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Microsoft SDK for Open XML

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I was so busy with activities related to the announcement of the new SDK yesterday that I didn't get a chance to blog about it. And now, the morning after, I don't have much to add to all the great posts that have been written by my colleagues around the globe. Nice work, everyone. Here are some links with lots of information, starting with Brian's post that broke the news online yesterday:

Brian Jones: https://blogs.msdn.com/brian_jones/archive/2007/06/04/open-xml-api-tech-preview.aspx

Kevin Boske: https://blogs.msdn.com/kevinboske/archive/2007/06/04/open-xml-api-ctp-released.aspx

Erika Ehrli: https://blogs.msdn.com/erikaehrli/archive/2007/06/04/announcing-the-new-open-xml-object-model.aspx
(Erika did a ton of work in the last few weeks to get this API delivered, setting up the documentation site with Frank Rice's great samples and also handling all the details of setting up the support forum.)

Art Leonard: https://blogs.msdn.com/artleo/archive/2007/06/04/microsoft-document-api-for-openxml.aspx

Wouter Van Vugt: https://blogs.infosupport.com/wouterv/archive/2007/06/05/APIs-for-Office-Open-XML.aspx

Julien Chable: https://blogs.developpeur.org/neodante/archive/2007/06/04/open-xml-le-sdk-open-xml-disponible-en-technical-preview.aspx

Stephen McGibbon: https://notes2self.net/archive/2007/06/04/microsoft-sdk-for-openxml-formats-june-2007-technology-preview.aspx

Chris Bryant (Channel 9 interview): https://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=313246#313246

What It Is

This new API is something we've been wanting to do for a long time. I first heard talk of something like this in March of 2006, when Stephen Peront of Xinnovation met with me, Kevin Boske, and Art Leonard the week of the Office Devcon in Redmond. Stephen was drawing lots of diagrams on a whiteboard in Building 36 while Kevin and Art were talking about "strongly typed parts," and frankly I was just along for the ride that day. Since then, all three of those guys have lobbied hard from inside and outside Microsoft to make something like this happen. (The emails Stephen sent to our management in support of this API are truly classics.)

The basic idea underlying the new API is pretty simple: we now have .NET types that correspond to the parts of an Open XML document. If you're familiar with the structure of Open XML documents, then the type names themselves will tell you what you can do with the new API. Here are a few examples of the new types:

  • OpenXmlPackage
  • WordprocessingDocument, SpreadsheetDocument, PresentationDocument
  • MainDocumentPart, WorkbookPart, PresentationPart
  • ImagePart, CommentsPart, PivotTablePart, WorksheetPart, SlidePart, ThemePart, CustomXmlPart, and many others

In terms of the level of abstraction this new API is a higher-level API than the System.IO.Packaging API. The packaging API knows all about the Open Packaging Convention, but doesn't distinguish one part type from another -- to the packaging API, "parts is parts."

Now you can write could that creates a "ThemePart" or looks for the "CustomXmlPart" within a document. You still have to deal with the XML markup itself, but this API greatly reduces the amount of code you need for various Open XML programming chores. You no longer need to iterate through relationship types that only occur once or things like that -- you can just go straight to the part you need and start working with its content.

Note that this is just a typical .NET API, with no dependencies on anything other than the .NET Framework 3.0 itself. So you don't need Office or VSTO installed, and it works great in a server environment.

Stephen Peront and Doug Mahugh at TechEd

Announcing the API with a hands-on example

I had the pleasure of working with Stephen Peront on our announcement at TechEd this week. Stephen got a copy of the API on Friday, spent two long days writing code (modifying an existing application that had been using the packaging API), and then he got on a plane from Boston to meet me in Orlando Sunday afternoon. We gave a preview of the API to the Regional Directors meeting on Sunday afternoon, and then Stephen wrote a bunch more code late Sunday for a demo he did yesterday morning at my "Open XML Fundamentals" session.

Stephen's company, Xinnovation, is a leader in large-scall document assembly applications. They did a lot of work with the binary formats, automating the Office clients to get the job done, back when that was the only feasible approach. Then when the packaging API came out, Xinnovation immediately started using it to provide more robust server-side document assembly solutions to their clients.

