epicenter2010 Open Xml

Trinity College, Dublin: 8 – 11 June 2010
An Introduction to Open XML
CRAIG MURPHY

Housekeeping
 Mobile ‘phones
 Fire Exits
 Toilets
3

An Introduction to Open XML 4
Session Overview
 This session will provide an explanation and
demonstration of how we can programmatically create
and use WordML and ExcelML documents
 I will be using the Open XML SDK to make life easier
 No manual creation and management of .zip files / containers
 Let System.IO.Packaging, etc. take care of that
 Avoids a discussion about code bloat, XML bloat and
performance (which is actually very good)
 It won’t be a political view of the “document wars” debate
 There will be no XPS vs PDF vs Open XML vs ODF / OpenDocument
content!

If you learn one thing from my session…
 On this day…June 8th…
 1978: Woman takes world sailing record
Yachtswoman Naomi James breaks the solo round-the-world
sailing record by two days.

Office 2010 – First Run
6

Disclaimer
 This session includes some content from Microsoft slide
decks
 Not going to be an in-depth look at the Open XML API
 Code and demonstrations to get you started
 Simplified version of the methods I use to generate custom
reports in a non-production version of production application!
 I’m a developer, not a designer!
 No flashy graphics or fancy documents 
 Let’s ignore the i4i injunction a Judge in Texas imposed on
Microsoft Word!
7

About Me
 60+ presentations delivered:
 IMTC 2008, epicenter 2009
 NRW06, NRW07
 DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper (UK / Ireland Community Events)
 Scottish Developers
 Agile Scotland
 British Computer Society (BCS)
 UK Borland User Group (DDG)
 Visual Basic User Group (VBUG)
 VBUG .net Winter 2001 conference
 XML One 2001
 60+ articles/book reviews published:
 The Delphi Magazine
 developers’ magazine (Dotnet Developers’ Group - DDG)
 ASPToday.com (now Wiley, previously Wrox)
 ASP.NET Pro, International Developer
 CSharpCorner, DeveloperFusion
8
Open XML
XML
XSLT
XQuery
XML Schema
SOAP
WML
IntraWeb
Web Services
C# InterOp with Delphi
RUP
UML
TDD in C#, VB.net and Delphi 8
Scrum

Agenda
 Motivation
 The Tools
 What: Open XML SDK 2, API Design
 How: Demos, Code Generation, Injection, Content Controls
 Why: Summary
 Resources

Motivation
 There are times when we are too focused on application
development
 New/useful tools techniques are passed by
 60-90 minute sessions like these, personally, help me save time by:
 Identifying new/useful tools and techniques
 Demonstrating new/useful tools and techniques
 Your takeaway: is Open XML something you should be investigating
further, or not as the case may be
 I have been using Excel automation (COM type libraries) for
report creation…since 1999
 Gone through the “macro dilemma” – to use macros or not?
 For Win32 Borland Delphi applications
 For Win32 .net C# applications

The Tools
 Visual Studio 2010 Professional
 Open XML SDK 2 RTM (March 2010)
 Sits inside the .NET 3.5 SP1 space (more about this later on);
SDK makes use of LINQ
 Office 2010 Standard
 Only required for viewing documents
 Unlike COM-based automation, an Office client is not required
 A boon if you are preparing reports server-side
 Previously used
 Visual Studio 2008 Professional
 Office 2007
 Open XML SDK CTPs

Agenda
 Motivation
 The Tools
 How: Demos - Manual, Code Generation, Injection
 Why: Summary
 Resources

Open XML SDK 2
 Productivity Tool
 DocumentReflector for code generation
 OpenXMLClassExplorer explore the Open XML markup and the
ECMA 376 specification
 OpenXMLDiff graphically compare Open XML files
 OpenXMLValidator to validate entire documents or “document
parts” against Office 2007 or Office 2010 file formats
13

What is Open XML?
 …an open standard for word-processing documents,
presentations, and spreadsheets that can be freely
implemented by multiple applications on different
platforms
 …faithful representation of existing word-processing
documents, presentations, and spreadsheets that are
encoded in binary formats defined by Microsoft® Office
applications, i.e. tightly coupled
 …purpose of the Open XML standard is to de-couple
documents created by Microsoft Office applications so
that they can be manipulated by other applications
independent of proprietary formats and without the loss
of data
https://connect.microsoft.com/content/content.aspx?ContentID=9521&SiteID=589&wa=wsignin1.0
14

