Hareesh, > > I downloaded the source code and started looking at it. Great! Make sure you can build it and run tests, see http://poi.apache.org/howtobuild.html Also, setup a project in your favorite IDE (Eclipse, Netbeans, IntelliJ, ...) so that you can debug the code.
I also downloaded > the spec for Excel 2010 > (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/excel-specifications-and-limits-HP005199291.aspx). It is not the spec for Excel 2010. You need the following specifications: 1. Microsoft Office File Format Documents: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc313105.aspx this covers binary formats 2. The latest edition of ECMA-376: http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-376.htm ECMA-376 covers xml-based formats. The implementation of the Chart API will consist of two parts: 1. XSSF (.xlsx format) 2. HSSF (.xls format) XSSF is easier to start with, I suggest starting with this part. In short, a .xlsx file is a zip archive of xml file. Create a sample file, then unzip it and examine the structure in a xml editor. See also relations between parts of a .xlsx file : how workbook.xml relates to sheets and styles, etc. Explore a .xlsx file with charts. Modify this workbook in Excel, then unzip and see what bits of XML are were changed. The best way to learn the .xls format is the BiffViewer. It is a utility with a Java-main interface that dumps contents of a .xls file. Run it against sample files and see correspondences between dumps of Excel records and their definitions in [MS-XLS].pdf. This should be enough for a start. Regards, Yegor On Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 7:15 AM, Hareesh Lakshmi Narayanan <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Yegor, > > I looked into the java.org.apache.poi.hssf package. I am not sure where to > start from as the volume of code is pretty high ! > > Is there any pointers in the code or documentation that I can start from ? > Any help is appreciated. > > Thanks in advance. > > Regards, > Hareesh > > On Mar 23, 2012, at 5:52 AM, Yegor Kozlov wrote: > > Hello Hareesh, > > I think good starting points would be: > > 1. familiarize yourself with charts in Excel in general: you need to > understand the product you are going to write a API for. > See what types of charts are supported in Excel and how you can > construct them, how to set legends, titles, etc. > > 2. Start learning the POI code. Focus on the HSSF and XSSF modules. > Support for charts will be based on common Spreadsheet interfaces and > there will be two implementations: one for HSSF (.xls format) and the > other for XSSF (.xlsx format). > > 3. Download the format spec from Microsoft, follow instructions at > http://poi.apache.org/guidelines.html. You will need the spec for both > binary (.xls) and OOXML (.xlsx) formats. > > In your proposal you will need to sketch a Implementation plan and a > Timeline and to write them you need basic understanding of the project > structure. > > Regards, > Yegor > > On Fri, Mar 23, 2012 at 8:57 AM, Hareesh Lakshmi Narayanan > <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi Yegor, > > > Please know as Hareesh, a Master's Computer Science student at North > Carolina State University. > > > I am interested in contributing towards implementing 'Support for Excel > charts' in POI. > > > I have good working knowledge on POI and I have used it to create reports > for some of my projects. > > > I was wondering if you would guide in what would be a good starting point > for making a proposal. > > > Thanks for your time. > > > Regards, > > Hareesh > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
