This session explores the key development patterns for building document assembly solutions on the SharePoint platform using Open XML.

1. Document Assembly Deep Dive
Part 1: Open XML
DEV 212
John Holliday
SharePoint Architects

2.  John Holliday
 CTO, SharePoint Architects, Inc.
 www.SharePointArchitects.us
 john@johnholliday.net
 5 year SharePoint Server MVP
SharePoint Author, Instructor, Developer
Information Architecture Consultant
Records Management Specialist

3. Open XML
“Document Parts”
•Most parts are XML
•Can access/modify parts without
using an Office product
Common Uses
•Interrogate document data
• Search for arbitrary data
•Validate against a schema
•Manipulate existing documents
• Update content
• Remove all comments
• Scan for prohibited text
•Generate new documents
• Combine parts from library
• Generate slides, etc.

4. The Open XML Standard
msdn.microsoft.com

5. Parts and Relationships
 _rels.rels
<Relationship Id=“unique_id” Type=“relationshipType”
Target=“targetPart” />
 Id
Any string that is unique in the .rels file
 Type
One of the Open XML part schemas
http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2006/relationships/styleSheet
 Target
The location of the target of the relationship (a document part)

6. Open Packaging API
 System.IO.Packaging
 Advantages
– Applies to all Office applications
 Disadvantages
– LOTS of steps involved to create real documents
Package pkg = Package.Open(“MyDocument.docx”, FileMode.Create);
…LOTS OF CODE…

7. OPEN PACKAGING API

8. Building Open XML Solutions
 Observations
 The markup languages are unique to
each document type.
 Must anticipate the need to repurpose
data across all types.
 The rendering mechanisms are unique
to each type.
Requirements
•Define a consistent architecture
•Enable declarative templating
•Enable code reuse
Available Tools
•Open Packaging API
•Microsoft Open XML SDK
•Open XML SDK Productivity Tool

9. Solution Strategies
 Use the Open Packaging API
 Advantages
– Can use a code generation tool to jumpstart the
project
– Difficult to understand and modify
 Disadvantages
– Must generate the entire document
– Relatively slow
 Use the Microsoft Open XML SDK
 Advantages
– Code is easier to work with
– SDK provides wrappers
 Disadvantages
– Steep learning curve
– Still slow
 Use XSLT
 Advantages
– Very Fast
 Disadvantages
– Requires XSLT Skills

10. Microsoft Open XML SDK
 Built on top of System.IO.Packaging
 Easier than the raw packaging API
 Wrapper classes for all Office doc types
 Wrapper classes for all known doc parts
Markup Class
WordProcessingML WordProcessingDocument
SpreadsheetML SpreadsheetDocument
PresentationML PresentationDocument

11. OPEN XML SDK

12. Open XML Productivity Tool
 Part of the Open XML SDK
 Easy to see the structure of a document
 Great for figuring out the correct elements
and attributes
 Powerful code generation built-in.
– Useful for one-off projects

13. OPEN XML SDK
PRODUCTIVITY TOOL

14. Using XSLT
 Basic Idea:
 “Flatten” the Open XML document to a non-
hierarchical XML data stream.
 Transform the XML using XSLT style sheet
 “Un-flatten” the XML back to Open XML

15. XSLT TRANSFORMS

16. Additional Resources
 Microsoft Office Open XML SDK 2.5
 Open XML SDK 2.5 Productivity Tool
 OpenXML Developer
 www.OpenXmlDeveloper.org
 Eric White’s Blog (former Microsoft)
 www.EricWhite.com

17. Thank you for attending!