OpenXML Developer

Microsoft announces Open XML SDK roadmap

2008-03-13T22:08:00Z

Microsoft unveiled today the roadmap for the Open XML SDK that was released last June as a CTP (Community Technology Preview) version. After collecting developer feedback through the CTP release, they've put together a two-phased release plan to get developers a released version of the API quickly (May of this year) and then build on that with additional functionality for a final version in the Office 14 timeframe.

Links to resources for this article:

The Open XML API will be released in two versions. Version 1.0 will include an updated version of the CTP that was released in June 2007, to be released in April 2008 with a final release of Version 1.0 in May 2008. Version 2.0 will be available as a CTP version this summer, and the final release will be part of the Office 14 wave of products and technologies. (Office "14" is the next major release of Microsoft Office.)

Both versions will be free downloads on MSDN, available at the Open XML SDK page. Version 1.0 will include the following functionality:

Strongly typed access to parts within Open XML documents (a few typical examples: classes for the main body part or style part of a word-processing document, the workbook and worksheet parts in a spreadsheet document, or the presentation and slide parts in a presentation document)
Simple access to the parts within an Open XML document, relative to other existing APIs (example: one line of code to retrieve or replace a part)
“Linq-friendly” annotation capabilities, to allow developers to use the SDK with emerging Linq to XML technology (Eric White's blog has a code sample demonstrating this capability)
Consistency and naming changes per feedback from the developer community since the June 2007 CTP version, including adherence to .NET naming conventions
The May 2008 RTW (released to web) version will be ready to go live, and developers can build shipping products on it

Version 2.0 will add the following capabilities:

Content object model including additional classes and methods for simplifying developer work within parts (example: methods for retrieving or modifying a specific paragraph, style, cell, or shape within a part)
Search functionality, for simple searching of content in all document types
Validation functionality, to verify that modified or created documents are compliant with the Open XML standard
High-level “scenario-based” functionality (examples: creating a document from a template, accepting all revisions in a document)
Shared ML functionality (example: classes for DrawingML chart parts and other parts that can appear in multiple document types)

The functionality in this roadmap was driven by feedback received from developers since the CTP release last June. A recurring theme was that developers want more tools to help edit and manipulate the underlying XML within the parts, and this is reflected in new methods that will be included in the content object model, as well as Linq-related changes as mentioned above.

For more detailed information about what's coming in the Open XML SDK, see Jean-Christophe Cimetiere's video interview with Zeyad Rajabi and Eric White where they discuss the changes in the SDK and show some of the details of how it will work.

To download the latest version of the SDK or for links to more information, see the Open XML SDK page on MSDN.

Release of Open XML to Daisy translator

2008-01-29T03:23:00Z

Open XML to Daisy translator (Office Open XML WordProcessingML document to Daisy DTBook document) V1 Alpha is now available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/openxml-daisy/ for download.

This release has covered 13 important features of Daisy. To know more about this release, refer this link

http://blogs.technet.com/reedblog/archive/2008/01/25/open-xml-to-daisy-v1-is-live.aspx

Accessibility Experts Guidelines for Ecma-376 Open XML (DIS29500)

2008-01-10T05:46:00Z

Accessibility experts reviewed Ecma-376 Open XML (DIS29500) and created Accessibility Guidelines that must be followed to ensure that Open XML implementations are accessible. This is a working draft and the authors welcome additional feedback and comments.

Open XML to Daisy Translator

2007-12-10T05:15:00Z

Sonata Software Limited based out of Bangalooru, India, in collaboration with Microsoft and the Daisy Consortium, is developing an open source converter to convert Word documents to Daisy DTBook documents. Please find the press release of the same at http://openxml-daisy.wiki.sourceforge.net/.

Keep looking to the Open XML Developer web site for more information and project updates.

Office Developer Conference 2008

2007-11-17T04:14:00Z

Microsoft has announced the next Office Developer Conference, to be held February 10-13, 2008, in San Jose, California. This event covers Microsoft Office System technologies from a developer perspective, and will include a variety of sessions and hands-on labs regarding Open XML development. The OpenXMLDeveloper web site was announced by Bill Gates at the last Office Developer Conference, held in Redmond in March of 2006.

The final details of the sessions for the 2008 conference will be posted soon on the conference web site, so check there for more information. Early bird registration is open through November 30.

Developer workshop videos

2007-08-29T18:04:00Z

MSDN has published a comprehensive set of videos of a 2-day Open XML developer workshop. These videos cover the content that was posted on OpenXMLDeveloper recently here.

The instructors for this workshop were Doug Mahugh of Microsoft and Chris Predeek of the Ted Pattison Group, and the workshop was sponsored by Mindjet and took place at their office in San Francisco on June 18-19, 2007.

UPDATED: Accessibility of Open XML

2007-07-02T15:37:00Z

Open XML Formats support accessibility in a number of ways. In explaining this support to its customers, partners and assistive technology vendors, Microsoft has created a preliminary draft report describing how Open XML compares to W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and W3C XML Accessibility guidelines....(read more)

Microsoft SDK for Open XML Formats Technology Preview

2007-06-06T19:19:00Z

Microsoft has announced a new .NET API for working with the Open XML file formats. The SDK for Open XML is a free download, and provides a set of typed parts that correspond to the parts in an Open XML document, as well as classes for the package itself and the various document types. The diagram below shows some examples of the types of classes provided in the API:

Documentation for the new API is available on MSDN, including a variety of code samples. More information about the samples can be found on Erika Ehrli's blog.

