OXT Extensions as the default package format for the extensions repository

In OpenOffice.org 2.0.4 we introduced *.oxt as the new file extensions for office extensions packages and *.oxt is a registered mime-type. With this mime-type we support smooth system integration. This means that you can simply double-click an *.oxt file and the Extension Manager of your office installation is started automatically, or when you download an *.oxt file the browser asks if you want to start the Extensions Manager to install the extension directly.

We suggest that you use *.oxt for your extension packages to make use of the smooth system integration and also to establish *.oxt as the default file extension for OpenOffice.org extensions. With the new package format you also get some additional useful features, for example:

• a unique identifier for your extension
• a version number
• dependencies
• online update
• simple license support
• publisher information
• extension icons (visible in the Extension Manager's UI since OpenOffice.org 3.0)
• description (visible in the Extension Manager's UI since OpenOffice.org 3.0)

For a more detailed description of available features please refer to the related Extensions chapter in the Developer's Guide.