blog/2011/10/hello-maven-central/ walks you through the basics of using docx4j in an Eclipse project with the help of m2eclipse.

This post is about the different ways you can set up docx4j 3.0 with the help of Maven.

We’ll be using the following skeleton pom.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
	<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
		
	<groupId>your.group</groupId>
	<artifactId>your.artifactp</artifactId>
	<name>nameless</name>
	<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
	<description>
		some description
	</description>


	<properties>
		<project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
	</properties>

	<build>
		<plugins>
			<plugin>
				<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
				<artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
				<version>2.0</version>
			</plugin>
		</plugins>
	</build>
	
	<dependencies>
	
		<!-- dependencies go here -->

				 	
	</dependencies>

</project>

Adding the core dependency

To use docx4j, including its LGPL XHTML import capability, just include the following dependency in your pom.xml:

		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.docx4j</groupId>
			<artifactId>docx4j-ImportXHTML</artifactId>
			<version>3.0.0</version>
		</dependency>

		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.docx4j</groupId>
			<artifactId>docx4j</artifactId>
			<version>3.0.0</version>
		</dependency>

		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.docx4j</groupId>
			<artifactId>docx4j-ImportXHTML</artifactId>
			<version>3.0.0</version>
			<exclusions>
				<exclusion>
					  <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
					  <artifactId>slf4j-log4j12</artifactId>
				</exclusion>
				<exclusion>
					<groupId>log4j</groupId>
					<artifactId>log4j</artifactId>				
				</exclusion>
			</exclusions>
		</dependency>

On behalf of everyone who has contributed to docx4j, Plutext is pleased to announce that version 3 was released today.

You can get it from Maven Central, or from http://www.docx4java.org/docx4j/ (the jar, the dependencies, or everything including documentation zipped up)

Source code is available at GitHub or from the Maven Central link above.  Javadoc is at Maven Central.

For what you need to know about docx4j 3.0, please see this post.

The XHTML Import stuff is now a separate project (since it and its dependencies are LGPL, not ASLv2 like docx4j).

• the three jars you need (docx4j-ImportXHTML, xhtmlrenderer, and iText) are included for convenience in the zip file above.  You can delete them if you don’t need or want XHTML import.
• or you can get it from Maven Central

docx4j 3.0 uses slf4j for logging.  For convenience, log4j is the default implementation.  A follow-up post will explain more about logging config.

Thanks to everyone who has helped to make this release our best yet!

If you have questions pertaining to the use of docx4j, please post them in our forum, or on StackOverflow (rather than in comments to this post).

A beta of docx4j 3.0 is now available, at:

http://www.docx4java.org/docx4j/docx4j-3_0-beta2.zip [link updated 15 Nov]

That zip file contains docx4j, and all its dependencies.  To use it, add all the jars to your classpath.

Alternatively, Maven users can get the beta from our staging repo on GitHub.

<repositories>
    <repository>
        <id>docx4j-mvn-repo</id>
        <url>https://raw.github.com/plutext/docx4j/mvn-repo/</url>
        <snapshots>
            <enabled>true</enabled>
            <updatePolicy>always</updatePolicy>
        </snapshots>
    </repository>
</repositories>

docx4j 3.0 beta is:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.docx4j</groupId>
    <artifactId>docx4j</artifactId>
    <version>3.0.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
</dependency>

Our last blog post outlines the major things to be aware of in v3.

Additional notes:

• For convenience, the zip file also contains docx4j-ImportXHTML, and its dependencies, which are LGPL.  You can delete these if you wish.  They aren’t in the mvn staging repo.
• To see any logging, you’ll need to add an slf4j implementation.
• You might want to add a docx4j.properties file

You can find updated Getting Started guide in docx|pdf formats at http://www.docx4java.org/docx4j/.

Feedback welcome.  You can reply here, or to the post in the docx4j forums.

All going smoothly, we’ll progress to final release over the next couple of weeks, so the sooner your feedback, the better!

docx4j 3.0 (beta for which will be available shortly) contains a lot of changes, some big, some small.

Here are the most visible (see our changelog for the rest):

Logging

docx4j 3.0 uses slf4j, instead of log4j.

As the slf4j website puts it:

The Simple Logging Facade for Java (SLF4J) serves as a simple facade or abstraction for various logging frameworks (e.g. java.util.logging, logback, log4j) allowing the end user to plug in the desired logging framework at deployment time.

So you need the slf4j api jar on your classpath:

<dependency>
<groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
<artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
<version>1.7.5</version>
</dependency>

If you want to use log4j, then include it, and:

<dependency>
<groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
<artifactId>slf4j-log4j12</artifactId>
<version>1.7.5</version>
</dependency>

XHTML Import

The XHTML Import functionality is now a separate project on GitHub.

