Entries tagged with open xml - Channel 9

PDC09: John Durant on newly announced SharePoint features

Robert Hess — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:13:00 GMT

John Durant just returned from the Microsoft SharePoint Conference where a number of new SharePoint features were announced. In this episode he shares some of those features with us and describes how they can help developers in a variety of ways.

John will be doing a couple sessions at PDC09 which will also cover some of these features:

And here are some PDC09 sessions based on some of the other topics we discussed:

Open XML made easier for Java developers with Apache POI

Jean-Christophe Cimetiere — Wed, 27 May 2009 23:17:00 GMT

When developers are tasked to deal with document file formats it might be challenging to do the right thing if you don’t have a good experience with a particular format, and need to crack it open and understand all the details.

For Java developers and Microsoft Office file formats there’s a very interesting solution with the Apache POI project, which provides a Java API to access Microsoft Office formats. Last year Microsoft and Sourcesence announced that they would collaborate to add support of the Open XML file format to the Apache POI project, and the resulting Open XML support has been integrated as part of POI 3.5 beta 5.

The end result: Good news for Java developers who need to manipulate the Office Open XML files (.XLSX, .DOCX, .PPTX), because it really makes it easier for them to do the job!

To illustrate the point, let me walk you through a demo scenario that uses Apache POI Java Libraries and actually combines it with the PHPExcel project (for PHP developers) and the Open XML Format SDK 2.0 (for .NET developers). My goal is just to give you a sense of the type of scenarios you can easily develop using multiple languages and multiple platforms.

We will make that demo available with more explanation in an article on http://openxmldeveloper.org/. Before we get into the demo itself I want to thank Julien Chable and Maarten Balliauw for their help in building this demo.

For now, let me walk you through the scenario. For the sake of our demonstration we are going to show how raw data can be consumed by a Java web application using the Apache POI, to create an .XLSX file from scratch. How that file can then be accessed and modified by a PHP application (with PHPExcel). And finally how the resulting file can be digitally signed and finalized via the .NET framework using the Open XML Format SDK.

Here’s the data flow:

Step 1 of the scenario starts in the Java Web applications:

Once the “Create Spreadsheet” button is pressed, it creates the files:

And does some processing to inject the initial XML data and formatting. The result looks like this:

Most of the Java code required to do this fits in this code snippet:

Step 2, moving to the PHP application, the UI is similar:

This step adds cell protection, renames the .XLSX file, changes cell formatting, and inserts additional content formatting. The result looks like this:

And the code to accomplish it looks like this:

Step 3, finally, from the ASP.NET web applications using the Open XML Format SDK:

Where the code for adding the digital signature looks like this:

Easy, don’t you think?
Stay tuned, as I said earlier, we will follow up on http://openxmldeveloper.org/ with a more detailed article.

Additional background on PHPExcel and the Open XML SDK:

The PHPExcel project is an open source project available on Codeplex. It consists of a set of classes for PHP that enables PHP applications to read and write to various file formats. These formats include HTML, PDF, and the relevant one for our demonstration…Excel 2007’s .XLSX format. This class set supports features such as setting spreadsheet meta data (author, title, description ...), multiple worksheets, different fonts and font styles, cell borders, fills, gradients, and adding images to spreadsheets. In parallel to this project, there is also the sister project PHPPowerPoint, which is intended to operate along similar lines as the PHPExcel application but with a focus on the .PPTX file formats. Both of these projects are built around the OpenXML standard, and the PHP framework. Read this nice article: Use PHP to create Open XML Spreadsheet reports

The Open XML Format SDK provides methods for .NET developers to access and manipulate XML content, including XML data contained in OXML document formatted files. It provides strongly typed part classes to manipulate Open XML documents. The SDK also uses the .NET Framework Language-Integrated Query (LINQ) technology to provide strongly typed object access to the XML content inside the parts of Open XML documents. The April 2009 CTP release also adds support for the validation of Open XML documents.
Read Brian Jones' blog to go deep on Open XML SDK.

Jean-Christophe Cimetiere - Sr. Technical Evangelist

MS Virtual Labs: Microsoft Open XML and LINQ to XML

joelercoaster — Mon, 04 May 2009 22:41:00 GMT

Office 2007 introduced a new XML-based file format for Office. With LINQ to XML, Microsoft offers the ability to use language-based query against XML documents. When you combine these two technologies, you have the ability to search and manipulate Office documents in a completely new way.

