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20 <!DOCTYPE document PUBLIC "-//APACHE//DTD Documentation V1.3//EN" "./dtd/document-v13.dtd">
22 <document>
23 <header>
24 <title>Apache POI - Java API To Access Microsoft Format Files</title>
25 <authors>
26 <person id="AO" name="Andrew C. Oliver" email="acoliver@apache.org"/>
27 <person id="GJS" name="Glen Stampoultzis" email="user@poi.apache.org"/>
28 <person id="AS" name="Avik Sengupta" email="user@poi.apache.org"/>
29 <person id="RK" name="Rainer Klute" email="klute@apache.org"/>
30 </authors>
31 </header>
33 <body>
34 <section><title>POI 3.0.2 Released</title>
35 <p>The POI team is pleased to announce POI 3.0.2, the latest release of Apache POI.
36 There have been many important bug fixes since the 3.0.1 release and a lot of new features. A full list of changes is available in
37 <link href="./changes.html">the changelog</link>, and
38 <link href="http://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi/poi/release/">download</link>
39 the source and binaries from your
40 <link href="http://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi/poi/release/">local mirror</link>.
41 </p>
42 <p>
43 The release is also available from the central Maven repository
44 under Group ID "org.apache.poi" and Version "3.0.2-FINAL".
45 </p>
46 <p>We would also like to confirm that versions 3.0.1 and 3.0.2 of
47 Apache POI do
48 <em>not</em> contain any viruses. Users of broken virus checkers
49 which do detect a 94 byte file, sci_cec.db, as containing one are
50 advised to contact their vendor for a fix.</p>
51 </section>
52 <section><title>ApacheCon Europe Coming Soon</title>
53 <p><img src="images/ApacheConEu08.jpg" width="234" height="60"
54 alt="ApacheCon Europe 2008 banner" class="ontheright" />
55 ApacheCon Europe 2008 will once again be held at the Mövenpick
56 Hotel in Amsterdam, April 7-11. This year, there will be a number
57 of POI sessions, including a tutorial covering the new Office Open
58 XML support.</p>
59 <p>For further information, see the ApacheCon Europe Web site at
60 <link href="http://www.eu.apachecon.com/">www.eu.apachecon.com</link></p>
61 </section>
62 <section><title>Office Open XML Support</title>
63 <p>We are currently working to support the new Office Open XML
64 file formats, such as XLSX and PPTX, which were introduced in
65 Office 2007.</p>
66 <p>Support for these is currently only available in an svn branch,
67 but we hope to have a full release including it by the summer.
68 People interested should follow the
69 <link href="mailinglists.html">dev list</link> to track progress.</p>
70 </section>
72 <section><title>Purpose</title>
73 <p>
74 The POI project consists of APIs for manipulating various file formats
75 based upon Microsoft's OLE 2 Compound Document format using pure Java.
76 In short, you can read and write MS Excel files using Java. Soon,
77 you'll be able to read and write Word, PowerPoint and Visio files
78 using Java. POI is your Java Excel solution as well as your Java
79 Word solution. However, we have a complete API for porting other OLE
80 2 Compound Document formats, and welcome others to participate.
81 </p>
82 <p>
83 OLE 2 Compound Document Format based files include most Microsoft Office
84 files such as XLS and DOC as well as MFC serialization API based file
85 formats.
86 </p>
87 <p>
88 At this time, none of our releases support the new Office Open XML
89 file formats, such as .xlsx or .docx. Work to support these is in
90 progress, and people interested should follow the
91 <link href="mailinglists.html">dev list</link>. We expect this
92 support to make it into a full release by the summer.
93 </p>
94 <p>
95 As a general policy, we try to collaborate as much as possible
96 with other projects to provide this functionality. Examples
97 include: <link href="http://xml.apache.org/cocoon">Cocoon</link> for
98 which there are serializers for HSSF;
99 <link href="http://www.openoffice.org">Open Office.org</link> with whom we collaborate in documenting the
100 XLS format; and <link href="http://lucene.apache.org/">Lucene</link>
101 for which we provide format interpretors. When practical, we donate
102 components directly to those projects for POI-enabling them.
