"package" in OPF problem?

[AlanHK]

Looking at an ePub2 that works fine, but ePubCheck complains:

ERROR(RSC-005): Error while parsing file 'element "package" not allowed here; expected element "opf:package" or "package" (with xmlns="http://openebook.org/namespaces/oeb-package/1.0/")'.

Then another error for every line in the OPF like:
ERROR(RSC-005): Error while parsing file 'element "dc:creator" not allowed here; expected the element end-tag or text'.

I have no clue what this means.

The OPF begins:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<package version="2.0" unique-identifier="ISBN" xmlns:dcterms="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:opf="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf">
<metadata>

Is this where the problem is? Can anyone suggest how to fix this?

=========================================

PS. I replaced with the below, copied from another epub, only keeping the original "unique-identifier="ISBN"

This now works, epubcheck has no errors.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<package version="2.0" unique-identifier="ISBN" xmlns="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf">
<metadata xmlns:opf="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">


I notice this has most of the "xmlns" links moved to the metadata tag.

Any simple guide to what this is all about?

[Jellby]

I'm no XML expert, but I think that with

<package version="2.0" unique-identifier="ISBN" xmlns="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf">

you have a single namespace (xmlns) and there's no ambiguity, while with

<package version="2.0" unique-identifier="ISBN" xmlns:dcterms="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:opf="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf">

you're specifying 5 namespaces (dcterms, tei, xsi, dc, opf) and you should explicitly indicate which one applies to the element, i.e., <opf:package ...>.

[KevinH]

As Jellby stated, your package tag has no namespace defined for it.

Just add:

xmlns="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf"

to the other namespaces.

That line says that things in the opf namespace do NOT need a prefix.

Or do as Jellby suggested and use the opf prefix you did define opf: on both the package and metadata tags manifest, spine, etc, etc.

I typically use:

xmlns="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf"

on the package tag to say no prefix means that tag is in the opf name space,

but then use the remaining namespaces including the opf:, dc:, dcterms:, and tei: terms *only* added to the metadata tag for its children to use.

You end up with a much simpler and cleaner opf.