The reason being that its main dependency – Flying Saucer – is licensed under LGPL v2.1 (as opposed to ASL v2, which docx4j’s other dependencies use).

If you want this functionality, you have to add these jars to your classpath.  We’ll update this post with their coordinates once they are in Maven Central.

Docx4j facade

You don’t have to use this – in that existing code should continue to work – but the facade is the right way to do things.  Behind the facade is a major rethink/cleanup to the export architecture/implementation, contributed by Alberto.

MOXy

The key technology underlying docx4j – and a major differentiator from Apache POI – is JAXB.

There is a JAXB reference implementation; the JAXB baked into Java 6 and 7 is based on it.

Prior to v3, you had to use the reference implementation, or the implementation included in the JDK.

With v3, you can choose to use EclipseLink MOXy instead.  To do so, simply include docx4j-MOXy-JAXBContext-3.0.0.jar and the MOXy jars on your classpath.

Sample code

The docx4j samples have relocated to src/samples

Here’s a single A4 page reference/overview of docx4j aka a cheat sheet, in PDF or PNG format.

This one is focused on docx files (WordprocessingML).

I’ll create something similar for pptx and xlsx over coming days.

Just launched is http://webapp.docx4java.org

You should be able to see it in the menu at the top right of this website (if not, reload the web page…).

There are three things you can do with it right now:

• Explore your docx/pptx/xlsx and its representation in docx4j

• Convert  docx to PDF or XSL FO

• Merge docx files (eg cover letter plus contract) into a single docx, using Plutext’s MergeDocx. Or the same thing for pptx files, using MergePptx.

Here I want to focus on the first of these.

After you’ve uploaded your docx/pptx/xlsx, the first thing you see is like docx4j’s PartsList sample:

Here, I’ll click in the left hand column to look at the main document part, document.xml

When I do that, I see the XML:

No surprises there.

But notice the hyperlinks.  Here I’ll just click on the first w:p.

What you get back, is Java source code to create that complete structure:-

As you can see from the image above, both styles of code (as described in docx4j’s Getting Started document) are produced for you.  With a bit of luck, you can cut/paste either into your IDE (Eclipse or whatever), and just run with it!

To actually see the created object in an Office document, you’ll still need to add the created object to a part.  See Getting Started, or the cheat sheet for how to do that.

I hope this helps you to create/modify your Office documents more efficiently,with docx4j!

Do let us know what you think in the comments, or in docx4j’s forums.

I’m pleased to say that docx4j 2.8.0 is now released.

What is docx4j?

docx4j is an open source (Apache v2) library for working with docx, pptx, and xslx files, based around  JAXB.

What’s new?

The headline feature is XHTML import.  docx4j can convert XHTML to Word document content, formatting it based on the CSS.  Images and tables are supported. See the ConvertInXHTMLDocument and ConvertInXHTMLFragment samples.

Where do you get it?

See our downloads page or:

Binaries: You can download a jar alone or a zip with all deps or pick and choose.  If you’re upgrading from 2.7.1, you need the  docx4j jar and:

• for XHTML importing, xhtmlrenderer-1.0.0.jar and itext-2.1.7.jar
• for PDF output, jaxb-xslfo-1.0.1.jar (now a separate project)
• for pptx conversion to SVG: jaxb-svg11-1.0.2.jar (now a separate project)
• for digitally signed documents, jaxb-xmldsig-core-1.0.0.jar (new)

Source: the source code is on GitHub at https://github.com/plutext/docx4j; here’s how to setup docx4j source code

Maven: docx4j 2.8.0 is in Maven Central.  Here is a guide to getting started (where it says 2.7.1, just use 2.8.0).

Getting Started

See the “Getting Started” guide, in html docx or pdf flavours.

There is lots of sample code here (freshly reviewed for 2.8.0).

Support

If you are looking for help (and have read the Getting Started Guide ), you can post in our forums, or on Stack Overflow (where there is a docx4j tag).

Thanks to our contributors

A number of contributions have made this release what it is; thanks very much to those who contributed.

Contributors to this release and a more complete list of changes may be found in README.txt

Thanks also to those who have +1’d pages on this website, or tweeted or blogged about docx4j, which is critical to expanding the docx4j community!

This post is old.  Please see instead 2015/06/docx4j-from-github-in-eclipse-5-years-on/

docx4j is now on GitHub!  https://github.com/plutext/docx4j

This should make it easier for users to maintain their own branches (public or private), and contribute improvements back.

As of now, GitHub is the project’s authoritative version control.  We’re no longer updating the existing svn repository.

