OpenXML4J: Reading Office 2007 File Properties

Happy Groundhog Day (movie)!

Apache POI is an excellent library for reading, writing, and manipulating Excel spreadsheets. Apache POI's HSSF ("Horrible Spreadsheet Format") support is particularly good and useful. The most significant disadvantage of Apache POI is that it does not support the new format used with Microsoft Office 2007 applications.

For a while, the disadvantage of Office 2007's new file format will not be as large on the effectiveness of Apache POI as it might be because of the following reasons:

• Not everyone has migrated to Office 2007 and so there are still many earlier versions of Office products in existence and new files are still being created in the older POI-supported format.


• Those who have migrated to Office 2007 can still save their files in the old format when necessary to share with others or for POI's use. Likewise, they canalso read the old format and thus read POI-generated files.


• Files that are created with POI can be opened up in an earlier version of Office products and converted to Office 2007 format using the freely provided converter.

However, as time goes on, the ability to read, write, and manipulate Office 2007 files in Java will become more desirable and eventually a necessity. While the new format used in Microsoft 2007 applications (Office Open XML - ECMA-376) is simply composed of XML files zipped up in a zip file, any Java application accessing these file types would need to extract or build the zip file and would also need to understand the underlying XML format. To answer this need, work has begun on an open source library called OpenXML4J. This library recently transitioned from pre-Alpha to Alpha status (on 21 January 2008). The license for this library is currently your choice of BSD license or Apache v2 license.

In this blog entry, I will focus on using OpenXML4J to extract properties from Office 2007 application files. The code sample that will be shown below will extract properties from three types of Office 2007 files (PowerPoint, Word, and Excel files). As a lazy developer, I chose to use some existing files for this. I use Office 2003, but I was able to save these three files in the Office Open XML format in PowerPoint, Word, and Excel using the downloaded Microsoft conversion pack. For the PowerPoint and Word examples, I saved my presentation and paper (respectively) for RMOUG Training Days 2008 ("Excel with Apache POI and Oracle Database"). For the Excel example, I am using a simple spreadsheet containing important dates for submitting papers, submitting presentations, and actually presenting the materials for various conferences this spring. For this example, the contents of the various files are not all that important except for the Microsoft Office properties associated with each.

The next three screen shots show the properties window for the three application data files. The contents of these windows are important because they are what we will be extracting directly from the file using Java and OpenXML4J. As with all images in this blog, please click on any image to see a larger version of the image.

PowerPoint: marx-poi.pptx Properties



Word: marx-poi.docx Properties



Excel: 2008Conferences.xlsx Properties



Before moving onto the example that demonstrates use of OpenXML4J to extract properties from Office 2007 application data files, I will first demonstrate the XML contents of the new Office Open XML formats. In the following three examples, I have used Java's jar command (jar tvf) to display the contents of these files.