This demo/lab showcases Office Open XML and the LINQ to XML technology. The lab covers the following topics:

• Opening Open XML documents programmatically
• Performing queries using LINQ to XML

Try it http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=8692024

This Week on C9: Office 2010, PowerShell for OpenXML, and would you help a robot

Brian Keller — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 23:21:00 GMT

This week on Channel 9, Dan and Brian discuss the week's top developer news including:

- Office 14 is now Office 2010, Exchange 2010 beta is now available, and SharePoint will be SharePoint 2010. Office 2010 includes cool features like
- Excel Web Access
- Editing a PowerPoint presentation on the Web
- Outlook's Ignore Conversation to stop receiving email on a particular topic
- Outlook's Enhanced Conversation view
- Outlook's MailTips feature that will let you know if you are spamming an email alias or emailing someone out of the office
- J.D. Meier - Performance Hot Spots, via Alvin Ashcraft
- Arian Kulp - Coding4Fun Extensible System Tray Framework
- Larry Larsen - Meet the Industrial Design Team video
- Windows 7 Software Logo Program, via Emil Protalinski
- Create Word documents using PowerShell with Power Tools for Open XML, via Greg Duncan
- Kirill Osenkov - Command line switches to control multiple monitors using Remote Desktop
- Common Compiler Infrastructure (used in ILMerge, FXCop, Spec#) goes open source
- Brian's pick of the week - VSTS Free Online Workshops
- Dan's pick of the week - Tweenbots - Human dependent robots, via Steve Clayton

This Week on Channel 9: April 4th Episode

Dan Fernandez — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 17:10:41 GMT

This Week on Channel 9, Dan and Brian cover:

News
- Open XML approved as an ISO/IEC Standard
- Microsoft Surface partners with AT&T brings Surface devices to AT&T stores starting April 17th
- Game Programming with Silverlight 2.0 by Mike Snow

A rundown of April Fools Day related jokes/activities
- Charles interviews Brian Beckman on Labyrinth Lock
- ThinkGeek's USB Pregnancy Test
- ThinkGeek's Betamax to HD-DVD Converter
- Xbox 360 Wireless Helmet
- Xbox Live, the Board Game
- Xbox 360 Vintage Edition
- Silverlight Rehab - You're not alone
- Brian's Pick: World of Warcraft Bard Hero Class

This Week on Channel9 @ MIX: March 7 Episode

Dan Fernandez — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 23:31:23 GMT

Watch a recap of the top news and events going on at Mix '08 from Dan, Brian, and our cameraman Clint Rutkas.

This week's show includes:

1. Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 highlights including Offline support for IE 8, and Activities
2. How NBC plans to revolutionize video using Silverlight for the Olympics
3. Richard Campbell, Carl Franklin and Steven Forte give their impressions on the Ray Ozzie/Scott Guthrie keynote
4. Our favorite moments Guy Kawasaki's interview with Steve Ballmer including Steve playing with Guy's Macbook Air and a shout-out to "WEB DEVELOPERS!"
5. Chris Auld showing off a prototype of an Open XML document viewer built in Silverlight
6. Tim Heuer and Jason Mauer show off their mobile crib as they start their Code Trip
7. Outtakes of RDs imitating each other including Scott Hanselman doing Billy Hollis, Billy Hollis doing an impression of Scott Hanselman, Carl Franklin doing Billy Hollis, Billy Hollis doing Billy Hollis, Carl Franklin doing Scott Hanselman and of course Scott Hanselman doing Scott Hanselman.

A conversation with Doug Mahugh about his OOXML world tour

JonUdell — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 14:24:34 GMT

Office Open XML evangelist Doug Mahugh has visited more places in the past few months than many folks see in a lifetime. I asked him to name the places he's been recently, to deliver workshops on OOXML, and he rattled off the following list:

Let's see, New Delhi, Sydney, Czech Republic, Belgium, Slovenia, Munich, the Ukraine, Kiev, Beijing, Sao Paolo, Santiago, Bogota, Mexico City, Kenya, South Africa, then back to India.

In this conversation we talk about the skills, interests, and concerns of Office developers around the world, and about some of the applications they're creating. And we conclude with a story about a bus accident in Bogota that sounded scarier than it turned out to be.

