greenwoodma
commented
7 years ago I think the main issue is that this is badly named. If I recall correctly the underlying code dates back to a time where we really only handled XML and HTML documents. The intention was to allow people to save their documents back into the original format but with extra XML/HTML elements. In this situation there is no need for a root element as part of the export as it will always be in the original document (which annotation set is a good question depending on use of annotation set transfer etc.).
The problem is that we have moved well beyond just HTML and XML files so this become "inline XML" instead of "save preserving format" (which I believe was it's original name). I think the default settings make perfect sense given the expected use case. It just falls apart when used on random document formats that aren't HTML/XML style.
I think the best solution would be to document it properly but move it into a plugin so it isn't a default output option.
johann-petrak
The default behaviour of this right now is a bit odd: since the rootElement parameter is optional and empty by default, unless the original document was one with a root XML-like element (e.g. HTML), the document that gets created is non-valid XML. At the least there should be a tooltip warning about this and proper documentation. Another possibility would be to add a parameter (add rootElement unless already present) to add a root element always, and use some default element name there if none is entered for the rootElement parameter ("Document" springs to mind).