From b1d9d2e10f198dc9dfaa4e0ae4c0556f801e533c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Rainer Klute This HOW-TO is organized in three section. You should read them
+ This HOW-TO is organized in three sections. You should read them
sequentially because the later sections build upon the earlier ones. Please note that there is separate document on thumbnails! The first thing you should understand is that properties are stored in
separate documents inside the POI filesystem. (If you don't know what a
- POI filesystem is, read its documentation.) A document in a POI
- filesystem is also called a stream.
@@ -40,12 +40,9 @@
-
The following example shows how to read a POI filesystem's
"title" property. Reading other properties is similar. Consider the API
- documentation of org.apache.poi.hpsf.SummaryInformation
.
org.apache.poi.hpsf.SummaryInformation
to
+ learn which methods are available!
- The standard properties this section focusses on can be - found in a document called \005SummaryInformation in the root of - the POI filesystem. The notation \005 in the document's name - means the character with the decimal value of 5. In order to read the - title, an application has to perform the following steps:
+The standard properties this section focusses on can be found in a + document called \005SummaryInformation located in the root of the + POI filesystem. The notation \005 in the document's name means + the character with the decimal value of 5. In order to read the title, an + application has to perform the following steps:
Create an instance of the class
- SummaryInformation
from that
- document.
Create an instance of the class SummaryInformation
from
+ that document.
Call the SummaryInformation
instance's
@@ -96,7 +93,10 @@
(POIFS) proceeds as shown by the following code fragment. (The full
source code of the sample application is available in the
examples section of the POI source tree as
- ReadTitle.java.)
Please note that a Microsoft Office document does not necessarily contain the \005SummaryInformation stream. The documents created @@ -249,7 +249,7 @@ static class MyPOIFSReaderListener implements POIFSReaderListener
And of course you cannot call getTitle()
because
DocumentSummaryInformation
has different query methods. See
- the API documentation for the details!
In the previous section the application simply caught all exceptions and was in no way interested in any @@ -259,17 +259,19 @@ static class MyPOIFSReaderListener implements POIFSReaderListener
NoPropertySetStreamException
:This exception is thrown if the application tries to create a
- PropertySet
or one of its subclasses
- SummaryInformation
and
- DocumentSummaryInformation
from a stream that is not a
- property set stream. A faulty property set stream counts as not being a
- property set stream at all. An application should be prepared to deal
- with this case even if opens streams named
+
This exception is thrown if the application tries to create a
+ PropertySet
instance from a stream that is not a
+ property set stream. (SummaryInformation
and
+ DocumentSummaryInformation
are subclasses of
+ PropertySet
.) A faulty property set stream counts as not
+ being a property set stream at all. An application should be prepared to
+ deal with this case even if it opens streams named
\005SummaryInformation or
\005DocumentSummaryInformation only. These are just names. A
stream's name by itself does not ensure that the stream contains the
- expected contents and that this contents is correct.
UnexpectedPropertySetTypeException
This exception is thrown if a certain type of property set is
@@ -292,7 +294,7 @@ static class MyPOIFSReaderListener implements POIFSReaderListener
document. Embedded objects may have property sets of their own. An
application can open these property set streams as described above. The
only difference is that they are not located in the POI filesystem's root
- but in a nested directory instead. Just register a
+ but in a nested directory instead. Just register a
Now comes the really hardcode stuff. As mentioned above,
+ Okay, that was still rather easy. However, to make things more
+ complicated Microsoft in its infinite wisdom decided that a property set
+ shalt be broken into sections. Each section holds a bunch
+ of properties. But since that's still not complicated enough: a section
+ can optionally have a dictionary that maps property IDs to property
+ names - we'll explain later what that means.POIFSReaderListener
for the property set streams you are
interested in. For example, the POIBrowser application in the
contrib section tries to open each and every document in a POI filesystem
@@ -303,12 +305,49 @@ static class MyPOIFSReaderListener implements POIFSReaderListener
SummaryInformation
and
+ DocumentSummaryInformation
are just special cases of the
+ general concept of a property set. The general concept says that a
+ property set consists of properties. Each property is an
+ entity that has a name, a type, and a
+ value.PropertySet
in the org.apache.poi.hpsf
+ package.