What's so open about Open XML? Part 2

Charles — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:32:59 GMT

What's so open about Open XML? Part 1

Charles — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 17:44:33 GMT

Recently, I sat down with some of the minds behind Office's Open XML to talk about Open XML, the new Open XML SDK and related stuff. What's the big deal? What's so open about it? How does it represent a major shift in the way some Office applications construct and store data? What are the implications of Open XML on interoperability (do you even need Office to open an Open XML-based Office document)?

Meet Brian Jones, Senior Program Manager, Art Leonard, Developer, Kevin Boske, Program Manager and Doug Mahugh (aka Mr. Open XML), Technical Evangelist. If you want to really understand Open XML and what it means to Office programmability, then these are great people to communicate with; on their blogs, of course.

Here, you will get a taste of what Open XML unleashes for Office and non-Office developers alike. This is part one of a two part interview.

Check out the public availability of a set of managed libraries, samples and documentation for programming Open XML in a manner .NET developers have grown accustomed to (writing applications in Visual Studio, programming in C#, etc..).

Chris Bryant is a Senior Product Manager on the Office Platform team (and Darth Vader fan). Here, we chat about the Open XML SDK, what it means for Office developers, general purpose programmers, mom and pop. We also touch on why Open XML is interesting.

In a subsequent interview on this topic, we will be interviewing Brian Jones and Doug Mahugh, who are the de facto Open XML gurus, to dig into the details of Open XML and the world of possibilities it opens for both software developers and Office document users.

Linux/Java interoperability with Open XML

Doug Mahugh — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 20:29:21 GMT

The Open XML file formats can be used in many development environments, because they're based on very common technologies: ZIP and XML. In this video, Datta Kulkarni and Sanjay Kumar of Sonata Software (Bangalore, India) demonstrate a proof-of-concept Open XML application their team has developed, which demonstrates the level of interoperability that Open XML enables.

The sample application is running on a Linux server (in a VPC for this demo), and it has a typical Linux stack: Tomcat, Apache, MySQL, and a custom Java application. The user connects to this server from a Vista/IE machine, makes a few selections, and creates a DOCX that gets passed back to the client. The user then makes changes in Word 2007 and uploads their modified version to the Linux server, where Java code runs to extract the revision-tracking history and show the document's changes through a browser interface.

Links:
OpenXmlDeveloper
Sonata Software

Package Explorer for Open XML

Doug Mahugh — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 19:51:56 GMT

Open XML documents are simply ZIP packages, but they follow a standardized architecture called the Open Packaging Convention. You can work with OPC packages (as used by Open XML, XPS, and various other formats) using simple tools such as WINZIP and Notepad, but if you're trying to be productive you'll find that approach tedious.

If you want a better tool for this kind of work, and one that can also validate the parts within an OPC package or handle other common Open XML development chores, look no further: Package Explorer is what you want, and it's an open-source project on Codeplex so you can get it with full source code.

Wouter Van Vugt is the architect of Package Explorer, and Doug Mahugh sat down with Wouter in Building 20 recently to discuss the status of the program and see a demonstration of some of its recently added new functionality. If you're doing Open XML development, this utility is a must-have for your Open XML toolbox!

Links:
Package Explorer project on Codeplex
OpenXmlDeveloper.org
Wouter Van Vugt blog
Doug Mahugh blog

Open-source Open XML API for Java

Doug Mahugh — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 19:27:46 GMT

Julien Chable has been working on an open-source API project that would give Java developers a tool for rapid development of Open XML solutions. Since the Java environment doesn't have the .NET Framework 3.0 packaging API (System.IO.Packaging) to support the low-level details, the first phase of this project is to clone the packaging API in Java, which is an ambitious task. Nonetheless, Julien has already delivered the basics of iterating through package parts and writing documents, and he is now looking for contributors to expand the project significantly in the months ahead.

Julien was in Redmond last week for the MVP Summit, and Doug Mahugh caught up with him in Building 20 to discuss the status of his API project and look at some hands-on example of how it works. Julien demonstrates the Java packaging API, as well as some higher-level objects he has built on top of that layer, and describes his goals for the project. If you're a Java developer with an interest in Open XML, see the SourceForge link below for information on how to participate in this project.