Contents of marx-poi.pptx

13756 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 [Content_Types].xml
   737 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 _rels/.rels
   598 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide11.xml.rels
   463 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide12.xml.rels
   598 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide13.xml.rels
   463 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide15.xml.rels
   463 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide10.xml.rels
   598 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide16.xml.rels
   463 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide17.xml.rels
   463 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide14.xml.rels
   463 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide8.xml.rels
   463 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide18.xml.rels
   909 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide1.xml.rels
   462 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide2.xml.rels
   462 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide3.xml.rels
   598 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide4.xml.rels
   462 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide5.xml.rels
   462 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide6.xml.rels
   641 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide7.xml.rels
   462 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide9.xml.rels
   463 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide20.xml.rels
  5977 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/_rels/presentation.xml.rels
   829 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide31.xml.rels
   839 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide32.xml.rels
   882 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide33.xml.rels
  1263 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide34.xml.rels
  1080 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide35.xml.rels
   893 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide36.xml.rels
  1237 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide37.xml.rels
   463 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide30.xml.rels
  1025 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide29.xml.rels
   951 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide28.xml.rels
   463 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide21.xml.rels
   463 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide22.xml.rels
   463 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide23.xml.rels
   648 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide24.xml.rels
   688 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide25.xml.rels
   659 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide26.xml.rels
   647 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide27.xml.rels
   463 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/_rels/slide19.xml.rels
  4714 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/presentation.xml
  2750 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide26.xml
  3103 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide30.xml
  2200 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide16.xml
  6513 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide15.xml
  2682 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide31.xml
  5865 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide14.xml
  2206 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide13.xml
  3046 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide25.xml
 13352 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide12.xml
  6083 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide17.xml
  5929 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide18.xml
  4080 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide29.xml
  3007 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide24.xml
  5206 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide23.xml
  4207 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide27.xml
  4579 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide22.xml
  3483 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide21.xml
  4177 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide28.xml
  6277 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide20.xml
  7659 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide19.xml
  7534 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide11.xml
  4180 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide32.xml
  4283 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide4.xml
  3439 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide35.xml
  3378 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide6.xml
  2118 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide2.xml
  3049 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide33.xml
  3335 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide5.xml
  2754 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide36.xml
  3992 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide37.xml
  2806 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide3.xml
  2955 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide7.xml
  3515 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide9.xml
  2836 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide10.xml
  3605 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide1.xml
 35794 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide8.xml
  4031 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slides/slide34.xml
   448 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide11.xml.rels
   448 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide10.xml.rels
   311 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slideLayouts/_rels/slideLayout12.xml.rels
   448 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide37.xml.rels
   447 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide5.xml.rels
   447 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide2.xml.rels
   447 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide9.xml.rels
   447 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide4.xml.rels
   447 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide6.xml.rels
   447 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide3.xml.rels
   447 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide7.xml.rels
   447 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide8.xml.rels
   447 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide1.xml.rels
 20729 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slideMasters/slideMaster1.xml
   448 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide13.xml.rels
   448 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide30.xml.rels
   448 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide29.xml.rels
   448 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide28.xml.rels
   448 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide27.xml.rels
   448 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide31.xml.rels
   448 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide32.xml.rels
   448 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide33.xml.rels
   448 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide34.xml.rels
   448 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide35.xml.rels
   448 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide36.xml.rels
   448 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide26.xml.rels
   448 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide25.xml.rels
   448 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide24.xml.rels
   448 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide17.xml.rels
   448 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide16.xml.rels
   448 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide15.xml.rels
   448 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide14.xml.rels
   448 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide18.xml.rels
   448 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide19.xml.rels
   448 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide20.xml.rels
   448 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide21.xml.rels
   448 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide22.xml.rels
   448 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide23.xml.rels
   448 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/_rels/notesSlide12.xml.rels
   311 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slideLayouts/_rels/slideLayout11.xml.rels
   311 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slideLayouts/_rels/slideLayout9.xml.rels
  1617 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide11.xml
  1617 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide10.xml
  1616 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide9.xml
  2337 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide8.xml
  1616 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide7.xml
  1616 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide6.xml
  1617 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide12.xml
  1617 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide13.xml
  1617 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide14.xml
  1617 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide19.xml
  1617 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide18.xml
  1617 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide17.xml
  1617 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide16.xml
  1617 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide15.xml
  1696 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide5.xml
  1616 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide4.xml
  1616 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide3.xml
  1736 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slideLayouts/slideLayout6.xml
  6603 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slideLayouts/slideLayout5.xml
  4030 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slideLayouts/slideLayout4.xml
  3076 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slideLayouts/slideLayout3.xml
  2376 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slideLayouts/slideLayout2.xml
  7618 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slideLayouts/slideLayout1.xml
  1439 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slideLayouts/slideLayout7.xml
  4188 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slideLayouts/slideLayout8.xml
  4164 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slideLayouts/slideLayout9.xml
  1616 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide2.xml
  1616 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide1.xml
  2203 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slideLayouts/slideLayout12.xml
  2656 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slideLayouts/slideLayout11.xml
  2431 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slideLayouts/slideLayout10.xml
  1617 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide20.xml
   311 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slideLayouts/_rels/slideLayout10.xml.rels
  1617 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide22.xml
  2284 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slideMasters/_rels/slideMaster1.xml.rels
  1617 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide37.xml
  1617 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide36.xml
  1617 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide35.xml
  1617 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide34.xml
   447 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slideLayouts/_rels/slideLayout1.xml.rels
   311 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slideLayouts/_rels/slideLayout2.xml.rels
   311 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slideLayouts/_rels/slideLayout3.xml.rels
   311 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slideLayouts/_rels/slideLayout8.xml.rels
   311 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slideLayouts/_rels/slideLayout7.xml.rels
   311 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slideLayouts/_rels/slideLayout6.xml.rels
   311 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slideLayouts/_rels/slideLayout5.xml.rels
   311 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/slideLayouts/_rels/slideLayout4.xml.rels
  1617 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide33.xml
  1617 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide21.xml
  1617 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide31.xml
  1734 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide27.xml
  1617 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide26.xml
  1617 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide25.xml
  1617 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide24.xml
  1617 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide23.xml
  1617 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide28.xml
  2685 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide32.xml
  1617 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide29.xml
  1617 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide30.xml
521299 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/media/image2.jpeg
 20941 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/media/image7.png
1557708 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/media/image4.jpeg
114888 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/media/image5.png
   292 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesMasters/_rels/notesMaster1.xml.rels
  9241 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/theme/theme1.xml
 69148 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/media/image3.jpeg
 43096 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 docProps/thumbnail.wmf
 25927 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/media/image6.png
  6962 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/theme/theme2.xml
 93711 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/media/image1.jpeg
 10986 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/media/image8.wmf
  9070 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/notesMasters/notesMaster1.xml
   376 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/presProps.xml
  1045 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/viewProps.xml
   182 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 ppt/tableStyles.xml
   986 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 docProps/core.xml
  3736 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 docProps/app.xml

