poi/src/documentation/content/xdocs/index.xml

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<document>
  <header>
    <title>Apache POI - Java API To Access Microsoft Format Files</title>
    <authors>
      <person id="AO" name="Andrew C. Oliver" email="acoliver@apache.org"/>
      <person id="GJS" name="Glen Stampoultzis" email="user@poi.apache.org"/>
      <person id="AS" name="Avik Sengupta" email="user@poi.apache.org"/>
      <person id="RK" name="Rainer Klute" email="klute@apache.org"/>
    </authors>
  </header>

  <body>
    <section><title>POI 3.5 beta 5, and Office Open XML Support (2009-02-19)</title>
      <p>We are currently working to support the new Office Open XML
       file formats, such as XLSX and PPTX, which were introduced in
       Office 2007.</p>
      <p>Development for this is in a svn branch, but we are please to
       announce our first preview release containing this support.
       Users interested in the OOXML support should download the
       <link href="http://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi/poi/dev/">POI 3.5 beta 5</link>
       the source and binaries from their
       <link href="http://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi/poi/dev/">local mirror</link>.
       People interested should also follow the
       <link href="mailinglists.html">dev list</link> to track progress.</p>
      <p>
        The release is also available from the central Maven repository 
        under Group ID "org.apache.poi" and Version "3.5-beta5".
      </p>  
    </section>
    <section><title>POI 3.2-FINAL Released (2008-10-19)</title>
      <p>
        The POI team is pleased to announce the release of 3.2 FINAL, the latest release of Apache POI.
        There have been many important bug fixes since the 3.1 release and a lot of new features. 
       </p><p>  A full list of changes	is available in
      <link href="./changes.html">the changelog</link>, and 
		<link href="http://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi/poi/release/">download</link>
		the source and binaries from your
    <link href="http://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi/poi/release/">local mirror</link>.
      </p>
      <p>
        The release is also available from the central Maven repository 
        under Group ID "org.apache.poi" and Version "3.2-FINAL".
      </p>  
    </section>

    <section><title>Purpose</title>
      <p>
      The POI project consists of APIs for manipulating various file formats
      based upon Microsoft's OLE 2 Compound Document format, and Office OpenXML format, using 
      pure Java.  In short, you can read and write MS Excel files using Java. In addition,
      you can read and write MS Word and MS PowerPoint files using Java.  POI is your Java Excel 
      solution (for Excel 97-2007). However, we have a complete API for porting other OLE 2 
      Compound Document formats and welcome others to participate.
      </p>
      <p>
      OLE 2 Compound Document Format based files include most Microsoft Office
      files such as XLS and DOC as well as MFC serialization API based file formats.
      </p>
      <p>
      Office OpenXML Format based files include the new (2007+) xml based file formats,
      including Microsoft office files such as XLSX, DOCX and PPTX.
      </p>
      <p>
         As a general policy we try to collaborate as much as possible with other projects to
         provide this functionality.  Examples include: <link href="http://xml.apache.org/cocoon">Cocoon</link> for
         which there are serializers for HSSF;
         <link href="http://www.openoffice.org">Open Office.org</link> with whom we collaborate in documenting the
         XLS format; and <link href="http://lucene.apache.org/">Lucene</link> 
         for which we provide format interpretors.  When practical, we donate 
         components directly to those projects for POI-enabling them.
      </p>
      <section><title>Why/when would I use POI?</title>
        <p>
 		We'll tackle this on a component level. POI refers to the whole project.
        </p>
        <p>
		So why should you use POIFS, HSSF or XSSF?
        </p>
        <p>
		You'd use POIFS if you had a document written in OLE 2 Compound Document Format, probably written using
		MFC, that you needed to read in Java. Alternatively, you'd use POIFS to write OLE 2 Compound Document Format
		if you needed to inter-operate with software running on the Windows platform. We are not just bragging when
		we say that POIFS is the most complete and correct implementation of this file format to date!
        </p>
        <p>
		You'd use HSSF if you needed to read or write an Excel file using Java (XLS). You'd use
        XSSF if you need to read or write an OOXML Excel file using Java (XLSX). The combined
        SS interface allows you to easily read and write all kinds of Excel files (XLS and XLSX)
        using Java.
        </p>
      </section>
    </section>


