OpenXML news overview

A lot of news around OpenXML these days, so I decided to bundle some things into one big blog post.

1. Microsoft released a Microsoft SDK for Open XML Formats

In .NET 3.0, there's the System.IO.Packaging API, which allows programmatic access to OpenXML packages (amongst them Office2007 files).
Since this API is quite low-level, the Microsoft people introduced a new SDK built on top of System.IO.Packaging, which allows you to use strongly typed classes for document parts. Checkout a code sample on Wouter's blog and see for yourself: this SDK provides access to an OpenXML package in a much easier way than System.IO.Packaging. Download the SDK here.

2. PackageExplorer 3.0 beta

Wouter released a new (beta) version of his PackageExplorer, and I assume he uses the new SDK mentioned above. Main new feature seems to be adding document parts using a template system, allowing you and I to create an OpenXML package using a set pre-defined templates. You can download PackageExplorer on CodePlex.

3. Altova XML Spy supports OpenXML

I saw this on Altova's website: "XMLSpy provides powerful support for accessing, editing, transforming, and querying XML data saved in Microsoft® Office 2007 documents and other zipped files."
Says enough, I think. You can download a free trial to check if this all is true.

4. Trying to compile PHPExcel using Phalanger

The last few days, I've been trying to compile PHPExcel to a .NET class library using Phalanger. Phalanger is a PHP compiler for .NET.
Compiling works quite well, but not all class definitions are compiled into a usable .NET alternative... Creating and saving a Spreadshete currently works, but adding data into cells doesn't. I guess thats a feature that can not be missing :-)
I'll keep you informed on the progress of this. If anyone feels interested in porting this PHP library to C#, please contact me!

5. OpenXML for JAVA

JAVA people now also have an OpenXML library: OpenXML4J. Not production-stable yet, but alpha versions are available.

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