Contents of marx-poi.docx

  2143 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 [Content_Types].xml
   590 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 _rels/.rels
 10765 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 word/_rels/document.xml.rels
135202 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 word/document.xml
   319 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 word/_rels/footer2.xml.rels
   887 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 word/footer2.xml
   939 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 word/footer1.xml
   319 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 word/_rels/footer1.xml.rels
   822 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 word/header1.xml
   946 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 word/endnotes.xml
   952 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 word/footnotes.xml
  2751 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 word/media/image1.png
  6992 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 word/theme/theme1.xml
122008 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 word/media/image2.png
   356 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 word/_rels/settings.xml.rels
  6519 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 word/settings.xml
   654 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 word/webSettings.xml
  1828 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 word/fontTable.xml
   750 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 docProps/app.xml
  1089 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 docProps/core.xml
  1680 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 word/numbering.xml
 23802 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 word/styles.xml

Contents of 2008Conferences.xlsx

  1780 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 [Content_Types].xml
   588 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 _rels/.rels
   980 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 xl/_rels/workbook.xml.rels
   625 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 xl/workbook.xml
  6995 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 xl/theme/theme1.xml
   605 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 xl/worksheets/_rels/sheet1.xml.rels
   518 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 xl/worksheets/sheet2.xml
   518 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 xl/worksheets/sheet3.xml
  1882 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 xl/drawings/vmlDrawing1.vml
  1748 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 xl/sharedStrings.xml
  3998 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 xl/styles.xml
  3530 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 xl/worksheets/sheet1.xml
   994 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 xl/comments1.xml
   364 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 xl/printerSettings/printerSettings1.bin
  1028 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 docProps/core.xml
   866 Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 MST 1980 docProps/app.xml

All of the above has been background information on the new Office Open XML format employed by Office 2007. Now, here is the Java code that uses OpenXML4J to extract the properties from a PowerPoint presentation, a Word document, and an Excel spreadsheet.

package marx.openxml4j;

import org.openxml4j.exceptions.InvalidFormatException;

import org.openxml4j.opc.Package;
import org.openxml4j.opc.PackageAccess;
import org.openxml4j.opc.PackageProperties;

import org.openxml4j.util.Nullable;