Now, with Xinnovation's new XiDocs "XD4" approach, they're moving document assembly to a whole new level. Using a new technology called AssemblyML, they allow their customers to create templates that can have the rules for document creation within the document itself. These rules are at a very high level, saying in essence "this chart is dynamically generated from SQL data" or "this document should be generated as a presentation." To demonstrate the power of the new SDK for Open XML, Stephen showed how he had hundreds of lines of code using the packaging API in the old version of their product, and now that code is less than 20 lines with the new API.

AssemblyML is a powerful set of abstractions that allow highly customized document-assembly applications to be built with minimum coding or even no coding in many cases. The document type itself is an AssemblyML attribute, so with just one or two changes to the assembly instructions you can have the same SQL data populate fields in a presentation instead of content controls in a word-processing document. If that sounds like something you'd be interested in, contact Stephen at speront@xinn.com. And thanks, Stephen, for the great demonstration!

Come visit us at TechEd

If you're at TechEd in Orlando this week, drop in at the Open XML booth. It's in the green area on the main exhibit floor, across from that band playing all the 70s tunes next to the lunch tables. My colleagues Erika Ehrli of MSDN and Stephanie Krieger (an Office MVP and author of a great book on Office 2007) are helping staff the booth, and we'd love to see you.

Say you saw this post and we'll give you a free Open XML t-shirt, or -- if you're Erika's size or smaller -- a free Open XML dress. :-)

See you there!

Comments

  • Anonymous
    June 05, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 05, 2007
    I'll try to clarify, Stephane: this API is strongly typed parts for Open XML, on the .NET platform.  It is not an XPS or OPC API, nor a cross-platform SDK.  Hope that helps.

  • Anonymous
    June 05, 2007
    Stephane, how does this SDK prevent VBA developers from writing code?  VBA developers still have access to the files via the Office client object models.  Those libraries (the Office client applications) and solutions provide way more granular access to data within Office documents (binary and Open XML).  This SDK is designed for scenarios where the clients need not be or should not be present on Windows.  Doug has already blogged Julian Chable's Java API. As for XPS, there is already an XPS wrapper produced by the XPS team.  Why would we (not the XPS team) produce another API for that team?

  • Anonymous
    June 05, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 05, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 05, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 05, 2007
    Stephane, I recognized your name from other blog posts by me and Brian, but I had no idea what you did or your products until I looked at your site linked in the last comments.   This build of the SDK is a tech preview, a CTP.  It has bugs.  It is missing functionality.  We know there are improvements to be made.  That's why we released it now, to get feedback and improve.  

  • Anonymous
    June 06, 2007
    "That's why we released it now, to get feedback and improve. " So here is my feedback, in a nutshell :

  • wrong architecture. You leave the bulk of developers out in the cold. .NET 3.0 is a non-starter in many environments.
  • wrong "marketing". The MSDN Open XML forum is already filled with questions that this SDK will never be able to answer. Basically, you are willing to be slapped in the face. Here is a typical question an Office developer wants to be able to solve : merge Word document (aka the chunk fragments) without a running Word instance.
  • wrong targeting. By creating yet another website, the MSDN Open XML forum this time, you are fragmenting the "community" even more. All the above makes zero sense to me.

  • Anonymous
    June 26, 2007
    If you couldn't make it to TechEd - or even if you did - check out Virtual TechEd . I loved attending

  • Anonymous
    March 13, 2008
    After nine months of developer feedback on the Open XML SDK , we have some good news today: a roadmap

  • Anonymous
    March 13, 2008
    After nine months of developer feedback on the Open XML SDK , we have some good news today: a roadmap

  • Anonymous
    March 17, 2008
    Pubblicata la roadmap di Open XML SDK. Vi segnalo alcuni link di approfondimento: Open XML SDK download

  • Anonymous
    May 12, 2008
    I'm catching up with a bunch of Open XML blogging from ages ago, so apologies if some of these are old