Microsoft applications like "Word" or "Excel" let the user describe his - document by properties like "title", "category" and so on. The application - itself adds further information: last author, creation date etc. These - properties are stored in so-called property set streams. A - property set stream is a separate document within a POI filesystem. HPSF is POI's pure-Java - implementation to read (and in future to write) property set streams.
+Microsoft applications like "Word", "Excel" or "Powerpoint" let the user + describe his document by properties like "title", "category" and so on. The + application itself adds further information: last author, creation date + etc. These document properties are stored in so-called property set + streams. A property set stream is a separate document within a + POI filesystem. We'll call property + set streams mostly just "property sets". HPSF is POI's pure-Java + implementation to read (and in future to write) property sets.
The HPSF HOWTO describes what a Java application should do to read a property set using HPSF and to retrieve the information it needs.
-HPSF supports OLE2 property set streams in general, not only the special - case of document properties mentioned above. The HPSF description describes the internal - structure of property set streams.
+HPSF supports OLE2 property set streams in general, and is not limited to + the special case of document properties in the Microsoft Office files + mentioned above. The HPSF description + describes the internal structure of property set streams. A separate + document explains the internal of thumbnail + images.
- Thumbnail information is stored as a VT_CF, or Thumbnail Variant. - The Thumbnail Variant is used to store various types of information - in a clipboard. The VT_CF can store information in formats for the - Macintosh or Windows clipboard. -
+Thumbnail information is stored as a VT_CF, or Thumbnail Variant. The + Thumbnail Variant is used to store various types of information in a + clipboard. The VT_CF can store information in formats for the Macintosh or + Windows clipboard.
+ +There are many types of data that can be copied to the clipboard, but the + only types of information needed for thumbnail manipulation are the image + formats.
-- There are many types of data that can be copied to the clipboard, - but the only types of information needed for thumbnail manipulation are - the image formats. -
-The VT_CF
structure looks like this:
Element: | @@ -43,11 +39,9 @@
---|
- The Clipboard Size refers to the size (in bytes) of Clipboard Data - (variable size) plus the Clipboard Format (four bytes). -
- +The Clipboard Size refers to the size (in bytes) of Clipboard Data + (variable size) plus the Clipboard Format (four bytes).
+Clipboard Format Tag has four possible values:
Value | Identifier | Description | -||
---|---|---|---|---|
3 | CF_METAFILEPICT |
@@ -102,75 +94,89 @@
8 | CF_DIB |
Device Independent Bitmap | -
14 | CF_ENHMETAFILE |
Enhanced Windows metafile format | -||
2 | CF_BITMAP |
Bitmap - Obsolete - Use CF_DIB instead |
-
- The most common format for thumbnails on the Windows platform - is the Windows metafile format. The Clipboard places and extra - header in front of a the standard Windows Metafile Format data. -
- -- The Clipboard Data byte array looks like this when an image is - stored in Windows' Clipboard WMF format. -
- -Identifier | -CF_METAFILEPICT | -mm | -width | -height | -handle | -WMF data | -
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Size | -32 bit unsigned int | -16 bit unsigned(?) int | -16 bit unsigned(?) int | -16 bit unsigned(?) int | -16 bit unsigned(?) int | -byte array - variable length | -
Description | -Clipboard WMF | -Mapping Mode | -Image Width | -Image Height | -handle to the WMF data array in memory, or 0 | -standard WMF byte stream | -
FIXME: Document Device Independent Bitmap format
-The most common format for thumbnails on the Windows platform is the + Windows metafile format. The Clipboard places and extra header in front of + a the standard Windows Metafile Format data.
+ +The Clipboard Data byte array looks like this when an image is stored in + Windows' Clipboard WMF format.
+ +Identifier | +CF_METAFILEPICT | +mm | +width | +height | +handle | +WMF data | +
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Size | +32 bit unsigned int | +16 bit unsigned(?) int | +16 bit unsigned(?) int | +16 bit unsigned(?) int | +16 bit unsigned(?) int | +byte array - variable length | +
Description | +Clipboard WMF | +Mapping Mode | +Image Width | +Image Height | +handle to the WMF data array in memory, or 0 | +standard WMF byte stream | +
FIXME: Describe the Device Independent Bitmap + format!
+FIXME: Document Macintosh clipboard formats.
+FIXME: Describe the Macintosh clipboard formats!