Difference between revisions of "Office Open XML"

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Office Open XML (OOXML) is an XML based file format that has been published as ISO 29500 and ECMA-376. It is used as default file format by Microsoft Office since 2007.
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Office Open XML (OOXML) is an XML-based file format used for representing word processing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. It is conceptually similar to ODF in many respects, though a lot of the details differ. OOXML was created by Microsoft and has been used as the default format in all versions of Office since 2007. It has been published as a standard as both ISO 29500 and ECMA-376.
  
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A new import filter is currently (as of May 2014) in development. Its design and implementation is described on this page. The legacy importer and exporter is described [[Office_Open_XML/Legacy_Implementation|here]].
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The official specifications for OOXML, which come in four parts, are available here (search for "29500"):
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http://standards.iso.org/ittf/PubliclyAvailableStandards/index.html
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There are two versions of OOXML - "Strict" and "Transitional". The former is a subset of the latter, and excludes certain legacy features that the latter retains to facilitate conversion from the older binary formats. Currently, OOXML Transitional is the only variant in widespread use; OOXML Strict is only fully supported in Office 2013 for Windows, though Office 2010 contains the ability to read (but not write) Strict documents.
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OOXML documents of both variants use the .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx extensions for word processing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, respectively. Thus it is easy to tell the difference between an OOXML file and the older MS Office binary format, which uses .doc, .xls, and .ppt.
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The following pages describe various aspects of the standard:
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* [[OOXML/Open_Packaging_Conventions_(OPC)|Open Packaging Conventions (OPC)]]
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* [[OOXML/Markup_Compatibility_and_Extensibility|Markup Compatibility and Extensibility]]
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* [[OOXML/WordProcessingML|WordProcessingML]]
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* [[OOXML/SpreadsheetML|SpreadsheetML]]
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* [[OOXML/PresentationML|PresentationML]]
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* [[OOXML/DrawingML|DrawingML]]
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* [[OOXML/Vector_Markup_Language_(VML)|Vector Markup Language (VML)]]
  
 
==Status==
 
==Status==
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A new import filter is currently (as of May 2014) in development.  Its design and implementation is described on this page.  The legacy importer and exporter is described [[Office_Open_XML/Legacy_Implementation|here]].
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The new OOXML import framework is currently in the design stage.  Development is about to begin.
 
The new OOXML import framework is currently in the design stage.  Development is about to begin.
  
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==Import Design==
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==Framework==
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The design of the new OOXML import adds a layer of abstraction on top of a push parser.  The events for start tags, end tags or text are handled by the new import framework.  Rules for this are derived directly from the specifications.  These introduce the concept of complex types and simple types.  Very simplified a complex type describes parent-child relationships between elements while simple types describe the types of attribute values.  It is the task of the framework to do the translation from elements to complex types and preprocess attribute values according to their simple types.  This has several advantages over a classical bare-bones push parser:
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A new framework for the import of OOXML documents is designed to make the import code based on this framework easy to read and easy to develop.  In a compile time pre-processing step the OOXML schema files are read and turned into the OOXML parser skeleton.  A domain specific language (DSL) can then be used to provide the implementation for specific elements (complex types) of the OOXML format.
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* There are a few cases where the same element is mapped to different complex types.  This disambiguation is now done automatically by the framework.
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* The callbacks are more readable because they are directly tied to a complex type which can be looked up in the spec.
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Details can be found on the [[OOXML Framework]] page.
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* Much of the low level processing is now done automatically and therefore
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** does not obfuscate the import code
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** is less error prone
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** requires the developer to write less code
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** is potentially faster
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The connection between OOXML parser and importer callbacks is done via a domain specific language (DSL).  This, together with the automatic preprocessing of the specifications, allows the development of automatic analysis and processing programs.  These allow us to
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[[Category:Office Open XML]]
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* analyze how much of the specification is handled by import callbacks and thus
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* tell us which complex types and attributes still need more work
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* compile documentation contained in the document code
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* track progress of the develpment
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* improve the development process by providing means to e.g. search for the implementation of a certain element or complex type
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* add logging and debugging functionality on demand
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Latest revision as of 07:28, 24 July 2014

Office Open XML (OOXML) is an XML-based file format used for representing word processing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. It is conceptually similar to ODF in many respects, though a lot of the details differ. OOXML was created by Microsoft and has been used as the default format in all versions of Office since 2007. It has been published as a standard as both ISO 29500 and ECMA-376.

The official specifications for OOXML, which come in four parts, are available here (search for "29500"):

http://standards.iso.org/ittf/PubliclyAvailableStandards/index.html

There are two versions of OOXML - "Strict" and "Transitional". The former is a subset of the latter, and excludes certain legacy features that the latter retains to facilitate conversion from the older binary formats. Currently, OOXML Transitional is the only variant in widespread use; OOXML Strict is only fully supported in Office 2013 for Windows, though Office 2010 contains the ability to read (but not write) Strict documents.

OOXML documents of both variants use the .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx extensions for word processing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, respectively. Thus it is easy to tell the difference between an OOXML file and the older MS Office binary format, which uses .doc, .xls, and .ppt.

The following pages describe various aspects of the standard:

Status

A new import filter is currently (as of May 2014) in development. Its design and implementation is described on this page. The legacy importer and exporter is described here.

The new OOXML import framework is currently in the design stage. Development is about to begin.

Progress/Todo:

What Who Status
Create new main/ooxml/ module and setup initial build files Andre In progress
Specifications
  • Collect a list of the relevant schema files.
  • Determine legal status of OOXML schemas.
  • Setup map of different specification variants and applications.
  • Write the schema parser
Andre
DSL parser
  • Finialize DSL design
  • Implement DSL parser
Implement OOXML parser generator
Migrate existing PresentationML import

File Format

The file format is described by several documents:

There are three main markup languages (MLs) for the three main applications:

  • WordprocessingML
  • SpreadsheetML
  • PresentationML

Markup languages that are shared by all applications are

  • DrawingML
  • VML (for legacy files)

OOXML files are, similar to ODF files, ZIP containers with one entry per XML stream. OOXML calls these entries parts.


Framework

A new framework for the import of OOXML documents is designed to make the import code based on this framework easy to read and easy to develop. In a compile time pre-processing step the OOXML schema files are read and turned into the OOXML parser skeleton. A domain specific language (DSL) can then be used to provide the implementation for specific elements (complex types) of the OOXML format.

Details can be found on the OOXML Framework page.

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