INTRODUCTION
February 13, 2026 ยท View on GitHub
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INTRODUCTION
regxmllib is a collection of tools and libraries for the creation of RegXML (SMPTE ST 2001-1) representations of MXF header metadata (SMPTE ST 377-1). A RegXML Fragment example can be found at [1]
[1] src/test/resources/reference-files
Two implementations of regxmllib are provided:
- regxmllibj, which is implemented in pure Java; and
- regxmllibc, which is implemented in C++03.
KNOWN ISSUES AND LIMITATIONS
regxmllib relies on SMPTE Metadata Registers that conform to SMPTE ST 335, ST 395, ST 400, ST 2003. These registers are published at [1].
[1] https://smpte-ra.org/smpte-metadata-registry
regxmllib deviates from ST 2001-1:2013 in a few narrow instances. Such deviations are noted in the source code and are expected to be submitted for consideration at the next revision of ST 2001-1. In particular:
- no baseline metadictionary is used, instead one extension metadictionary per namespace is used
Bugs are tracked at [2]
[2] https://github.com/sandflow/regxmllib/issues
REGXMLLIBJ
Prerequisites
Java 11 and above
Maven
(recommended) Git
(recommended) SMPTE Metadata Registers (Types, Elements, Groups and Labels)
Quick Start
The following outputs to path PATH_TO_FRAGMENT an XML representation of the header metadata of the MXF file at path PATH_TO_MXF_FILE
-
mvn package -Pwith-dependencies -
choose one of the following:
-
OPTION 1
-
retrieve the four SMPTE Metadata Registers (see [1] above)
-
build the metadictionaries from the SMPTE registers
java -cp <PATH_TO_JAR> com.sandflow.smpte.tools.XMLRegistersToDict -e <PATH_TO_ELEMENTS_REG> -l <PATH_TO_LABELS_REG> -g <PATH_TO_GROUPS_REG> -t <PATH_TO_TYPES_REG> PATH_TO_DICT_DIR
-
-
OPTION 2
-
retrieve metadictionaries from [3]
-
-
-
generate the RegXML fragment
run java -cp target/regxmllib-jar-with-dependencies.jar com.sandflow.smpte.tools.RegXMLDump -all -d <PATH_TO_DICT1> <PATH_TO_DICT2> ... -i <PATH_TO_MXF_FILE> > <PATH_TO_FRAGMENT>
-
(optional) generate XSDs for RegXML Fragments
run java -cp target/regxmllib-jar-with-dependencies.jar com.sandflow.smpte.tools.GenerateDictionaryXMLSchema -d <PATH_TO_DICT1> <PATH_TO_DICT2> ... -o <PATH_TO_OUTPUT_DIR>
-
(optional) generate XSDs for SMPTE registers
run java -cp target/regxmllib-jar-with-dependencies.jar com.sandflow.smpte.tools.GenerateXMLSchemaDocuments -cp <CLASS_PATH_TO_REGISTER_MODEL> -d <PATH_TO_OUTPUT_DIR>
where <CLASS_PATH_TO_REGISTER_MODEL> is equal to com.sandflow.smpte.register.catsup.TypesRegisterModel, etc.
Architecture
At the heart of regxmllib is the FragmentBuilder.fragmentFromTriplet() method that creates an XML fragment from a KLV group given a a RegXML metadictionary and a collection of KLV groups from which strong references are resolved. The rules engine implemented in FragmentBuilder.fragmentFromTriplet() is intended to follow the rules specified in ST 2001-1 as closely as possible. A sister method, XMLSchemaBuilder.fromDictionary(), creates a matching XML Schema that can be used to validate RegXML fragments.
Metadictionaries can be imported and exported from XML documents that conform to the schema specified in SMPTE ST 2001-1. They can also be created from SMPTE Metadata Registers published in XML form.
regxmllib includes a minimal MXF and KLV parser library.
Packages
com.sandflow.smpte.klv : Classes for processing SMPTE KLV triplets (ST 336)
com.sandflow.smpte.mxf: Classes for processing SMPTE MXF structures (ST 377-1)
com.sandflow.smpte.register: Classes for processing SMPTE metadata registers (ST 335, ST 395, ST 400, ST 2003)
com.sandfow.smpte.regxml: Classes for managing RegXML metadictionaries and creating RegXML representations of MXF structures
com.sandfow.smpte.tools: Application-level tools
com.sandfow.smpte.util: Utilities classes
Tools
RegXMLDump: dumps either the first essence descriptor or the entire header metadata of an MXF file as a RegXML structure
XMLRegistersToDict: converts XML-based SMPTE metadata registers to a RegXML metadictionaries
GenerateXMLSchemaDocuments: generates XSDs for the SMPTE metadata registers
GenerateDictionaryXMLSchema: generate XSDs for RegXML Fragments from the RegXML metadictionaries
Unit Test
Unit testing is performed by generating RegXML fragments from sample files located at [1] and registers located at [2]. The resulting RegXML fragments are compared to reference RegXML fragments located at [3].
[1] src/test/mxf-files [2] src/test/registers [3] src/test/regxml-files
Reference RegXML fragments can regenerated by running the package goal with the build-reference-test-files profile:
mvn package -Pbuild-reference-files
Maven Artifacts
- GroupId com.sandflow
- ArtifactId regxmllib
Snapshots are deployed at https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/snapshots/
Releases are deployed at the central repository
REGXMLLIBC
Prerequisites
C++03 toolchain
Metadictionaries generated by regxmllibj (see Building Metadictionaries above)
Xerces-C++ Version 3.1.4 (or above) [1]
(recommended) CMake
[1] https://xerces.apache.org/xerces-c/
Architecture
regxmllibc generally follows the architecture and idioms of regxmllibj.
Applications will typically call FragmentBuilder::fromTriplet() or MXFFragmentBuilder::fromInputStream(), and the unit test at [1] provides an example.
[1] src/test/cpp/com/sandflow/smpte/dict/MetaDictionaryTest.cpp
regxmllibc does not however support the conversion of the SMPTE Metadata Registers to RegXML metadictionaries, and instead relies on the metadictionaries generated by regxmllibj (see Building Metadictionaries above).
Unit Test
As with regxmllibj, unit testing is performed by generating RegXML fragments from sample files located at [1] and reference metadictionaries located at [2]. The resulting RegXML fragments are compared to reference RegXML fragments located at [3].
[1] src/test/mxf-files [2] src/test/regxml-dicts [3] src/test/regxml-files
DIRECTORIES AND NOTABLE FILES
build.xml Helper script (Ant)
pom.xml Maven POM file
CMakeLists.txt CMake build file
target Output of the Maven build process, including the JAR
src/java regxmllibj codebase
src/cpp regxmllibc codebase
src/main/config/repoversion.properties Template Java properties file used to host the a unique source code version generated using git by the build system
src/main/resources/reg.xsd Common XML Schema definitions used when generating XML Schemas for RegXML Fragments
src/test/resources/regxml-files Reference RegXML fragment used for unit testing
src/test/resources/registers Reference SMPTE registers used for unit testing
src/test/resources/mxf-files Sample MXF files used for unit testing
src/test/resources/regxml-dicts Reference metadictionaries used for unit testing