Before…Open XML SDK V2
 Namespaces, element names and attributes were irksome
to remember and to get right
 Generally, constants were used to make managing
namespaces, etc. that bit easier
 Lack of strong typing
 Code would compile
 May produce incorrect results at run-time
15
<w:document xmlns:w='http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/wordprocessingml/2006/main'>
<w:body><w:p><w:r><w:t>some text</w:t></w:r></w:p>
</w:body>
</w:document>

Now…Open XML SDK V2
 Strongly Typed Object Model
 Node identification using strings is a thing of the past
 Loosely typed System.Xml.Linq.XElement usage can be replaced
 e.g. DocumentFormat.OpenXml.WordProcessing.Paragraph
 Spelling mistakes are caught by compile-time type checking
 Obviously strong typing is preferable
16
AFTER
var paragraphs = doc.MainDocumentPart
.Document.Body.Elements<Paragraph>()
.Select
BEFORE
var paragraphs =
doc.MainDocumentPart
.GetXDocument()
.Element(w + "document")
.Element(w + "body")
.Elements(w + "p")
.Select

API Design
17

API Design
System Support
18
 .Net Framework 3.5 – The Open XML SDK leverages the advanced technology provided
by .Net Framework 3.5, especially LINQ To XML, which makes manipulating XML much
easier and more intuitive
 System.IO.Packaging – The Open XML SDK needs to be able to add/remove parts
contained within the Open XML Format packages. Included as part of .Net Framework
3.0 were a set of generic packaging APIs capable of adding and removing parts of OPC
(Open Package Convention) conforming packages. Given that Open XML Formats are
based on OPC, the SDK uses System.IO.Packaging APIs to open, edit and save Open XML
Packages
 Open XML Schemas – The Open XML SDK is based on Open XML Formats, which are
represented and described as schemas. These schemas make up the foundation of the
Open XML SDK, since the SDK enables Open XML developers to build solutions on top
of Open XML Formats

API Design
Open XML File Format Base Level
 Stream Reading/Writing
 includes stream reader and writer interfaces targeting Open XML elements and attributes
 similar to XmlReader/XmlWriter, easier to use as the interfaces are Open XML aware
 Open XML Low Level DOM
 Manipulate the Open XML tree directly by working with strongly typed objects and classes
instead of traditional XML nodes
 Awareness of namespaces as well as element/attribute names is reduced
 Intellisense for properties, etc.
 Leverages LINQ
 Open XML Packaging API
 Sits above System.IO.Packaging (.NET 3.0)
 allows developers to manipulate Open XML parts with strongly typed classes and objects
 Shipped in Open XML SDK v1.0
19

API Design
Validation & Helpers
 Validation Layer
 Open XML base layer does not guarantee creation of valid Open
XML documents!
 Our reliance on XML Schema, XSD files, is reduced if not removed
 The SDK takes care of it on our behalf
 Helper Functions
 Work directly on the XML elements and are functionally limited
by the file format standard
 e.g. deletion of a WordML paragraph – a helper function may
ensure that all additional steps are taken to leave the document is
a valid state…
20

The Importance of Validation
 http://blogs.msdn.com/brian_jones/archive/2009/04/08/
announcing-the-release-of-the-open-xml-sdk-version-2-
april-2009-ctp.aspx
21
<w:body>
<w:p>
<w:r>
<w:t>hello world</w:t>
</w:r>
</w:p>
...
</w:body>
<w:body>
<w:p>
<w:t>hello world</w:t>
</w:p>
...
</w:body>

Agenda
 Motivation
 The Tools
 How: Demos, Code Generation, Injection, Content Controls
 Why: Summary
 Resources

WordML
Document Structure
23
 Take a .docx, an .xlsx or a
.pptx file, rename it as a
.zip file
 Open using Compressed
Folders or your favourite
zip utility
 Very readable, but
without the SDK, difficult
to manage, especially in
code

