDML does open in InDesign so it works as expected. They then "closed" the ticket because I didn't reply fast enough over Christmas/New Year's break.

I'll reopen it with them at some point–if I get any progress I'll post it here.

Thanks to everybody for digging into this

[dark_rider]

By the way, I intended to use the new IDML export surprisingly integrated to QuarkXPress since version 2024, to migrate my documents to AfPub. Thanks to the workaround explained here, I at least could open the result now, but it does not convince: Tables are completely left out in the .idml which QuarkXPress exported, so these .idml files would even cause more work then the normal way to migrate via PDF files in which the tables at least exist, however not always aligned correctly.

[PaoloT]

5 hours ago, dark_rider said:

Tables are completely left out in the .idml

I'm not totally sure the problem lies in the IDML file…

 

[stevenh]

I did a test and it worked for me...

Hee are the files if you want to check...

• table test.qxp = simple Qxp file with a simple table
• table test.idml = the unaltered IDML produced by Quark. This DOES open in InDesign. DOES NOT open in Affinity Publisher.
• tabletest2.idml = corrected IDML file with "mimetype" file added. This DOES open in AFP

Remember - Qxp puts tables inside a text frame. The tables are probably not missing, you may just need to open it up wider to see the content

table test.qxp table test.idml tabletest2.idml

[dark_rider]

Thank you for your hint, but in my .idml generated from QuarkXPress really all tables are missing and do not exist, I checked all existing elements.

[stevenh]

Just curious, did you get the same results creating an IDML file with the "table test.qxp" file I uploaded?