5 replies to this topic

[DMala]

Just curious, is the format of VPX files documented anywhere?  I've been playing around with building a frontend, and currently I'm just pulling table information from the filenames. Which works OK, but obviously requires the files to be named and formatted correctly.  I've been thinking it would be cooler if I could dip into the VPX files themselves to pull out whatever information I can.  I've been poking around a few with a hex editor and I've seen a few strings that look promising, but don't have anything definitive yet.  Before I dig any deeper, I figured I'd ask around and see if this information already exists somewhere.

[Gravy]

Interestingly you can open a VPX file as a zip.

[DMala]

Well, isn't that interesting? That's even easier than I thought it would be.  Thanks!!

Edited by DMala, 28 April 2025 - 01:46 AM.

[jsm174]

The vpx file is not a zip. It’s a OLE Compound File.

You should look into vpxtool: https://github.com/francisdb/vpxtool

The source code there is exactly what you would need to understand the format. The tool also does what you’re looking for although you will find 100s of tables that don’t fill in the information. Probably because most tables are copies of copies or copies.

[DMala]

Hah, I discovered both of those things myself.  It was pretty easy to pull in a library to handle the compound file, and I've got it set up now to pull what it can from the baked in information and then try to fill in any blanks from the file name.  It's probably not perfect, but it's doing pretty well, at least with the collection of tables I have.

 

Thanks for the info!  I'll share what I have if I can manage to get it into a state where I can do so without being embarrassed.

[Gravy]

The vpx file is not a zip. It’s a OLE Compound File.

You should look into vpxtool: https://github.com/francisdb/vpxtool

The source code there is exactly what you would need to understand the format. The tool also does what you’re looking for although you will find 100s of tables that don’t fill in the information. Probably because most tables are copies of copies or copies.

Ah, ok I had assumed it was some form of zip file as can be opened in 7zip.