Using the OpenXML SDK Productivity Tool to "decompile" Office Documents
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These days, Office files are no longer in a proprietary binary format, and are we can create the files directly without using COM automation. A .docx Word file, for example, is a collection of XML documents zipped into a single file. The official name of the format is Open XML.
There is an SDK to help with reading and writing OpenXML, and a Productivity Tool that can generate C# code for a given file. All you need to do is load a document, presentation, or workbook into the tool and press the “Reflect Code” button.
The downside to this tool is that even a simple document will generate 4,000 lines of code. Another downside is that the generated code assumes it will write directly to the file system, however it is easy to pass in an abstract Stream object instead.
So while this code isn’t perfect, the code does produce valid document and..."
I've been blogging about the OpenXML SDK for years now, but I think this is the first time I've seen this part of it, this utility. And like he says, 4K LoC is like, well, allot, it does look like an awesome way to learn the low level OpenXML SDK ins and outs.
Related Past Post XRef:
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So how do I get from here to OpenXML? Got a map for you, an Open XML SDK Blog Map…
Where to go to scratch your OpenXML dev info itch…
"Open XML Explained" Free eBook (PDF)
The Noob's Guide to Open XML Dev (If you know how to spell OpenXML but that's about it, this is your Getting Started guide...)
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Open XML Format SDK 2.0 Code Snippets for Visual Studio 2008 – 52 C#/VB Code Snippets to help ease your Open XML coding
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