Microsoft released the technology preview version of this API to get feedback from developers to help guide the future direction of Microsoft's Open XML development tools. You can provide feedback, and also get questions answered, at the MSDN support forum for the SDK. (That's Microsoft's official support forum, but you can also post questions in the Forums section of OpenXmlDeveloper.)

XMLSpy now supports Open XML formats

2007-06-06T18:59:00Z

Altova has announced Open XML support for their flagship product, XMLSpy. As covered in their announcement this week, XMLSpy 2007 Release 3 provides full validation of Open XML documents, intelligent entry helpers, and support for the development of XSLT and XQuery transformations for working with Open XML data.

XMLSpy is a best-selling XML editor that provides functionality for working with many W3C standards related to XML, including XSLT, Xquery, XPath, XML Schema, and more. It also integrates with the Visual Studio and Eclipse development environments.

For more information on XMLSpy's support of Open XML formats, see Altova's features page for the new functionality.

Office Open XML File Format library for Java

2007-06-06T18:43:00Z

OpenXML4J is an open-source library for Java developers that provides classes for Open XML development. It offers a pure-Java approach, and was started by Julien Chable of Wygwam.

The project home page went live in May at www.openxml4j.org, and includes links to a project roadmap, the download links, and other related information. Julien Chable has a blog post (in French) that covers news of the project as of last week, and Brian Jones describes the project on his blog as well (in English).

Open XML development videos

2007-03-19T21:14:00Z

Several of the most active contributors to OpenXmlDeveloper were in Redmond last week for the MVP Summit and an Open XML workshop, so Doug Mahugh interviewed them on some Open XML development topics. The videos are up on Channel 9 at the links included below.

Open-source Open XML API for Java
Julien Chable demonstrates his OPENXML4J project, which is a continuation of the work described in his article on OpenXmlDeveloper here.

Package Explorer for Open XML
Wouter Van Vugt talks about the latest release of his Package Explorer tool, which was originally covered on OpenXmlDeveloper here.

Linux/Java interoperability with Open XML
Sanjay Kumar and Datta Kulkarni of Sonata Software describe how Open XML can be used from a Linux environment, building on the techniques covered on OpenXmlDeveloper here.

Novell announces Open XML support

2007-03-08T01:12:00Z

Novell has announced support for the Open XML file formats in their version of OpenOffice. Word-processing documents are supported now, and spreadsheet/presentation support is coming next.

Here are some links for more information:

Novell's download page for the OpenOffice Open XML Translator: http://download.novell.com/SummaryFree.jsp?buildid=ESrjfdE4U58~
Novell's download page for OpenOffice: http://www.novell.com/products/desktop/features/ooo.html
Additional information on Novell's site: http://www.novell.com/prblogs/?p=299
LinuxWorld's coverage of the announcement: http://www.linuxworld.com/news/2007/030507-novell-translator.html
Brian Jones's comments about the announcement: http://blogs.msdn.com/brian_jones/archive/2007/03/02/openoffice-support-for-the-openxml-formats.aspx
Stephen McGibbon's screen shots of the translation in action: http://notes2self.net/archive/2007/03/05/OpenOffice-OpenXML-support-_2D00_-screenshots.aspx

Generating Dynamic OpenXML Docx Files

2007-03-07T22:08:00Z

Mohammad Nour El-din Marwan of Cairo University's Computer Engineering Department has posted a detailed how-to article that covers the design of a set of classes for working with Open XML documents. His approach reflects a common business need: set up a standardized look and feel in a template, which can be used as a starting point for generating dynamic data-driven documents that all share common formatting characteristics.

The article includes many diagrams that clearly explain the architecture used. Definitely worth a look if you're designing software to generate dynamic Open XML documents.

... more information ...

IDC report on Open Document Standards (Japanese version)

2007-03-05T03:00:00Z

Now available for download: Japanese version of "The Road to Open Document Standards" from IDC.

This independent study, based on an IDC survey of Nordic companies, provides an overview of interoperability issues and options with a focus on document standards such as Open XML and ODF. The original version in English can be found here and the Japanese version here.

The report is summarized in its synopsis as follows:

This study is a fact-based analysis of the emerging open document standards, Open XML and ODF. The study is structured in two parts: An overview of the framework around open standards and open document standards in particular. The second part looks in detail on what we can learn about the adoption of open standards from IDC's Nordic survey of companies and organizations carried out in August 2006. "We believe that multiple open document standards are going to exist in the market – just as the case would be with proprietary standards – and each will mirror certain needs in the market", says Per Andersen, Managing Director for IDC Nordic.

Open XML Translator enables interoperability with ODF

2007-02-03T03:41:00Z

Microsoft announced yesterday that the Open XML Translator project has released version 1.0. As it says in the official announcement:

Developers of the open source project to produce a translator between OpenDocument format (ODF) and Open XML document formats announced the completion of the 1.0 release of the technology. The completed Open XML Translator enables conversion of documents from one format to the other and is available for anyone to download and use at no cost. When plugged into Microsoft® Office Word, for example, the Translator provides customers with the choice to open and save documents in ODF rather than the native Open XML format. The Translator may also be plugged into competing word processing programs that use ODF as the default format to open and save documents in Open XML. Microsoft Corp. announced its support for the open source project to build a technical bridge between Open XML and ODF in July 2006 to provide interoperability between formats. Since inception, it has remained among the 30 most active projects on SourceForge.net and has been downloaded more than 50,000 times.

Novell has integrated the translator into OpenOffice and will soon make available versions of OpenOffice that support Open XML on the SuSe Linux and Windows platforms.

Click here to download the Open XML translator.

For more information see the announcement and also these blogs:

Translator team blog: Release 1.0 now available!
Brian Jones: ODF to Open XML conversion complete