Links:
OpenXML4J project (SOURCEFORGE)
OpenXmlDeveloper.org
Julien Chable blog
Doug Mahugh blog

Real-World Open XML and Ribbon Customization: Using Microsoft Office Word 2007 to Modify Mindjet Min

doncho — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 23:49:47 GMT

Description: Join Don Campbell, Technical Evangelist for Microsoft, and Michael Scherotter, Solutions Platform Evangelist for Mindjet, to see a demonstration solution from the Mindjet Labs that uses the Open XML file format of Microsoft Office Word 2007 to transform business data from MindManager to Word 2007 and back again.

This technical demonstration shows how high-fidelity round-trip scenarios are possible with the Open XML file formats when used in conjunction with other XML-based applications, like Mindjet MindManager.

In the export to the Open XML file format, this solution creates a custom Ribbon UI tab embedded in the document. This allows the Word 2007 user to take advantage of some of the visual organization and project planning capabilities of MindManager while using Microsoft Word 2007.

This also highlights the MindManager Solution Platform which makes such integrations easy, quick, and visual.

Time: 38:26

Jon Udell: Brian Jones on Office XML

JonUdell — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 22:53:39 GMT

Brian Jones has been working on infusing XML smarts into Office for six years. In this episode we discuss the history of, the current status of, and future prospects for XML-enabled Office applications.

Introduction to Office Open XML Code Snippets

Doug Mahugh — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 05:41:41 GMT

In this screencast, Office program manager Kevin Boske demos three code snippets for Visual Studio 2005 for working with Office Open XML files using the System.IO.Packaging namespace from .NET 3.0. Office Open XML is a file format standardized by Ecma. It is the new default file format for Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2007. The ability to programmatically access data within these file formats is a key feature for developers.

Ken Getz wrote 40 Visual Studio 2005 code snippets in C# and VB.Net for working with the Open XML files that are downloadable from the web. The Office Open XML code snippets include snippets for redacting macros from Word Documents, adding string values to cells in Excel workbooks, finding slides by title in PowerPoint, etc.

These code snippets will help you get started building applications to directly access data within Open XML files.

XML Mapping with Word and SharePoint, part 2

Doug Mahugh — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 17:18:50 GMT

In this screencast, program manager Amani Ahmed demonstrates how to create a Word 2007 template which can transfer data seamlessly to and from a SharePoint document library using content controls. See also Tristan Davis's post on Content Controls
Word Team Blog

XML Mapping with Word 2007 and Sharepoint

Doug Mahugh — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 17:15:27 GMT

In this screencast, Word program manager Travis Ratnam demonstrates the rich integration of Word 2007 and Sharepoint. See also Tristan Davis's post on Content Controls
Word Team Blog

XPSが切り開く新しいドキュメントマネジメントの世界 - 范さん、佐藤さん、瀧本さん

c9Japan — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 11:20:22 GMT

XML Paper Specification (XPS)について、Windows開発統括部の３名にインタビューしました。
XPSベースのテクノロジは、the 2007 Microsoft Office SystemとWindows Vistaに統合されましたが、XPS自体はオープンフォーマットなので、プラットフォームに依存しません。
このビデオでは、XPSやWindows Vistaに導入されている新しい印刷機能についてご紹介します。
26分12秒のビデオです。

関連サイト：
XML Paper Specification: 概要 (日本語)
http://www.microsoft.com/japan/whdc/xps/default.mspx
仕様とライセンスのダウンロード
http://www.microsoft.com/japan/whdc/xps/downloads.mspx

For English audience:

This video is based on Japanese conversation only and no English transcript available.
Pan-san, Sato-san, and Takimoto-san talk about XML Papar Specification (XPS) and printing feature update on Windows Vista.
The video length is 26min. 12sec.

For more information about XPS, please refer to the following URL.

XML Paper Specification: Overview (English)
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/default.mspx
Specification and License Downloads (English)
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/downloads.mspx

TechNet Radio - Open XML Formats in Office 2007

auroraqueen — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 03:53:24 GMT

Michael Murphy, interviews Gray Knowlton, the Group Product Manager for the Office Client Technical Product Management team. They discuss how Open XML Formats are intended to be standard file formats to which any Developer or Implementer will have access, key aspects of the modular architecture, why Microsoft chose to standardize the Open XML Formats, and how the design of the Open XML Format makes solution development much simpler than it's been in the past.

