A first Look at Microsoft XPS

Since my first days as a developer at the University I was forced to deal with different document formats. Writing articles, exchanging notes with my student colleagues and printing our last homework I learned a lot. Computer have changed the way people publish and exchange information. Documents often appear one way when viewed on the screen and another when printed, its appearance depends greatly on where and how the document is viewed. Different aspects of the document, such as page layout and font style, can change, altering the document's appearance. Even worse, many documents depend on locally installed software and other resources. Having a document prepared and tested and being forced to print this document somewhere else could become a real nightmare. Believe me, there were moments in my life I wish never happened. I bet that you can also share some great experiences with me.

Having said that, I should also mention that there is some great news. During the WinHEC keynote Bill Gates announced the trifecta of Betas (Windows Vista Client, Server and 2007 Microsoft Office system). One of the highlights was the keynote demo of XPS Document format, a component of the Windows Presentation Foundation, which is a next-generation presentation subsystem that unifies a whole range of output services, including User Interface, Media, and Documents. XPS or the XML Paper Specification formerly codenamed "Metro" is new electronic paper format for exchanging documents in their final forms. This feature provides a one-way export from 2007 Microsoft Office System client applications to an application- and platform-independent, paginated format.

As a developer dealing with documents I always missed the possibility to write some code. You know, that kind of stuff we developers consider to be most important part of our life. We need a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) and we feel happy. Even more happy if we combine some traditional applications we have up and running in our IT environment using the APIs to build amazing new applications. The Windows Presentation Foundation, formerly code named Avalon provides a single, managed-code framework and makes it possible to build applications with richer user experiences than were previously possible. It was great to hear that XPS includes such set of APIs which allows us to generate XPS documents programmatically or even to create any file format from WPF applications. This makes XPS convenient for a range of scenarios in which it is useful to inspect or modify the contents.

There are bunch of brand new technologies in Windows Vista, including the open XML Paper Specification (XPS), which describes the architecture of the XPS Document file format, and the Open Packaging Conventions, which describes the method for packaging information in a file format. Additionally to this there is an XPS Viewer to view, manage, and print files that conform to the XML Paper Specification. The Windows Digital Documents team is delivering a print driver that will enable all applications that can print to create XPS files.

Most important to mention at the end: if you don't like standard set of viewers and drivers, the XPS format is open and documented and you could always write your own replacement.

Amazing stuff. I really look forward to exploring it. I hope you are curious too.

More information on XPS is available at www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps

Author: Damir Tomicic
Damir Tomicic is co-founder and managing director of Axinom GmbH (www.axinom.de). Axinom is the leading technology integrator specializing in the Microsoft enterprise platform and Enterprise Content Management solutions.

Damir is Director at IASA (International Association of Software Architects and President of INETA Europe (International .NET Association). Damir is Microsoft Regional Director for Germany and Microsoft MVP Solutions Architect. Damir is considered an expert in Microsoft enterprise platform and enterprise software architecture. His main focus is the mediation and implementation of modern software technologies and concepts at the Microsoft platform, in particular the sectors of .NET, software-architecture, illustration and integration of business processes.