164 lines
8.2 KiB
XML
164 lines
8.2 KiB
XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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<!DOCTYPE document PUBLIC "-//APACHE//DTD Documentation V1.1//EN" "./dtd/document-v11.dtd">
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<document>
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<header>
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<title>Welcome to POI</title>
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<authors>
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<person id="AO" name="Andrew C. Oliver" email="acoliver@apache.org"/>
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<person id="GJS" name="Glen Stampoultzis" email="glens@apache.org"/>
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</authors>
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</header>
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<body>
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<section><title>News</title>
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<section><title>Latest Development Release</title>
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<p>
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The latest development release of POI is version 1.10.
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Binary distributions are available <link href="http://jakarta.apache.org/builds/jakarta-poi/dev/bin/">here</link>
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and source distributions are <link href="http://jakarta.apache.org/builds/jakarta-poi/dev/src/">here</link>.
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</p>
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<!-- <p>-->
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<!-- <link href="http://vote.sparklit.com/poll.spark/640946">Click here</link> to see the current results.-->
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<!-- </p>-->
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</section>
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<section><title>Translations</title>
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<p>
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The POI documentation translation project has begun. The first ones
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to start are the <link href="trans/es/index.html">Spanish
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(espaniol)</link> and <link href="http://www.terra-intl.com/jakarta/poi/">Japanese</link>, and
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<link href="trans/de/index.html">German</link>
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translations. Others are welcome. Please feel
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free to participate!
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</p>
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</section>
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<section><title>Logo Contest</title>
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<p>
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Voting for the POI logo contest is now complete. Thank you for your votes.
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</p>
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<!-- <p>-->
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<!-- <link href="http://vote.sparklit.com/poll.spark/640946">Click here</link> to see the current results.-->
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<!-- </p>-->
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</section>
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</section>
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<section><title>Purpose</title>
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<p>
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The POI project consists of APIs for manipulating various file formats
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based upon Microsoft's OLE 2 Compound Document format using pure Java.
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</p>
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<p>
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OLE 2 Compound Document Format based files include most Microsoft Office
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files such as XLS and DOC.
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</p>
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<p>
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As a general policy we try to collaborate as much as possible with other projects to
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provide this functionality. Examples include: <link href="http://xml.apache.org/cocoon">Cocoon</link> for
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which you'll soon find generators and serializers for our projects;
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<link href="http://www.openoffice.org">Open Office.org</link> with whom we collaborate in documenting the
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XLS format; and <link href="http://jakarta.apache.org/lucene">Lucene</link> for which we'll soon have file
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format interpretors. When practical, we donate components directly to those projects for POI-enabling them.
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</p>
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<section><title>Why/when would I use POI?</title>
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<p>
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We'll tackle this on a component level. POI refers to the whole project.
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</p>
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<p>
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So why should you use POIFS or HSSF?
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</p>
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<p>
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You'd use POIFS if you had a document written in OLE 2 Compound Document Format, probably written using
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MFC, that you needed to read in Java. Alternatively, you'd use POI to write OLE 2 Compound Document Format
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if you needed to inter-operate with software running on the Windows platform. We are not just bragging when
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we say that POIFS is the most complete and correct port of this file format to date!
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</p>
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<p>
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You'd use HSSF if you needed to read or write an XLS (Excel) file using Java. You can also read and modify
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spreadsheets using this API, although right now writing is more mature.
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</p>
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</section>
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<section><title>What does POI stand for?</title>
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<p>
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POI stands for Poor Obfuscation Implementation. Why would we name our project such a derogatory name? Well,
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Microsoft's OLE 2 Compound Document Format is a poorly conceived thing. It is essentially an archive structured
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much like the old DOS FAT filesystem. Redmond chose, instead of using tar, gzip, zip or arc, to invent their own
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archive format that does not provide any standard encryption or compression, is not very appendable and is prone
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to fragmentation.
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</p>
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<p>
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Poi is also a Hawaiian delicacy that <link href="http://www.m-w.com">Merriam Webster's dictionary</link> defines as:
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"A Hawaiian food of taro root cooked, pounded, and kneaded to a paste and often allowed to ferment." This seemed
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strangely descriptive of the file format.
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</p>
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<p>
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So if you like acronyms, then POI is an acronym. If you hate them, then we just used the name of the food for our
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project. If you wish to signify your love or hate for acronyms, use POI or Poi to refer to the project respectively.
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</p>
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</section>
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</section>
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<section><title>Components To Date</title>
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<section><title>Overview</title>
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<p>A common misconception is that POI writes Excel files. POI is the name of the project. POI contains several
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components, one of which, HSSF, writes Excel files. The following are components of the entire POI project
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and a brief summary of their purpose.</p>
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</section>
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<section><title>POIFS (POI Filesystem)</title>
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<p>POIFS is the oldest and most stable part of the project. It is our port of the OLE 2 Compound Document Format to
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pure Java. It supports both read and write functionality. All of our components ultimately rely on it by
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definition. Please see <link href="./poifs/index.html">the POIFS project page</link> for more information.</p>
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</section>
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<section><title>HSSF (Horrible Spreadsheet Format)</title>
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<p>HSSF is our port of the Microsoft Excel 97(-2002) file format (BIFF8) to pure Java. It supports read and write
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capability. Please see <link href="./hssf/index.html">the HSSF project page</link> for more information.</p>
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</section>
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<section><title>HDF (Horrible Document Format)</title>
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<p>HDF is our port of the Microsoft Word 97 file format to pure Java. It supports read and write capability.
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Please see <link href="./hdf/index.html">the HDF project page for more information</link>. This component is
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in the early stages of design. Jump in!</p>
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</section>
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<section><title>HPSF (Horrible Property Set Format)</title>
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<p>HPSF is our port of the OLE 2 property set format to pure
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Java. Property sets are mostly use to store a document's properties
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(title, author, date of last modification etc.), but they can be used
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for application-specific purposes as well. Currently HPSF supports
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read functionality only. Please see <link
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href="./hpsf/index.html">the HPSF project page</link> for more
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information.</p>
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</section>
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</section>
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<section><title>What happened to the HSSF Serializer?</title>
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<p>The HSSF Serializer, which was part of our 1.0 release and last builds on
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<link href="http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/poi">Sourceforge</link>, has been donated to the
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<link href="http://xml.apache.org/cocoon/">Cocoon</link> project, and is available starting from version
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2.0.2.</p>
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</section>
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<section><title>Contributing </title>
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<p>
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So you'd like to contribute to the project? Great! We need enthusiastic, hard-working, talented folks to help
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us on the project in several areas. The first is bug reports and feature requests! The second is documentation -
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we'll be at your every beck and call if you've got a critique or you'd like to contribute or otherwise improve
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the documentation. We could especially use some help documenting the HSSF file format! Last, but not least, we
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could use some binary crunching Java coders to chew through the convolution that characterizes Microsoft's file
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formats and help us port new ones to a superior Java platform!
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</p>
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<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
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project!
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</p>
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</section>
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</body>
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<footer>
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<legal>
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Copyright (c) @year@ The Apache Software Foundation All rights reserved.
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$Revision$ $Date$
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</legal>
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</footer>
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</document>
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