Participants:

Aurora Queen – Your Show Host and TechNet Radio Producer

Michael Murphy – IT Pro Evangelist

Gray Knowlton – Gray Knowlton is the Group Product Manager for the Office Client Technical Product Management team. Gray has also engaged on product management topics for Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office InfoPath, and the Open XML Formats. Prior to joining Microsoft, Gray has held various product management, system engineering and other technical roles at leading desktop software companies, and integrated solution providers for large-scale news organizations.

Matthew Scott: Application Development using the Open XML File Formats

Rory — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 21:19:02 GMT

In this video we talk with Matthew Scott, a developer on the Word team who takes us through the design and development of the Word 2007 Content Control Toolkit, an application that natively reads and writes Word documents saved in the Open XML file format. This application has been released to the developer community on Codeplex as an open source project, with full C# source code.

The content control tookit is a real-world example of working with the new Office Open XML file formats via the new System.IO.Packaging API in the .NET 3.0 framework. It’s also a very handy tool for developers, providing the ability to map content controls to custom XML nodes through a simple drag&drop interface. Matt explains the architecture of the tool, shows how to use it, and then goes through some of the source code to demonstrate various best practices for Open XML

Links:

Project homepage

Open XML Developer Group

Brian Jones’s blog

Word team blog

ARCast – Office 2007 Open XML Format (Part 2 of 2)

Ron Jacobs — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 17:37:54 GMT

Have you ever wanted to read/write a word document or an excel sheet from a program? In previous versions of office you had some options with Visual Studio Tools for Office or the COM APIs provided by these products but the file formats were proprietary and undocumented. If you tried to get in there and muck around you had a high chance of causing a corruption. But now in Office 2007 the Open XML format allows you to read and write office documents as XML. How cool is that? Well stick around and listen to my guests today Brian Jones and Doug Mahugh as they give us the scoop on the new possibilities.

Links

-Ron

Opening & Saving Word, PowerPoint and Excel 2007’s new default file formats in previous versions

doncho — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 23:05:18 GMT

In this screencast, Word program manager Jonathan Bailor demonstrates how Microsoft Office 2003 users can open and save Word 2007’s new default XML based formats natively.

Microsoft has adopted the Office Open XML file format, as the new default file format for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 to reduce file size, improve reliability, guarantee long term accessibility for archiving, and enhance interoperability with business solutions. The Open XML formats are designed to enable the free exchange of data between documents and the systems that contain them. Finally, as one of the key design goals behind the Office Open XML formats was to maintain compatibility with the existing base of Microsoft Office documents, solution providers can have confidence that their solutions will work not just with the documents of the future but with the billions of documents already in use today.

Related Links:

Jonathan Bailor’s Compatibility Pack post

Microsoft Office Word team blog
Brian Jones' OpenXML Formats blog
OpenXMLDeveloper.org

MSDN Word Developer Portal
MSDN XML in Office Developer Portal

Compatibility in Word 2007

doncho — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 00:55:16 GMT

In this screencast, Word program manager Zeyad Rajabi gives an introduction to “Compatibility Mode”. Compatibility Mode ensures that documents created from older versions of Word will look the same in Word 2007 and that documents created in Word 2007 will look exactly the same when opened by legacy word users.

Related Links:

Zeyad Rajabi’s Compatibility Mode post

Microsoft Office Word team blog
Brian Jones' OpenXML Formats blog

MSDN Word Developer Portal
MSDN XML in Office Developer Portal

Word, Excel, and PowerPoint’s New ‘Theme’

doncho — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 00:51:07 GMT

In this screencast, Word program manager Jonathan Bailor shows how to take advantage of the Theme feature new to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 when reusing content (“copying & pasting”).

Themes are one of the most useful features new to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007. Put simply, a document Theme is a set of fonts, colors, and graphic/chart effects that are complementary and applied globally to documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. This screencast demonstrates how a Word document’s Theme is automatically applied to “pasted” content. Translation: you can reuse content from PowerPoint and Excel in Word, and vice versa, without having to reformat everything. A chart copied from an Excel spreadsheet with Theme X applied, will take on Theme Y when pasted into a Word document that has Theme Y applied to it. Put simply, pasted content 'fits in' with the rest of the document.

Related Links:
Jonathan Bailor’s Theming post
Microsoft Office Word team blog
Brian Jones' OpenXML Formats blog

MSDN Word Developer Portal
MSDN XML in Office Developer Portal