Document Parts
 A document part is…
 analogous to a file on the file system
 stored inside the package in a specific location reachable via a URI
 stored with a specific content type
 mainly XML but other native types as well
 Images, sounds, video, OLE objects
 Content type is enforced
 Example: cannot tag JPEG part as GIF
 [Open Excel - sample file – look for the image]
24

ExcelML
Document Structure
25
 Relationships are stored
in XML streams in the
package
 Ties elements inside the
package to each other
 Allows navigation of
document without parsing
parts
 Package relationships
stream URI: /_rels/.rels
 Part relationships stream
URI: _rels/[partname].rels

demo
WordML and ExcelML

Content Controls
 New in Word 2007
 Manageable via the Word Content Control Toolkit
 Programmatic access to specific “fields” within a
document
 “Bindable”
 Can be bound to XML nodes
 Makes use of the customXML folder
27

Enabling the Developer ribbon – Word 2007
28

Enabling the Developer ribbon – Word 2010
29

Why Use Content Controls?
 In situations where small amounts information is collected
from many users:
 How often have you seen a spreadsheet being e-mailed to
hundreds of users, asking them to fill in “some” cells?
 Give them a Word document with Content Controls
 Use a custom-written .NET application that aggregates the
information in the Content Controls into an Excel spreadsheet
30

demo
Content Controls
CustomXML
in Word 2007 / Word 2010

Deployment
 All that you need to deploy are:
 Your OpenXML-enabled application
 DocumentFormat.OpenXml.dll
 WindowsBase.dll
 .NET (VPC test…)
 c:Program FilesReference AssembliesMicrosoftFrameworkv3.0WindowsBase.dll
 http://blogs.msdn.com/dmahugh/archive/2006/12/14/finding-windowsbase-dll.aspx
33

Agenda
 Motivation
 The Tools
 How: Demos - Manual, Code Generation, Injection
 Why: Summary
 Resources

Summary
 Open XML is little more than a moderately complex XML
document
 XML is readily accessible
 in the .NET framework
 in VB6
 in Java
 in Python, etc.
 An Office installation is not required
 Office client not required on the server
 Enables Office document creation from non-Microsoft platforms
 “…it’s just zip, it’s just XML…” - Doug Mahugh
 http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/AdamKinney/Open-XML-File-Formats
35

Summary
 Start from a template document
 Easy replication of existing [client] documents
 Use the DocumentRefector to generate Open XML code
 Refactor your report data into the generated code
 Learn from the reflected / generated code
 Open XML code is cleaner, more readable and more
maintainable than its COM counterpart
 Open XML documents can be consumed using
applications and platforms from vendors other than
Microsoft
36

Resources (web-sites & blogs)
 Open XML Format SDK 2.0
 http://url.ie/tik
 Microsoft’s Open XML portal
 http://www.openxmldeveloper.org/
 If you are interested in Open XML / ODF conversion
 http://sourceforge.net/projects/odf-converter
 http://www.twitter.com/openxml
 Microsoft folks:
 Brian Jones http://blogs.msdn.com/brian_jones/
 Doug Mahugh http://blogs.msdn.com/dmahugh/
 Kevin Boske http://blogs.msdn.com/kevinboske/
 Erika Ehrli http://blogs.msdn.com/erikaehrli/
 Eric White http://blogs.msdn.com/ericwhite/

Resources (web-sites & blogs)
 Word 2007 Content Control Toolkit on CodePlex
 http://www.codeplex.com/dbe
 Matthew Scott’s Content Controls and CustomXML
Channel 9 video
 http://url.ie/u05
 Wouter van Vugt
 http://blogs.code-counsel.net/Wouter/default.aspx
 A collection of Open XML resources:
 http://www.craigmurphy.com/blog/?p=871
 Including these slides and C# source code
38

Resources (Books)
Open XML Explained
Wouter van Vugt
http://openxmldeveloper.org/articles/1970.aspx

Contact Information
Craig Murphy
http://www.twitter.com/CAMURPHY
Updated slides, notes and source code:
http://www.CraigMurphy.com
http://www.CraigMurphy.com/blog

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