ODF: The Past, Present and Future Michael Brauer, Sun, ODF TC Chair

ODF Accessibility Pete Brunet, IBM, ODF Accessibility Subcommittee

ODF Programmability Rob Weir, IBM, ODF TC Michael Brauer, Sun, ODF TC Chair

ODF Interoperability Alan Clark, Novell, ODF Adoption TC Rob Weir, IBM, ODF TC

ODF Adoption Don Harbison, IBM, ODF Adoption TC Co-Chair

ODF Workshop

OASIS OpenDocumentISO/IEC 26300The Past, the Present, and the FutureMichael BrauerTechnical Architect Software EngineeringStarOffice/OpenOffice.orgSun Microsystems

Technical Architect in Sun Microsystem's OpenOffice.org/StarOffice development

OpenOffice.org/StarOffice developer since 1995 Main focus: Office application development/file

formats and XML technologies OpenOffice.org XML project owner OASIS OpenDocument Technical Committee chair

About the Speaker

The Past - History of OASIS OpenDocument format The Present – Sub Committees, Work in Progress The Future – OpenDocument v1.2

Agenda

The PastDevelopment of “StarOffice XML” file format starts

Primary goal: interoperabilitySun contributes StarOffice to OpenOffice.org

“StarOffice XML” becomes “OpenOffice.org XML” open source community project First OpenOffice.org XML working draft publicly available

OpenOffice.org XML is used as default file format for OpenOffice.org 1.0/Sun StarOffice 6.0 softwareFoundation of OASIS OpenDocument Technical Committee (TC)

Basis of TC's work: OpenOffice.org XML file format

1999

2000

2001

2002

OpenDocument TC Charter (Extract) The purpose [...] is to create an open, XML-based

file format specification for office applications. [it] must meet the following requirements:

it must be suitable for office documents containing text, spreadsheets, charts, and graphical documents,

it must retain high-level information suitable for editing the document,

it must be friendly to transformations using XSLT or similar XML-based languages or tools,

it should 'borrow' from similar, existing standards wherever possible and permitted.

OpenDocument TC Charter (Summary) Vendor independence Interoperability

between office applications between office applications and other solution

Simplicity for file format users Solid basis for the future

How OpenDocument Does It Reuses standards

XHTML, SVG, SMIL, XSL, XForms, MathML, XLink and Dublin Core Meta Initiative

Reuses its own schema fragments One paragraph schema, one table schema, one

graphical object schema, etc. Benefits

Easy to transform and learn Expressive schema Compact specification (only ~700 pages)

The Past (Continued)Committee Drafts 1 and 2 publicly availableName change to “OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument)”

Previous name: OASIS Open Office XML TC Emphasizes application and use case independence Also called “ODF”

OpenDocument v1.0 gets approved as OASIS standard

20042005

2005

The Past (Continued)(OASIS) OpenDocument submitted to ISOFoundation Of Accessibility Sub Committee Foundation Of Formula Sub Committee Foundation Of Metadata Sub Committee Foundation of ODF Adoption TCOpenDocument v1.0 gets published as ISO/IEC 26300

2005

2006

The PresentOpenDocument v1.1 gets approved as OASIS standard

Includes Enhancements for AccessibilityOpenDocument v1.2 is worked on

Within the three SCs: Accessibility, Metadata, Formula

Within the main TCFirst OpenDocument v1.2 drafts get published

2007

The Accessibility Sub Committee Purpose (extracted from charter)

To liaise with the disability community to gather accessibility related feedback on [...] OpenDocument v1.0

To gather [...] feedback from implementors To produce a formal accessibility evaluation of the

OpenDocument v1.0 file format. SC membership includes many accessibility experts

The Accessibility Evaluation Completed May 2006 Lists 9 accessibility issues for ODF v1.0

If these are resolved, the SC believes that OpenDocument will meet or exceed the accessibility support

provided in all other office file formats as well as that specified in the W3C Web Content Accessibility

Guidelines 1.0. Examples:

No alternative text for non-text image map elements No alternative text for drawing objects No clear relationships between drawing objects and their captions No tables in presentations

The Accessibility Sub Committee Status

8 issues were resolved in ODF v1.1 1 issue will be resolved in ODF v1.2

“Table Shape” for presentations An accessible workaround does exist for ODF v1.0/v1.1

SC agreed to continue its work after v1.1 was completed Ongoing accessibility review of ODF v1.2, ...

