 | Level: Introductory Uche Ogbuji (uche@ogbuji.net), Partner, Zepheira, LLC
08 Apr 2008 The OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications (ODF) is an XML standard that lets you store and exchange office application documents, including word-processor, spreadsheet, and presentation files. Whether you try to perform special tasks on files saved from such applications or work on applications to process such files, you should become familiar with this important format. Learn about the two possible forms of OpenDocument files, as multipart packages and as single XML documents, and learn how to structure text and tabular information in OpenDocument.
In this tutorial
Even from the early days of computers in the office, word processors, spreadsheets,
presentation software were the giants among applications. From Lotus®
1-2-3 and WordStar to today's behemoth integrated office suites, much of the
information valuable to computer users is maintained in the saved files of office
apps. Recently people and organizations are more conscious about the importance of
open data formats. You don't entirely own your data if the only way to use it is
through the interface of a proprietary application. With the acceptance of XML as
lingua franca for semi-structured data, users inevitably began to demand open formats for their office apps, preferably in XML. Users want to be able to make some sense of what's in their saved files, and to use a variety of tools on them. Responding to such demands In 2002, the Organization for the Advancement of
Structured Information Standards (OASIS) began an effort to create a standard for
office application files, formally called OASIS Open Document Format for Office
Applications and popularly abbreviated ODF. The International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) followed up with acceptance of ODF as an international standard
(ISO/IEC 26300). After years of overall development, ODF nears version 1.2 and covers
spreadsheets, word processor documents, presentation files, drawings, and more. You've
probably come across files with extensions such as .odt, .ods, .odp, or .odd.
Obviously you can process such files by running an office application suite. But
sometimes you need more control, or you need to do things that are not the typical role
for office applications. Suppose you wanted to develop a system that automatically
generated open document files from a Web form, or perhaps a search engine for office documents. In such cases you need a good understanding of the storage format, and this tutorial offers an easy start.
Objectives - Basic framework of the ODF XML format
- ODF XML text constructs
- ODF tables
Prerequisites
This tutorial is written for developers who are familiar with XML and XML Namespaces.
It might be useful to have some familiarity with XHTML.
System requirements
You will need JavaScript enabled in your browser. You also need an application that can create and open ODF files, such as the OpenOffice.org application suite.:
Duration
1 hour
Formats html, pdf
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