I am good and well back again from the first Open XML developer workshop delivered in the Microsoft Technology Center in Paris, France. Together with Doug Mahugh we had three pretty well filled days on Open XML and .NET XML development. It was the first Open XML workshop and I was lucky enough to develop and deliver a part of the content. It also gave me the chance to actually meet Doug in person instead of through email, telephone and Groove. Lots of companies in attendance, who are either developing, thinking about developing, or who have been hopefully convinced to start developing Open XML solutions. Very cool to see the type of solutions people are thinking about.
The workshop also gave the opportunity to hear Julien Chable, a Microsoft Student Partner, talk about his Java API for working with Open XML Packages, as well as his higher level API to shield you from manipulating XML directly. Very cool to see how far this library has come along. It is structured the same as the .NET System.IO.Packaging API, so it will be easy to switch between the two (I mean switching from Java to .NET naturally :) We definitely need to discuss getting both our higher level APIs in line with each other, to further facilitate the transfer from Java to .NET (yes, I am somewhat biased, sorry Julien)
Next up was Jean Goffinet, who is the PM for the ODF translator project. He talked about the way the project came into existance and how things are going right now. Keep an eye on the project blog to learn about the difficulties and differences between the ODF spec. It was great to hear from a independant body who is knowledgable on ODF as well as Open XML.
So all in all very nice to deliver these three days. Loads of stuff to blog about, so expect the blog-block I have been experiencing while developing the content to be lifted. First up are some new additions to my Open XML Package Explorer utility, but that deserves a separate blog post. I will also have some other OOX related opportunities lines up, so there will be lots to discuss in the near future.