Implementation guidelines are in progress

The Formula Sub Committee (OpenFormula) Purpose (extracted from charter)

To create a [standardized] specification for a formula language that should be used in OpenDocument spreadsheet documents [..]

Status OpenFormula draft is available publicly Specification is nearly complete and in the stabilization

phase

OpenDocument and OpenFormula OpenDocument v1.0

Supports arbitrary spreadsheet formula languages Identification through XML namespaces

Does not define its own formula language Uses non-standardized but well-defined formula languages

OpenFormula Will be a separate specification document Is usable with OpenDocument v1.0 and v1.1 Will become OpenDocument v1.2's standardized and

recommended formula language Others formula languages remain usable

Example: formula languages tailored to customer use cases

Metadata Sub Committee Purpose (extracted from charter)

To gather use cases for the application of metadata in OpenDocument documents

To propose metadata related enhancements What is Metadata?

Structured data about data, that Describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes it easier

to retrieve, use, or manage an information resource Typically used to describe documents, images, contacts,

events, and so forth

Metadata Sub Committee Why is Metadata important?

Allows authors to encode his/her human intelligence into the documents

Enables powerful automated solutions Standards based replacement for custom/user-defined

XML markup within office documents Status

Use case and Requirements document is available First Proposal is available

Based on W3C RDF and W3C RDF/XML

Metadata, Forms, Custom Schemas Office versus Custom Schema

Office Schema: Schema/markup for office documents Tailored to office documents, Feature complete

Custom Schema: Any other schema/markup interleaved with office schema Standard schemas (UBL, etc.) or user defined schemas:

Defined by customer (Bills, orders, etc.) Used to store information not covered by office schema

Use cases for custom schemas XML based data entry forms Metadata

Metadata, Forms, Custom Schemas Custom schemas

Feature of XML and XML Namespaces inherently supported by the OpenDocument

Only one of many solutions for forms/metadata Data entry forms in OpenDocument

OpenDocument v1.0 supports W3C XForms Clean separation of form instance and office markup Standardized solution

Metadata in OpenDocument Will be based on RDF

Standardized solution

The Future OpenDocument v1.2

Includes A formula specification A meta data specification Many other enhancements that

• Are new office application features• Improve interoperability with ECMA-376 (OOXML)

Will be reviewed by Accessibility SC Aimed to be finished 2007 Planned to be re-submitted to ISO

ODF Accessibility Guidelines

Questions & Answers

OASIS OpenDocumentISO/IEC 26300The Past, the Present, and the FutureMichael Brauermichael.brauer@sun.com

© 2007 IBM Corporation

OpenDocument Format - Accessibility

Pete BrunetAccessibility Software EngineerIBM Software Group

ODF Accessibility – Initial Problem In Federal Government bids software must be accessible by

Persons with Disabilities. Section 508 – US Rehabilitation Act

Now becoming important for States, e.g.Commonwealth of Massachusetts Also California, Texas, Minnesota

ODF Accessibility issues were highlighted by Microsoft lobbyists in Massachusetts.

Leaders from IBM worked with the ODF TC to form the Accessibility SC (see next slide).

OASIS ODF AccSC was formed and responded very quickly.

Committee Formed IBM – Rich Schwerdtfeger (co-chair), Dr. Chieko

Asakawa, Dr. Hiro Takagi, Pete Brunet Sun – Peter Korn (co-chair), Malte Timmerman Design Science – Steve Nobel The Paciello Group – Mike Paciello Capital Accessibility – Janina Sajka Institute of Community Inclusion – David Clark Royal National Institute for the Blind – Dave Pawson New member: Duxbury Systems (Braille translators)

GAP Analysis The Accessibility Subcommittee (AccSC) was

formed in January 26, 2006. A GAP analysis was conducted. Comparison to W3C WCAG 1.0 and the Microsoft

Office suite Nine issues were identified and submitted to the TC

during May 2006.

Influence of Notes 8 Spec effort helped by IBM's implementation of ODF

into Notes 8 during 2006. Additional issues were encountered and fixed in the

spec, e.g. usage of table headers. Both spec and implementation were improved due to

development in parallel.

