WPL file structure

A .wpl file is XML built from a small part of SMIL. Microsoft defines thirteen elements in its Windows Media Playlist Elements Reference, all requiring Windows Media Player 9 Series or later. This page covers the seven that every playlist uses. The six that define a dynamic playlist are on Smart playlists.

Overall shape

<?wpl version="1.0"?>
<smil>
  <head>
    <meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Windows Media Player -- 12.0"/>
    <meta name="Author" content="Frank Lee"/>
    <title>Party Playlist</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <seq>
      <media src="..\Music\First Song.wma"
             cid="{ABCDEFAB-ABCD-1234-ABCD-ABCDEF000000}"
             tid="{12345678-1234-ABCD-ABCD-123456ABCDEF}"/>
      <media src="..\Music\Second Song.mp3"/>
    </seq>
  </body>
</smil>

A static WPL playlist.

The elements nest strictly: smil holds head and body; head holds title and meta; body holds seq; seq holds media elements for a static playlist or a smartPlaylist for a dynamic one.

The first line is the processing instruction <?wpl version="1.0"?>, which is what marks the file as a Windows Media playlist rather than general SMIL. It is not defined by the reference beyond its use in the examples, and 1.0 is the only version Microsoft shows.

Encoding and identification

Property	Value
Extension	`.wpl`
Media type	`application/vnd.ms-wpl`, registered with IANA in the vendor tree
Encoding	Text in XML rules, registered as UTF-8
Magic number	None registered. In practice, look for `<?wpl` at the start and `<smil>` as the root.
Case	Unlike ASX, element and attribute names are given in exact lower case or camel case. Microsoft’s pages do not say the names are case-insensitive, so treat them as case-sensitive XML.

Because the file is XML, the characters &, < and quote marks inside an attribute must be escaped.

smil

The root element. Every playlist must have it. No attributes. Children: head, body. It does not use a namespace.

head

Metadata for the whole playlist. No attributes. Parent: smil. Children: title, meta; typically one title and one or more meta elements.

title

The playlist’s title, as text. No attributes and no children. Parent: head. Microsoft suggests basing it on the logic of the playlist’s argument elements if the list is dynamic.

Attribute	Value	Meaning
`name`	any string	The name of the item.
`content`	string	Its value, for example `Rock` for `Genre`.

Name	Holds
`Author`	Who made the playlist
`Category`	A category, such as `Party Music`
`Genre`	A genre, such as `Pop`
`UserName`	A user; Microsoft’s example uses the numbered form `UserName1`
`UserRating`	A rating by that user; numbered `UserRating1` in the example, with the value `82`
`Generator`	The program that wrote the file

body

Holds the content of the playlist. No attributes. Parent: smil. Child: seq. Typically one seq.

seq

The playlist itself. No attributes. Parent: body. Children: media, smartPlaylist. A seq holding only media is a static playlist; one holding a smartPlaylist is dynamic.

media

One item in the playlist, played in file order. Parent: seq. No children.

Attribute	Required	Value	Meaning
`src`	yes	URL	The media item: a URL, an absolute path or a path relative to the playlist, usually with backslashes on Windows.
`cid`	no	WPL_GUID	Content ID, unique to the media item. The Player fills this in so that it can recognise the same content on another computer even if its metadata changes.
`tid`	no	WPL_GUID	Tracking ID, tied to the file system object. The Player uses it to repair the path when the file is renamed or moved.

Microsoft’s example GUIDs for cid and tid are written without braces and contain letters beyond hexadecimal, so they are placeholders. Real values are ordinary GUIDs. The media element in Microsoft’s reference has only these three attributes; any others seen in a file are not defined there.

.WPL File Format – File structure