Its pretty easy to work with docx4j sources in Eclipse. This post shows you how.

First, make sure you have eGit installed in Eclipse.  Install it from here.  On Windows, it is also useful to have msysgit.  Refer elsewhere for how to set these up. Update: there is a GitHub Windows client now (I haven’t tried it) which apparently includes msysgit.

You also need m2eclipse

Assuming you’ve done all that, setting up the docx4j source code is just a few steps.

But first, be aware there is a difference between cloning and forking.  Cloning gives you a copy of the source code you can work on, but without more, no easy way to contribute changes back.  Forking sets you up with the source code, and makes it easy to contribute changes back.

If you think you might be making changes to the docx4j source code, you’re probably best to create a fork on GitHub right from the start.

Step 1 (optional, but recommended): To create a fork, log in to GitHub, visit https://github.com/plutext/docx4j then press the “Fork” button.

Step 2: Create your local repository (git clone)

This can be done from within Eclipse, or using Git Gui (easiest), or Git Bash Shell.

To do it from within Eclipse, File > Import .. > Repositories from GitHub:

If you forked docx4j, find your fork (it might not appear immediately, which is why Git Gui or Git Bash Shell are better for this step), select it, and click next.

If you didn’t fork docx4j, type ‘docx4j’ then press ‘search’, the plutext/docxj repository should come up:

Select plutext/docx4j, then click next.

This creates a local git repository on your computer.

Step 3: Now you need to import that repository into Eclipse as a project:

File > Import .. > Projects from Git

Eclipse should find the existing project settings:

(If it didn’t and you had to use the new projects wizard; be sure to set the file location to wherever your git repository is, rather than letting Eclipse create a new empty project in the workspace)

Now you should have a docx4j project in Eclipse, and it should be properly configured (since the project settings come with the project).

You should be done. But if something isn’t right, you can configure it manually (see further below).

Next steps?  Improve the docx4j source code in Eclipse :-), then Team > Commit, to commit those changes to your local repository.

Made a change which would be useful to others?  If you forked docx4j as per step 1 above, you can push your changes to your repository on GitHub, then send a pull request.

If you didn’t fork docx4j, do that now on GitHub, then configure things locally to push your changes to your repository on GitHub, then you’ll be right to push your changes to your repository on GitHub, then send a pull request.  Other docx4j users will thank you for this

Manual configuration:

Configure > Convert to Maven Project

Properties > Java Compiler > Compiler compliance level: change to 1.6

Java Build Path > Libraries: remove 1.5 system library; Add Library … JRE System Library .. 1.6

Java Build Path > Source: check none of the entries say “Excluded: **” (remove the exclusion)

A customer asked me to prepare a sample Android project which converts docx to HTML.

The result is AndroidDocxToHtml

Since docx4j relies heavily on JAXB, the key to getting it working was getting JAXB – the reference implementation – to run on Android.

Android presents us with a number of challenges:

1. it won’t let you add a jar which includes classes in the javax.xml namespace (which is where the JAXB API lives)
2. JAXB uses JAXP 1.3 DatatypeFactory, but Android doesn’t provide it
3. JAXB uses javax.activation.DataHandler
4. Dalvik has a limit of 65536 method references per dex file
5. it doesn’t support package level annotations (which JAXB uses, and which in docx4j supply namespaces)

Ill-advised or mistaken usage of a core class (java.* or javax.*)

You’ll get this message if you try to add a jar containing classes in java.* or the following javax packages:

Android doesn’t provide javax.xml.bind, and it won’t let you add it yourself.  It forces you to re-package it.  Just like on Google AppEngine, until Google eventually added it.

OK, done that; see https://github.com/plutext/jaxb-2_2_5_1/tree/android2 (the 2 in android2 is meaningless)

Repackaging is easy enough; the problem with it is that any library which uses the repackaged code, must also be changed.  In the case of docx4j, this means a new branch, and ongoing maintenance.

JAXB uses JAXP 1.3 DatatypeFactory, but Android doesn’t provide it

com.sun.xml.bind invokes javax.xml.datatype.DatatypeFactory.newInstance, whereupon Android  throws  javax.xml.datatype.DatatypeConfigurationException: Provider org.apache.xerces.jaxp.datatype.DatatypeFactoryImpl not found.

Easy solution: jar it up and provide it.

