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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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<!DOCTYPE document PUBLIC "-//APACHE//DTD Documentation V1.3//EN" "./dtd/document-v13.dtd">
<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 3.1-BETA1 Released (2008-04028)</title>
<p>
The POI team is pleased to announce the release of 3.1 BETA1 which is one of the final steps before 3.1 FINAL.
The status of this release is a beta, meaning that we encourage users to try it out.
If you find any bugs, please report them to the POI <link href="https://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/buglist.cgi?product=POI">bug database</link> or to
the <link href="./mailinglists.html">POI Developer List</link>.
</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/dev/">download</link>
the source and binaries from your
<link href="http://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi/poi/dev/">local mirror</link>.
</p>
<p>
The release is also available from the central Maven repository
under Group ID "org.apache.poi" and Version "3.1-beta1".
</p>
</section>
<section><title>POI 3.0.2 Released</title>
<p>The POI team is pleased to announce POI 3.0.2, the latest release of Apache POI.
There have been many important bug fixes since the 3.0.1 release and a lot of new features. 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 "3.0.2-FINAL".
</p>
<p>We would also like to confirm that versions 3.0.1 and 3.0.2 of
Apache POI do
<em>not</em> contain any viruses. Users of broken virus checkers
which do detect a 94 byte file, sci_cec.db, as containing one are
advised to contact their vendor for a fix.</p>
</section>
<section><title>ApacheCon Europe Coming Soon</title>
<p><img src="images/ApacheConEu08.jpg" width="234" height="60"
alt="ApacheCon Europe 2008 banner" class="ontheright" />
ApacheCon Europe 2008 will once again be held at the Mövenpick
Hotel in Amsterdam, April 7-11. This year, there will be a number
of POI sessions, including a tutorial covering the new Office Open
XML support.</p>
<p>For further information, see the ApacheCon Europe Web site at
<link href="http://www.eu.apachecon.com/">www.eu.apachecon.com</link></p>
</section>
<section><title>Office Open XML Support</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>Support for these is currently only available in an svn branch,
but we hope to have a full release including it by the summer.
People interested should follow the
<link href="mailinglists.html">dev list</link> to track progress.</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 using pure Java.
In short, you can read and write MS Excel files using Java. Soon,
you'll be able to read and write Word, PowerPoint and Visio files
using Java. POI is your Java Excel solution as well as your Java
Word solution. 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>
At this time, none of our releases support the new Office Open XML
file formats, such as .xlsx or .docx. Work to support these is in
progress, and people interested should follow the
<link href="mailinglists.html">dev list</link>. We expect this
support to make it into a full release by the summer.
</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 or HSSF?
</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, write or modify an Excel file
using Java (XLS).
</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 for Excel Documents</title>
<p>HSSF is our port of the Microsoft Excel 97(-2003) file
format (BIFF8) to pure Java. It supports read and write
capability. (Support for Excel 2007 .xlsx files is in progress).
Please see <link href="./hssf/index.html">the HSSF 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="./hslf/index.html">the HSLF project page for more
information</link>.</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>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 reading and writing of properties. However, you will
need to be using version 3.0 of POI to utilise the write support.</p>
<p>Please see <link href="./hpsf/index.html">the HPSF project
page</link> for more information.</p>
</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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