103 </p>
104 <section><title>Why/when would I use POI?</title>
105 <p>
106 We'll tackle this on a component level. POI refers to the whole project.
107 </p>
108 <p>
109 So why should you use POIFS or HSSF?
110 </p>
111 <p>
112 You'd use POIFS if you had a document written in OLE 2 Compound Document Format, probably written using
113 MFC, that you needed to read in Java. Alternatively, you'd use POIFS to write OLE 2 Compound Document Format
114 if you needed to inter-operate with software running on the Windows platform. We are not just bragging when
115 we say that POIFS is the most complete and correct implementation of this file format to date!
116 </p>
117 <p>
118 You'd use HSSF if you needed to read, write or modify an Excel file
119 using Java (XLS).
120 </p>
121 </section>
122 </section>
125 <section><title>Components To Date</title>
126 <section><title>Overview</title>
127 <p>The following are components of the entire POI project and a brief
128 summary of their purpose.</p>
129 </section>
130 <section><title>POIFS for OLE 2 Documents</title>
131 <p>POIFS is the oldest and most stable part of the project. It is our port of the OLE 2 Compound Document Format to
132 pure Java. It supports both read and write functionality. All of our components ultimately rely on it by
133 definition. Please see <link href="./poifs/index.html">the POIFS project page</link> for more information.</p>
134 </section>
135 <section><title>HSSF for Excel Documents</title>
136 <p>HSSF is our port of the Microsoft Excel 97(-2003) file
137 format (BIFF8) to pure Java. It supports read and write
138 capability. (Support for Excel 2007 .xlsx files is in progress).
139 Please see <link href="./hssf/index.html">the HSSF project
140 page</link> for more information.</p>
141 </section>
142 <section><title>HWPF for Word Documents</title>
143 <p>HWPF is our port of the Microsoft Word 97 file format to pure
144 Java. It supports read, and limited write capabilities. Please see <link
145 href="./hwpf/index.html">the HWPF project page for more
146 information</link>. This component is in the early stages of
147 development. It can already read and write simple files.</p>
148 <p>Presently we are looking for a contributor to foster the HWPF
149 development. Jump in!</p>
150 </section>
151 <section><title>HSLF for PowerPoint Documents</title>
152 <p>HSLF is our port of the Microsoft PowerPoint 97(-2003) file format to pure
153 Java. It supports read and write capabilities of some, but not yet all
154 of the core records. Please see <link
155 href="./hslf/index.html">the HSLF project page for more
156 information</link>.</p>
157 </section>
158 <section><title>HDGF for Visio Documents</title>
159 <p>HDGF is our port of the Microsoft Viso 97(-2003) file format to pure
160 Java. It currently only supports reading at a very low level, and
161 simple text extraction. Please see <link
162 href="./hdgf/index.html">the HDGF project page for more
163 information</link>.</p>
164 </section>
165 <section><title>HPSF for Document Properties</title>
166 <p>HPSF is our port of the OLE 2 property set format to pure
167 Java. Property sets are mostly use to store a document's properties
168 (title, author, date of last modification etc.), but they can be used
169 for application-specific purposes as well.</p>
171 <p>HPSF supports reading and writing of properties. However, you will
172 need to be using version 3.0 of POI to utilise the write support.</p>
174 <p>Please see <link href="./hpsf/index.html">the HPSF project
175 page</link> for more information.</p>
176 </section>
178 </section>
180 <section><title>Contributing </title>
181 <p>
182 So you'd like to contribute to the project? Great! We need enthusiastic, hard-working, talented folks to help
183 us on the project in several areas. The first is bug reports and feature requests! The second is documentation -
184 we'll be at your every beck and call if you've got a critique or you'd like to contribute or otherwise improve
185 the documentation. We could especially use some help documenting the HSSF file format! Last, but not least, we
186 could use some binary crunching Java coders to chew through the complexity that characterizes Microsoft's file
187 formats and help us port new ones to a superior Java platform!
188 </p>
189 <p>So if you're motivated, ready, and have the time, join the mail lists and we'll be happy to help you get started on the
190 project!
191 </p>
194 </section>
195 </body>
196 <footer>
197 <legal>
198 Copyright (c) @year@ The Apache Software Foundation. All rights reserved.
199 $Revision$ $Date$
200 </legal>
201 </footer>
202 </document>
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