The <supports> element

Parent element: <encoding>

The <supports> element indicates if a MusicXML encoding supports a particular MusicXML element. This is recommended for elements like <beam> and <accidental>, where the absence of an element would be ambiguous without this signal. It is also recommended for elements like <stem> to let importers know if all values are specified or just manual overrides. Further, it allows programs to indicate support for specific attributes, or specific attributes with specific values. This lets applications communicate, for example, that all system and/or page breaks are contained in the MusicXML document.

The absence of a given element is interpreted differently depending on whether <supports> for this element has type = “yes” or “no”. If “yes”, the absence of the element means that no element is displayed. If “no”, the encoding signifies that the status of a missing element is unknown. This could be because the element is not supported at all or because it is only partially supported, leaving the importer to use its own heuristics. In either case, the occurrence of the element in the document overrides any heuristics the importer may be applying.