Leaders Work Together to Foster Interoperability Solutions between Documents File Formats

Microsoft’s collaboration with industry vendors and leaders of open-source projects to overcome document interoperability barriers is yielding concrete results. The seventh DII event brought together a number of organizations, ISVs and community members to discuss exciting projects currently underway that will facilitate interoperability among document formats. Key topics included a joint effort with Dialogika on ODF/OXML/Legacy translators, Microsoft’s implementation of Open XML/ODF, and a presentation by RealDolmen and Wygwam on how two open source projects, PHPExcel and OpenXML4J, are using OOXML to store and transfer data between applications.

“The real work of document interoperability is practical and requires an open and collaborative effort — industry leaders and vendors coming together to identify and resolve technical issues,” said Gianugo Rabellino, CEO of Sourcesense. “The dialogue and technical lab work taking place at these events are tangible steps toward moving the bar forward.”

Several new technology solutions were announced that will improve installation, performance, and stability of translated documents across multiple platforms, browsers, and operating systems. These solutions have come to fruition as a result of the community-based collaboration at previous DII events held around the world, which brought vendors together to test interoperability between document formats, including Microsoft Office Open XML Formats and the Open Document Format (ODF) on a variety of platforms and devices such as Mac OS X Leopard, iPhone, Palm OS, Symbian OS, Linux, and Windows.

“Microsoft believes that the industry has a responsibility to come together to address the interests of users in achieving greater interoperability and effective data exchange between widely deployed document format implementations," said Jean Paoli, general manager for Interoperability and XML Architecture at Microsoft. "The labs are designed to bring technical staff together to roll up their sleeves and test interoperability between implementations of formats and address issues that are identified either in those implementations or in the translation technologies used to work across formats.”

DII Efforts Result in Real-World Tools and Solutions to Meet Customer Interoperability Needs

As a result of this initiative, three technologies have been developed to translate documents in Open XML, an industry standard approved by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The Open XML Document Viewer is now available and has been released as an open source project on Microsoft’s Codeplex website. The viewer provides direct interoperability by translating documents in the Open XML format to an HTML web page so they can be viewed on browsers and heterogeneous platforms, including many mobile devices, without the need to install Microsoft Office or other productivity tool set.

Also announced was Version 2.5 of the Open XML/ODF Translator which offers developers greater choice and flexibility when working on web and browser applications. The add-on supports Microsoft Office XP, 2003 and 2007 and provides interoperability between ODF and Open XML. Some of this version’s improvements include ODF 1.1-compatible templates optimized for greater fidelity through the translation process, chart-related enhancements in spreadsheets, a streamlined installation process, and greater reliability.

DII also introduced the Apache POI Java SDK for Open XML, a software development kit for Java developers interested in working with Open XML documents. The software allows people to read and write Microsoft Office Excel files using Java, aligning with the Apache POI project launched in June 2007 which provides Java libraries for reading and writing files in formats used by Microsoft Office and other productivity products.

Microsoft’s Commitment to Foster Interoperability, Opportunity and Choice

Microsoft launched the DII program in March 2008 as part of its Interoperability Principles to increase the openness of its products, promote user choice, and support expanded opportunity for developers, partners, and competitors. The global program is open to any vendor that wants to collaborate with the community to identify and address interoperability issues between implementations of document formats. Additional DII document interoperability events are currently planned for the coming months. Further information on these and past events can be found on the Document Interoperability Initiative Web site.