Nine Recommendations Soft page breaks - for transformation to talking book formats,

e.g. DAISY Usage of table row/column headers clarified –

important for orientation for users who are blind Logical navigation order for presentation –

keyboard navigation order was usually not correct Alternative text for graphical objects, image maps, drawing

layers and hyperlinks (4 recommendations) – descriptions needed by users who are blind

Association of captions to captioned content – helps screen readers find caption without guessing

Tables as first class presentation objects – helps navigation through tables by users who are blind

Guidelines A non-normative accessibility guideline provided in

Appendix E Title, Description and Caption of Graphical Elements Hyperlink Titles Tables in Presentations

A much larger guideline is being created for ODF 1.2

TC Approval Eight of the nine issues were approved Tables as first class presentation objects will be in

ODF 1.2 1.1 workaround – embed as spreadsheet

ODF 1.1 announced February 13, 2007

Cross team collaboration resulted in an Accessible solution1 File format enabled for accessibility

● ODF 1.1 – ODF AccSC team of accessibility experts2 Guidelines for Doc Authors and App Developers

● ODF AccSC team3 Transformation from ODF to accessibility API

● Notes 8 Development team – IBM China SW Dev Lab4 Accessibility API to provide access to content

IAccessible2 – IBM Accessibilty Architecture team5 Assistive Technology, e.g. Screen Readers using the

standardized API JAWS – Development team from Freedom Scientific Window-Eyes – Development team from GWMicro

Influence on Windows A11y IAccessible2 exits due to need for access to ODF

docs. Adds features to complement MSAA. Adds access to rich content provided by ODF docs

(see next slide). On Windows IAccessible2 will improve accessibility

and usability for PwDs beyond ODF docs. Examples: Firefox and Eclipse

IAccessibleTable accessibleAt caption childIndex columnDescription columnExtentAt columnHeader columnIndex nColumns nRows nSelectedColumns nSelectedRows rowDescription rowExtentAt rowHeader

rowIndex selectedRows selectedColumns summary isColumnSelected isRowSelected isSelected selectRow selectColumn unselectRow unselectColumn rowColumnExtentsAtIndex modelChange

Office Suites Microsoft Office is no longer the only solution. ODF 1.1 enables access to documents based on

open standards: IBM Lotus Notes 8 Productivity Editors, Open Office, Sun

Star Office, KDE KOffice Notes 8 editors accessible from JAWS and Window-

Eyes Demo: JAWS with an IBM Lotus Document

9 Issues - Notes 8 Implementation1. Soft page breaks Notes 8 uses <text:soft-page-break> element and <text:use-

soft-page-breaks> attribute

9 Issues - Notes 8 Implementation2. Support table header structural markup Notes 8 supports table row/column headers. IAccessibleTable:RowHeader and

IAccessibleTable::ColumnHeader provide accessible information

9 Issues - Notes 8 Implementation3. Provide for author specified, logical navigation in

presentations Special dialog for logical navigation order.

9 Issues - Notes 8 Implementation4. Alternative text for image map elements Image map elements have <svg:title> (alt text) and

<svg:desc> (description). IAccessibleHyperlink::description will display <svg:title>. If

<svg:title> is null IAccessibleHyperlink::description will display the <svg:desc>.

9 Issues - Notes 8 Implementation5. Alternative Text for Drawing Layer

Alt text and long description fields added.

9 Issues - Notes 8 Implementation6. Alternative Text for Drawing Objects Text fields for alternative text & long description. Exposed via MSAA's name and description.

9 Issues - Notes 8 Implementation7. Relations between Objects & Captions Relation is exposed via ODF <draw:caption-id> And via the IAccessible2 describedBy relation.

9 Issues - Notes 8 Implementation8. Establish text hints for hyperlinks

The description is saved to <svg:title> and is exposed by IAccessibleHyperlink:description.

Object 1

9 Issues - Notes 8 Implementation9. Tables in Presentations Work-around for ODF 1.1

Encoded as embedded spreadsheet To be encoded as table:table in ODF 1.2

Fostering Innovation - DAISY ODF 1.1 based docs can be used as content for

DAISY talking books. Dave Pawson from RNIB is an XML and XSLT

expert and he made very significant contributions to the spec.

Soft page breaks were added to ODF 1.1 ODF 1.1 content is being transformed into DAISY

content. Open standards developed by industry experts

facilitate innovation.