JAXB uses javax.activation.DataHandler

Easy solution: use the activation and additionnal jars from http://code.google.com/p/javamail-android/downloads/list

Dalvik  limit of 65536 method references per dex file

This is more an issue running docx4j on Android than one related to JAXB, but it is worth noting.  We’re running very close to this limit.  Vote for the issue at http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=7147

Also, you may need to give Eclipse more heap space  (symptom is ‘you get Unable to execute dex: Java heap space’).   In eclipse.ini, I used:

-Xms256m

-Xmx4096m

In Eclipse, Windows > Preferences > General > Show Heap Status gives you an entry on the bottom row which is useful.

Just when I thought it would all work…

I found that my XML was not unmarshalling, because it contains namespaces, and for some reason the objects in my JAXB were being read as not having any.

The problem is that Android doesn’t support package annotations: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=16149 (vote), but JAXB needs to read them.  For example:

I ended up devising a simple minded way to tell JAXB about these programmatically.  See Context.java.   Hmmm, I probably should have created my own RuntimeInlineAnnotationReader implementation (Google ‘JAXBIntroductions’).

That done, it more or less works (if you need support for other package level annotations, you’ve got a bit more to do).   The re-packaged JAXB is here.  You can build it using ant -f build-repackaged.xml dist

It should work on Android 3 or 4.

To use it, where your code would otherwise import javax.xml.bind, use ae.java.xml.bind.

There have been a couple of posts on the forum lately regarding adding hyperlinks to other parts of a docx.

This blog post walks you through the generic process for investigating an issue like this.

First, create a sample docx in Word which exhibits the issue of interest.

Here I’m interested in hyperlinks to a heading, and to a bookmark. So see this docx. Second, look inside it (its a zip file). For the link to the heading, document.xml contains a w:p containing:

 
      <w:hyperlink w:anchor="_My_heading" w:history="1">
        <w:r>
          <w:rPr>
            <w:rStyle w:val="Hyperlink"/>
          </w:rPr>
          <w:t>My heading</w:t>
        </w:r>
      </w:hyperlink>

The heading itself is automatically given a bookmark:

    <w:p>
      <w:pPr>
        <w:pStyle w:val="Heading1"/>
      </w:pPr>
      <w:bookmarkStart w:id="0" w:name="_My_heading"/>
      <w:bookmarkEnd w:id="0"/>
      <w:r>
        <w:t>My heading</w:t>
      </w:r>
    </w:p> 

For the link to my bookmark, Word 2010 used the legacy field formulation:

    <w:p>
      <w:r>
        <w:fldChar w:fldCharType="begin"/>
      </w:r>
      <w:r>
        <w:instrText xml:space="preserve"> HYPERLINK  \l "bm1" </w:instrText>
      </w:r>
      <w:r>
        <w:fldChar w:fldCharType="separate"/>
      </w:r>
      <w:r w:rsidRPr="00D16ABA">
        <w:rPr>
          <w:rStyle w:val="Hyperlink"/>
        </w:rPr>
        <w:t>bm1</w:t>
      </w:r>
      <w:r>
        <w:fldChar w:fldCharType="end"/>
      </w:r>
    </w:p> 

Third, what rels are involved? To answer this, I run the docx through docx4j’s PartsList sample. It shows me that these hyperlinks don’t create any rels. Alternatively, to see this, you could have looked at the rels part when you unzipped the docx.

So we can see that adding an internal hyperlink to a heading requires that it be bookmarked first. Once you have a bookmark, you use a w:hyperlink to refer to the bookmark by name (not id). Doesn’t look like there is any reason to use fields for this.

Here’s a suitable method:

	/**
	 * Create a Hyperlink object, which is suitable for adding to a w:p
	 * @param bookmarkName
	 * @param linkText
	 * @return
	 */
	public static Hyperlink hyperlinkToBookmark(String bookmarkName, String linkText) {
		
		try {
			
			String hpl = "<w:hyperlink w:anchor=\"" + bookmarkName + "\" xmlns:w=\"http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/wordprocessingml/2006/main\" " +
            "w:history=\"1\" >" +
            "<w:r>" +
            "<w:rPr>" +
            "<w:rStyle w:val=\"Hyperlink\" />" +  // TODO: enable this style in the document!
            "</w:rPr>" +
            "<w:t>" + linkText + "</w:t>" +
            "</w:r>" +
            "</w:hyperlink>";

			return (Hyperlink)XmlUtils.unmarshalString(hpl);
			
		} catch (Exception e) {
			// Shouldn't happen
			e.printStackTrace();
			return null;
		}
				
	}  

We can test it by altering the BookmarkAdd sample to add a link:

Hyperlink h = MainDocumentPart.hyperlinkToBookmark(bookmarkName, "link to bookmark");
wordMLPackage.getMainDocumentPart().addParagraphOfText("some text").getContent().add(h);

then checking the result opens in Word ok.

That’s all. Added to docx4j in revision 1777.