/**
 * Example demonstrating how to use OpenXML4J to read properties from Office
 * 2007 formatted files (Excel, Word, and PowerPoint).
 */
public class OpenXML4JExample
{
   /**
    * Read an Excel document with the Office Open XML format used for Office
    * 2007 products.
    * 
    * @param aFilePathAndName
    */
   public void readOfficeDocumentProperties(final String aFilePathAndName)
   {
      try
      {
         Package pkg = Package.open(aFilePathAndName, PackageAccess.READ);
         PackageProperties properties = pkg.getPackageProperties();
         final Nullable<String> title = properties.getTitleProperty();
         final Nullable<String> language = properties.getLanguageProperty();
         final Nullable<String> category = properties.getCategoryProperty();
         final Nullable<String> keywords = properties.getKeywordsProperty();
         final Nullable<String> subject = properties.getSubjectProperty();
         final Nullable<String> description = properties.getDescriptionProperty();
         final Nullable<String> version = properties.getVersionProperty();
         final Nullable<String> creator = properties.getCreatorProperty();
         if ( title.hasValue() )
         {
            System.out.println(  aFilePathAndName + " has a title of '"
                               + title.getValue() + "'");
         }
         if ( language.hasValue() )
         {
            System.out.println(  aFilePathAndName + " uses the language "
                               + language.getValue() );
         }
         if ( category.hasValue() )
         {
            System.out.println(  aFilePathAndName + " is in the category of '"
                               + category.getValue() + "'");
         }
         if ( keywords.hasValue() )
         {
            System.out.println(  aFilePathAndName + " has the keywords: "
                               + keywords.getValue() );
         }
         if ( subject.hasValue() )
         {
            System.out.println(  aFilePathAndName + "'s subject is "
                               + subject.getValue() );
         }
         if ( description.hasValue() )
         {
            System.out.println(  aFilePathAndName + "'s description is "
                               + description.getValue() );
         }
         if ( version.hasValue() )
         {
            System.out.println(  aFilePathAndName + " is version "
                               + version.getValue() );
         }
         if ( creator.hasValue() )
         {
            System.out.println(  aFilePathAndName + "'s creator is "
                               + creator.getValue() );
         }
      }
      catch (InvalidFormatException invalidFormatEx)  // checked exception
      {
         System.err.println(  "Invalid format (looking for Office 2007 format):"
                            + invalidFormatEx.getMessage() );
      }
   }

   /**
    * Print a separator to stdout to delineate example file being run.
    * 
    * @param aSeparatorTitle Title to place in separator header.
    */
   public static void printSeparatorHeader(final String aSeparatorTitle)
   {
      System.out.println(
         "-------------------------------------------------------------------");
      System.out.println(
         "-- " + aSeparatorTitle );
      System.out.println(
         "-------------------------------------------------------------------");
   }

   /**
    * Run test showing how to extract Office 2007 format properties from a
    * PowerPoint presentation, a Word document, and an Excel spreadsheet using
    * the OpenXML4J library (currently in Alpha).
    * 
    * @param aCommandLineArgs Command-line arguments.
    */
   public static void main(final String[] aCommandLineArgs)
   {
      String officeFilePathAndName;
      OpenXML4JExample me = new OpenXML4JExample();

      // Example Microsoft Office 2007 PowerPoint presentation
      officeFilePathAndName = "C:\\sample2007\\marx-poi.pptx";
      printSeparatorHeader("PowerPoint Example: " + officeFilePathAndName);
      me.readOfficeDocumentProperties(officeFilePathAndName);

      // Example Microsoft Office 2007 Word document
      officeFilePathAndName = "C:\\sample2007\\marx-poi.docx";
      printSeparatorHeader("Word Example: " + officeFilePathAndName);
      me.readOfficeDocumentProperties(officeFilePathAndName);

      // Example Microsoft Office 2007 Excel spreadsheet
      officeFilePathAndName = "C:\\sample2007\\2008Conferences.xlsx";
      printSeparatorHeader("Excel Example: " + officeFilePathAndName);
      me.readOfficeDocumentProperties(officeFilePathAndName);
   }
}

As you can see, the OpenXML4J API for accessing properties is extremely straightforward. I did not get all properties, but did show examples of obtaining the more important Office properties. The code sample also demonstrates the need to catch the checked exception org.openxml4j.exceptions.InvalidFormatException.

The next screen shot (click on it to see larger image) shows the output from running the code above against the three Office 2007-compatible (Office Open XML format) documents described earlier in this blog.



This output demonstrates some useful things to know when using OpenXML4J. For example, I needed to place a log4j JAR file and a dom4j JAR file on the classpath when using the OpenXML4J library. In this case, I knew that the Spring framework download with dependencies contains these libraries and so I simply used those versions. The screen shot also shows that I used the Alpha version of OpenXML4J released on 21 January 2008 (openxml4j-bin-alpha-080121.jar).

There is, of course, much more to OpenXML4J than the extraction of properties from Office 2007 files and we can expect much more to come as well as it moves to production support and quality.