Fostering Innovation - Duxbury Duxbury Systems Tooling to create Braille content Compared to Word 2003 Duxbury gives ODF higher

marks in the area of documentation, simplicity -- and reusability: ODF importer shares code in common with importers for

OpenXML, HTML, DAISY/NIMAS, and generic "XML". ODF allowed re-use of table importer between word

processing and spreadsheet editors This ease of reuse lowers the price barrier for creating

Braille content.

Duxbury - ODF to Braille Unpack content.xml Preprocess

Resolve issues that cause XML parsing problems Transform with XSLT (od.xsl)

“Pick out” the parts of interest Omit extraneous items Set up “hints” for post-processing

Map styles in XML (xsmod.xml) Allows application to different document standards

Postprocess Re-encode characters Eliminate most empty nodes Transform “hints” to direct DBT codes

Pack <filename>.dxp

Fostering Innovation - ValidationODF validation – more innovation UIUC - Illinois Center for Information Technology

Accessibility Web based accessibility checker http://odf.cita.uiuc.edu/

IBM's Tokyo Research Lab aDesigner Demo

© 2007 IBM Corporation

ODF Programmability –What we need & What we have

Robert WeirSoftware ArchitectIBM Software Grouprobert_weir@us.ibm.comhttp://www.robweir.com/blog

What we had before DOC/XLS/PPT Proprietary binary formats Documentation incomplete and outdated An opaque format distorts application

development Leads to “inside out” style Put code in the document Tied to Windows Tied to client Hard to manage Vector for viruses Code doesn't live where the documents live

The potential ODF – a platform and application neutral office file

format Document data is no longer trapped in proprietary

black box binaries Transparent format fosters external manipulation

of documents This can lead to a “golden age” of document

processing, both client and server side, with much innovation

“We have it in our power to create the world over again” -- Thomas Paine

More than just editors(20 Prototypical Scenarios)

1.Interactive creation in an a heavy-weight client application

2.Interactive creation in a light-weight web-based application

3.Collaborative (multi-author) editing4.Automatic creation in response to a database query (report generation)

5.Indexing/scanning of document for search

20 PrototypicalApp Dev Scenarios

6.Scanning by anti-virus7.Other types of scanning, perhaps for regulatory compliance, legal or forensic purposes

8.Validation of document, to specifications, house style guidelines, accessibility best practices, etc.

9.Read-only display of document on machine without the full editor (viewer)

10.Conversion of document from one editable format to another

20 Prototypical App Dev Scenarios

11.Conversion of document into a presentation format, such as PDF, PS, print or fax

12.Rendering of document via other modes such as sound or video (DAISY Talking Book)

13.Reduction/simplification of document to render on a sub-desktop device such as cell phone or PDA.

14.Import of data from an office document into a non-office application, i.e., import of spreadsheet data into statistical analysis software.

15.Export of data from a non-office application into an office format, such as an export of a spreadsheet from a personal finance application.

20 Prototypical App Dev Scenarios

16.Application which takes an existing document and outputs a modified version of that presentation, e.g., fills out a template, translates the language, etc.

17.Software which adds or verifies digital signatures on a document in order to control access (DRM)

18.Software which uses documents in part of a workflow, but treats the document as a black box, or perhaps is aware of only basic metadata.

19.Software which treats documents as part of a workflow, but is able to introspect the document and make decisions based on the content.

20.Software which packs/unpacks a document into relational database form.

The Problem

700+ page ODF Specification

No objections to it as a specification – it is what it needs to be

Written from the perspective of word processor implementors

Too much to ask the average app developer to master

Analogy with XML --Who actually reads this stuff?

What is really used is SAX

And DOM

The Challenge

We need an ODF API that exposes a higher level abstraction of ODF to application developers, so they can quickly become productive with ODF processing without having to master a 700 page specification

“Create a loan amortization spreadsheet in 30 lines of code”

Odfpy

Low Level, close to the XMLMaps validity errors into runtime exceptions.

Odfpy

odf4j

Part of OpenOffice.org Toolkit project. Still early.

AODL

An Open Document Library – C# Library

OpenOffice::OODocThe Perl Open OpenDocument Connector.

Relatively complete and established.