    <section><title>Components To Date</title>
        <section><title>Overview</title>
	<p>The following are components of the entire POI project and a brief
	  summary of their purpose.</p>
        </section>
        <section><title>POIFS for OLE 2 Documents</title>
             <p>POIFS is the oldest and most stable part of the project.  It is our port of the OLE 2 Compound Document Format to
             pure Java.  It supports both read and write functionality.  All of our components ultimately rely on it by
             definition.  Please see <link href="./poifs/index.html">the POIFS project page</link> for more information.</p>
        </section>
        <section><title>HSSF and XSSF for Excel Documents</title>
             <p>HSSF is our port of the Microsoft Excel 97(-2007) file format (BIFF8) to pure 
              Java. XSSF is our port of the Microsoft Excel XML (2007+) file format (OOXML) to
              pure Java. They both supports read and write capability. Please see 
              <link href="./spreadsheet/index.html">the HSSF+XSSF project page</link> for more 
              information.</p>
        </section>
        <section><title>HWPF for Word Documents</title>
	<p>HWPF is our port of the Microsoft Word 97 file format to pure
	  Java.  It supports read, and limited write capabilities. Please see <link
	    href="./hwpf/index.html">the HWPF project page for more
	    information</link>.  This component is in the early stages of
	  development. It can already read and write simple files.</p>
	<p>Presently we are looking for a contributor to foster the HWPF
	  development. Jump in!</p>
        </section>
        <section><title>HSLF for PowerPoint Documents</title>
	<p>HSLF is our port of the Microsoft PowerPoint 97(-2003) file format to pure
	  Java. It supports read and write capabilities. Please see <link
	    href="./slideshow/index.html">the HSLF project page for more
	    information</link>.</p>
        </section>
        <section><title>HPSF for Document Properties</title>
	<p>HPSF is our port of the OLE 2 property set format to pure
	  Java. Property sets are mostly use to store a document's properties
	  (title, author, date of last modification etc.), but they can be used
	  for application-specific purposes as well.</p>

	<p>HPSF supports both reading and writing of properties.</p>
	<p>Please see <link href="./hpsf/index.html">the HPSF project
	    page</link> for more information.</p>
        </section>
        <section><title>HDGF for Visio Documents</title>
	<p>HDGF is our port of the Microsoft Viso 97(-2003) file format to pure
	  Java. It currently only supports reading at a very low level, and
      simple text extraction. Please see <link
	    href="./hdgf/index.html">the HDGF project page for more
	    information</link>.</p>
        </section>
        <section><title>HPBF for Publisher Documents</title>
	<p>HPBF is our port of the Microsoft Publisher 98(-2007) file format to pure
	  Java. It currently only supports reading at a low level for around
      half of the file parts, and simple text extraction.  Please see <link
	    href="./hpbf/index.html">the HPBF project page for more
	    information</link>.</p>
        </section>
     <section><title>Component map</title>
       <p>
         The POI distribution consists of several JAR files. Not all of them are needed in every case. The following table
         shows the relationships between POI components and the JAR files. 
       </p>
        <table>
          <tr>
            <th>Component</th>
            <th>JAR</th>
            <th>Maven artifactId</th>
            <th>Comment</th>
          </tr>
          <tr>
            <td><link href="./poifs/index.html">POIFS</link></td>
            <td>poi-version-yyyymmdd.jar</td>
            <td>poi</td>
            <td></td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
            <td><link href="./hpsf/index.html">HPSF</link></td>
            <td>poi-version-yyyymmdd.jar</td>
            <td>poi</td>
            <td></td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
            <td><link href="./spreadsheet/index.html">HSSF</link></td>
            <td>poi-version-yyyymmdd.jar</td>
            <td>poi</td>
            <td></td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
            <td><link href="./spreadsheet/index.html">XSSF</link></td>
            <td>poi-ooxml-version-yyyymmdd.jar</td>
            <td>poi-ooxml</td>
            <td>since 3.5-beta4</td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
            <td><link href="./slideshow/index.html">HLSF</link></td>
            <td>poi-scratchpad-version-yyyymmdd.jar</td>
            <td>poi-scratchpad</td>
            <td></td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
            <td><link href="./hwpf/index.html">HWPF</link></td>
            <td>poi-scratchpad-version-yyyymmdd.jar</td>
            <td>poi-scratchpad</td>
            <td></td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
            <td><link href="./hdgf/index.html">HDGF</link></td>
            <td>poi-scratchpad-version-yyyymmdd.jar</td>
            <td>poi-scratchpad</td>
            <td></td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
            <td><link href="./hpbf/index.html">HPBF</link></td>
            <td>poi-scratchpad-version-yyyymmdd.jar</td>
            <td>poi-scratchpad</td>
            <td></td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
            <td><link href="./hsmf/index.html">HSMF</link></td>
            <td>poi-scratchpad-version-yyyymmdd.jar</td>
            <td>poi-scratchpad</td>
            <td></td>
          </tr>
        </table>
     </section>
     </section>
    <section><title>Contributing </title>
        <p>
		So you'd like to contribute to the project? Great! We need enthusiastic, hard-working, talented folks to help
		us on the project in several areas. The first is bug reports and feature requests! The second is documentation -
		we'll be at your every beck and call if you've got a critique or you'd like to contribute or otherwise improve
		the documentation. We could especially use some help documenting the HSSF file format! Last, but not least, we
		could use some binary crunching Java coders to chew through the complexity that characterizes Microsoft's file
		formats and help us port new ones to a superior Java platform!
        </p>
        <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
           project!
        </p>


    </section>
  </body>
  <footer>
    <legal>
      Copyright (c) @year@ The Apache Software Foundation. All rights reserved.
      $Revision$ $Date$
    </legal>
  </footer>
</document>

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