Hi Rob, i support your idea and i think that it make sense to move the ODFToolkit project to Apache as well.
ODF is a key element in an open standard based world. Probably more automatically processed document workflows become available in the future because of an open standard that everybody can read and write. Fat client applications like OpenOffice, LibreOffice, Symphony are only one part of the story. But when we think about the new generation of devices (smartphones, tablets) it becomes obvious that a smaller library that can handle this document format really make sense. Simple viewers are necessary to make the format popular like PDF for easy exchange of documents. Other applications that generate documents in a backend or again full featured or simplified editors are altogether necessary to build a working eco-system around ODF. I would prefer a new project to give them the visibility it needs. Ideally the project will not only support a Java library but also other languages (e.g. Python, the existing C#, etc.). Juergen On Mon, Jun 27, 2011 at 9:42 PM, Rob Weir <apa...@robweir.com> wrote: > I'm cc'ing the POI and OpenOffice projects, inviting them to join this > discussion on the Incubator general list: gene...@incubator.apache.org > > When we were discussing the OpenOffice proposal a few weeks ago I > mentioned that there was another set of technology called the ODF > Toolkit, that we might want to bring to Apache as well. I heard some > enthusiasm for this at the time, but I didn't have the bandwidth to > put together another proposal. Now I do. I'd like to pitch the idea, > and see if there is still interest in having a formal incubation > proposal submitted, and if so, identifying a Champion and Sponsor for > the proposal. > > Note that this would not be a fork. The ODF Toolkit Union Steering > Committee met this morning and agreed to propose moving to Apache. > > As you probably know, ODF == Open Document Format, a open standard > document format for office documents. The ODF standard is created at > OASIS and then sent to ISO/IEC JTC1 for transposition into an > International Standard. ODF 1.0 was first published in 2005. ODF 1.1 > came out in 2007. And ODF 1.2 is "Candidate OASIS Standard" awaiting > final approval in OASIS, probably by end of September. ODF 1.2 is > what most applications are supporting today. OpenOffice, > LibreOffice, Symphony, KOffice/Calligra Suite use ODF as native > formats. Other applications, including Microsoft Office, Corel > Wordperfect and Google Docs offer some degree of import/export > support. ODF 1.2 is the version also supported by the ODF Toolkit. > > The ODF Toolkit Union maintains the following toolkits, all of them > under the Apache 2.0 license: > > 1) ODFDOM is Java-based typed DOM API, relatively low level, a 1-to-1 > mapping to the ODF schema. In fact, much of the code is generated by > processing the schema. > > http://odftoolkit.org/projects/odfdom/pages/Home > > 2) Simple Java API for ODF is a high level wrapper of ODFDOM. So > operations that might require several DOM-level operations, like > deleting a column in a spreadsheet, are a single operation in the > Simple API. Search and replace, copying slides from one presentation > to another, adding hyperlinks to a selection, etc., are top level > operations. > > http://simple.odftoolkit.org/ > > 3) The Conformance Tools projects is also in Java, and includes an > online conformance checker of ODF documents, which can also be run in > command line mode. > > http://odftoolkit.org/projects/conformancetools/pages/Home > > 4) XSLTRunner and XSLT Runner Task allows easy use of XSLT transforms > with ODF documents. > > http://odftoolkit.org/projects/conformancetools/pages/ODFXSLTRunner > > 5) AODL is a C#/.NET library for ODF > > http://odftoolkit.org/projects/aodl/pages/Home > > I think there is natural synergy with Apache, especially with the Java > components. For example, I could see publishing pipelines involving > the ODF Toolkit with PDFBox, Batik, FOP, and POI. Having these tools > under a common license, in one place, has obvious benefits. > > Moving this project over would not be a large technical effort. > Mercurial ==> SVN, some simple website/wiki migration, 30 or so > pages, a few mailing lists and bugzilla databases. It is currently on > the Kenai infrastructure, so similar to OpenOffice, just much, much > smaller in scale. > > I'm open as to whether this would be best eventually as a TLP or as > part of an existing project, like POI or even OpenOffice. I'm leaning > a little toward having this as a TLP, but I'm open to other ideas. > > Also, since this is already an open source project with all code under > Apache 2.0, I assume no SGA is required? > > So please let me know if you agree that Apache would be a good > location to further develop the ODF Toolkit libraries. > > Regards, > > -Rob >