Toolkits I've Looked At

Name Language WP SS Pres URLPython X X XPythonPHP X X

AODL C# X XPerl XPython X

Odf4j Java X X XOpenOffice::OODOC Perl X X

Odfpy http://opendocumentfellowship.org/projects/odfpyOooPy http://ooopy.sourceforge.net/OpenDocumentPHP http://opendocumentphp.org/

http://opendocument4all.com/content/view/13/29/OpenOffice::OOCBuilder http://search.cpan.org/dist/OpenOffice-OOBuilder/OOCBuilder.pmPyOpenOffice http://www.bezirksreiter.de/PyOpenOffice.htm

http://odftoolkit.openoffice.org/source/browse/odftoolkit/odf4j/http://search.cpan.org/dist/OpenOffice-OODoc/

Some demos from J. David

Book available online at:

http://books.evc-cit.info

or in printed form from:

http://www.lulu.com/content/207835

Proceeds to benefit the OpenDocument Fellowship

The OpenOffice.org ODF Toolkit ProjectMichael BrauerTechnical Architect Software EngineeringStarOffice/OpenOffice.orgSun Microsystems

Overview What is an ODF Toolkit? What is the OpenOffice.org ODF Toolkit

Project OpenOffice.org ODF Toolkit

Explained Relation between the ODF Toolkit an

OpenOffice.org Project Status

Agenda

ODF Toolkit – A New OOo Project

What is an ODF Toolkit? An ODF Toolkit is a programming

framework, that: Allows the creation/manipulation of ODF

documents Runs outside traditional office application Is lightweight (compared to office applications) Has APIs tailored to ODF Enables a common basis for ODF solutions

What is an ODF Toolkit? An ODF Toolkit is supplemented by:

ODF Document Viewers ODF Document Printers ODF Authoring Tools Etc.

Sometimes called “ODF Universe” Supplemental Tools may use ODF Toolkit

as basis

Use Cases Automatic and Semi-Automatic document

creation Collaboration Tools Document Converters from/to ODF Workflow Modelling Many more

The OOo ODF Toolkit Project Purpose 1: To improve the ability to use

OOo as programming framework by: Extracting an appropriate, document-centric

subset from the OOo source code (Modularization, Re-Packaging) no UI, no controllers, etc.

Adapting the subset to the new purpose New and adapted APIs New (sub-)components

Making the OOo desktop application a client of the toolkit

The OOo ODF Toolkit Project Purpose 2: To provide a home for

components that: Are ODF related, and Complement the ODF Toolkit, or Are clients of the ODF Toolkit

The OOo ODF Toolkit Project Samples:

Transformations into other formats, e.g. XHTML.

“Adapters” that add ODF support to other tools and products, for instance content management systems.

API Snippets for re-occurring ODF related tasks.

ODF Toolkit – The Pieces

ODF Toolkit – The Pieces

ODF Toolkit – The Pieces

ODF Toolkit – The Pieces

ODF Toolkit – The Pieces

ODF Toolkit – The Pieces

Why (re-)using OOo? OpenOffice.org provides much of the

functionality that is required Should be made available to other

implementations OOo has proven its usefulness

Many projects use OpenOffice.org already Complain is not functionality, but size

Why (re-)using OOo? OOo has a programming-language neutral

API Based on UNO component model (Universal

Network Objects) Supports Java, C++, and others Uno Runtime Environment (URE) is available

separately Many solutions use OpenOffice.org for

related functionality: Authoring, Printing, Viewing, Conversion

Services, etc.

Why is it an OOo Project? Fosters synergies between desktop

application and programming environment Fosters harmonization of APIs Fosters interoperability of ODF components Fosters code re-use

OOo has 6,000,000 lines of code! Simplifies use of ODF Toolkit

Harmonized API, Licence One source of information

Where are we? Launched in January 2007 Modularization/Re-Packaging:

First Proof-Of-Concept Prototype is existing Separation of URE/office core/branding is in

progress

Where are we? New Components:

.NET Module “AODL” (implemented in C#) ODF package handing, Access to ODF XML structures Basic ODF document API

Odf4j Module (Java) ODF package handing, Access to ODF XML structures (DOM, XSLT) Basic standalone document processing

More to come

More Information odftoolkit.openoffice.org blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS

Questions & Answers

The OpenOffice.org ODF Toolkit ProjectMichael Brauermichael.brauer@sun.com

Safe Harbor StatementThe following is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and timing of features or functionality described for Novell products remains at the sole discretion of Novell.

ODF – A discussion on interoperability

Alan ClarkStrategic Adviser for Industry Initiatives and Standardsaclark@novell.com

Marooned by time“Perhaps the most immediate problem is the speed of technological

change, which leaves data in old formats marooned by time. ““In January of this year [2007], floppy discs were added to the crowded computer

cemetery”“This...could happen to documents we're writing in 2007,... It's not in some software

companies' interests to preserve because the want to sell products year after year. We take it for granted that these companies will still be around – but all companies fold; who will take on the responsibility for maintaining and updating the software after that?”

Financial Times, March 17, 2007 [1]

What is Open Document Format (ODF)

An XML- based specification describing the content and formatting of a document.

The open standard developed by a multi- vendor committee at OASIS and approved by ISO. The standard that meets the common test for openness

The default format in OpenOffice.org, StarOffice, KOffice, and IBM Productivity Tools The open standard adopted and supported by many vendors.

The option that gives you the most choices for interoperability and future- proofing the access to your information.

Enabling New Concepts

Offline / PC

Online / Browser

Benefits• Long-term reuse of and access to data• No lock-in to proprietary tools or undocumented formats• Competitive data processing products• Reduced costs• Increased reliability, because more data automation• Platform independence• Interoperability

Interoperability "With respect to software, the term interoperability is used to describe

the capability of different programs to exchange data via a common set of business procedures, and to read and write the same file formats and use the same protocols." [2]

“Interoperability contends with the software- and implementation details of interoperations, including exchange of data elements based on a common data interpretation, etc.” [3]

Levels of interoperabilityLevel Factors and Perspectives

4 Enterprise Shared data and applications

3 Domain

2 Functional

1 Connected

0 Isolated Non-connected

Component behavior visible to the integrator

Shared data separate applications

Common ontology, common reference

modelMinimal common functions.

Separate data and applications

Exchange of annotated imagery, Http...

Electronic connection. Ability to establish mapping layers to

interconnect

Text file transfers, Telnet, FTP, E-mail

chatterIsolated, Hard coded

data, Comma separated lists

Inte

rope

rabi

lity

Measuring interoperability Describes multiple,

independent descriptions of different facets of integration

Weighted by individual perspective

Typically results in Uncovering issues Developing best practices Better standards

What is the state of interoperability with ODF today?

The number of products and technologies utilizing ODF is rapidly growing

The number of consumers (aka market acceptance) is exponentially growing

The completeness and degree of interoperability between products and technologies varies

Applications Supporting ODF

Multiple Office Suites – One Format

Why Interop. is so important ....Plug-ins and Translators OO.o Market share

http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Market_Share_Analysis Main site downloads: 80million, + Spanish/India x2 -> 8.5million Oct 05 – Yankee Group: 19% of SME ...

Microsoft Market share: 400 million Office users worldwide 1.1bn Internet Users (Global Reach)

Good news ... But Document share is different:

ODF is -very- new, .DOC is -very- old ... There are a huge number of documents out there

Current Market Share (best-case)

MSOOOo

Assuming legacy doc tail

DOCODF

Translators / Converters OpenXML Translator (ODF Add-in for Word)

An Add-in to Microsoft Word (XP, 2003, & 2007) to allow opening and saving OpenDocument format (ODF) files.

Also provide a command line translator for batch conversions.• http://download.novell.com/SummaryFree.jsp?buildid=ESrjfdE4U58~

StarOffice 8 MS Office 3 conversion plug-in Initial plug-in application to support the conversion of text documents (.doc/.odt).

Full support for spreadsheet and presentations is expected by April ODF and Chinese Document Format (UOF)

http://odf-to-uof.sourceforge.net/index.html

ODF Viewers View an ODF text file, spreadsheet or presentation

Viewers support the features that you would expect Retains proper formating and document characteristics

• Standard viewing features: paged view, print preview and changing the text size.

• Standard navigation features like search Smaller footprint Fully uses display, document is “flowable” on the screen

Valuable ODF Properties compared to other formats Small (compressed files) Editable Fully open international standard Supports international documents Document properties like word count etc. For developers: View ODF source.

ODF on the Web Browser extensions to view ODF Documents directly

If you are using Wiki's an extension is a life saver A user states, “Oh the hours I've wasted waiting for ooo to open just to

quickly look something up in a file! No more, it is so much faster to view them in firefox.”

ODF to HTML conversion tools Typically limited to what can be represented in HTML but are fast and

capable

Mobile device support ODF Documents on mobile devices

Read files on the road Mobile access with document viewing accuracy increases productivity

Facilitates searching, printing, sharing, faxing, presenting Support for OpenDocument text(.odt), spreadsheet(.ods) and presentation(.odp)

Nearly 30 percent of all emails contain attachments. ODF support eliminates the need to convert attachments to other formats Renders representation of the files without needing to load a full office suite

• Enables file viewing, printing, and copy/paste functionality

Integration with the desktop Desktop search tools

Indexes and searches multiple file formats including ODF Beagle Google Desktop Search Copernic OpenIndexer Xapian's Omega Windows Desktop Search NeoOffice

Developer Kits PHP, Python, Javascript, C#, C and Other developer kits

ODF functionality ranges from extensive down to being “redesigned” Kits include:

The OpenOffice.org ODF Toolkit Project Perl OpenDocument Connector AODL – An Open Document Library OpenDocumentPHP ODFPY - Python API and tools ...

Additional Tools Computer-assisted Language Translation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OmegaT Document Management Systems and Repositories

GTLScube DROID

Document cleaning 3BClean: http://www.3bview.com/3bclean.html

Accessibility Evaluator http://odf.cita.uiuc.edu/

Weblog Publisher

Summary ODF is the root of bigger changes Interoperability discussions are a good thing Think about interoperability in terms of:

longetivity Broad application support

References [1] Financial Times, March 17, 2007, “Where will history end up?”, Rob Blackhurst [2]

http://www.sisostds.org/index.php?tg=fileman&idx=get&id=2&gr=Y&path=Simulation+Interoperability+Workshops%2F2003+Fall+SIW%2F2003+Fall+SIW+Papers+and+Presentations&file=03F-SIW-007.pdf

[3] Tolk, A. and Muguira, J.A. (2003). The Levels of Conceptual Interoperability Model (LCIM). Proceedings IEEE Fall Simulation Interoperability Workshop, IEEE CS Press

[4] Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument [5] http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/sustain/sustain.shtml

© 2007 IBM Corporation

ODF Interoperability –The Price of Success

Robert WeirSoftware ArchitectIBM Software Grouprobert_weir@us.ibm.comhttp://www.robweir.com/blog

Many ODF ImplementationsOpenOffice

Google Docs

KOffice

AbiWord

MS Office

Notes 8

SEPT Mobile Office

With N editors, there are N*(N-1) interoperability tests

Things that cause problems Application issues

Implementation defects Functional subsets Functional supersets

Standard issues Specification errors Undefined behaviors Implementation-defined behaviors

Solution Patterns Standards-development

Multi-vendor participation Expert review Implementation concurrent with standards development

Standards Conformance clauses Deep schemas, allowing deep validation Reference implementations

Post standardization activities Translation Conformance assessment/certification Multiple implementations

A powerful pattern

Standard

Reference Implementation

Test Suite

A powerful pattern The standard contains the definition of a conformant

document It may have errors or ambiguities

The test suite exercises and validates each feature of the standard It may have errors, including omissions

The reference implementation is written to the standard, and tested with the test suite It may have errors, including missing functionality

Checks and Balances A test case fails. What is the cause?

An error in the application? Is it an error in the test suite? An error in the standard?

Identify the cause of the failure Fix Repeat Continue until you have a complete test suite and a

reference implementation that passes all of the test cases.

A rough estimate ~ 700 page ODF specification ~ 5 testable statements per page ~ 4 test cases per statement to test limits, positive

and negative test cases, etc.

So, on the order of 14,000 test cases

This can help move us from...OpenOffice

Google Docs

KOffice

AbiWord

MS Office

Notes 8

SEPT Mobile Office

With N editors, there are N*(N-1) interoperability tests

...to this

OpenOffice

Google Docs

KOffice

AbiWord

MS Office

Notes 8

SEPT Mobile Office

ConformanceAssessment

With N editors, there are N conformance assessments

Progress in Interoperability Test Suites Validators Translators

ODF Test Suite

http://develop.opendocumentfellowship.org/testsuite/

ODF Validator

http://opendocumentfellowship.org/validator

ODF Add-in for Word

http://odf-converter.sourceforge.net/

ODF Plug-in for MS Office

http://www.sun.com/software/star/openoffice/