Windward Wrocks

Reporting as a Metaphor

I love this video:

Custom XML for Word and the i4i patent case

Windward Reports never used Custom XML (or bookmarks) for tagging. (We looked at both but each approach has issues that make them problematic at times.) But we do use tagging in Word, Excel, & PowerPoint as our report designer. We do have a very powerful Office AddIn to support this tagging. So I think I have as good an understanding of the issues around this as one can have and yet still be a disinterested party.

I'm not going to give an opinion on the case except to say I wish they could have reached an agreement. The big losers on this are everyone who made use of Custom XML for tagging as this is now removed. (And to say a pox on all software patents.)

First for the programmers who have to adjust, there is a product from i4i that hacks around this called x4w. However, I don't think that is your best solution (explained below). My suggestion is to switch to using content controls, fields, bitmaps, and/or plain old text. The first three of these approaches are more robust than custom XML and are still supported by Word. We use all four approaches (user selected) and they are rock solid.

So what do you do if you have custom XML in your Word documents? If you don't use the custom XML, then there's no problem, just open the files and Word will strip it out, leaving you the rest of the document. Same if your use can be switched to using another feature. You will lose your existing markers but otherwise can continue.

If you need to find any files that have custom XML in them, this program for Microsoft will do the job (DOCX/DOCM only). Also, this restriction only comes in to play for Word 2007 sold on or after 11 January this year – and all copies of Word 2010. Microsoft has a good summation here.

If you must have the custom XML, your only option at present is x4w. However, I strongly recommend that you only use this as a stop-gap measure as you find an alternative to custom XML. Because you could find that the next service pack of Word will render x4w unable to save your custom XML. As there is no love lost between Microsoft and i4i, I would not be surprised to see in the next service pack:

1. Word drops support for custom XML. At present it strips the custom XML out but when it is inserted back in, Word still has the functionality to display and use it. But if custom XML support is not allowed, they can then remove that functionality from Word.
2. Word strips custom XML on saving as well as on loading a document. If this occurs i4i can try to hack around this too, but this is a much more difficult problem. And for cases that the hack fails, you won't know until the next time you open the file – and all your work is lost.
3. Word changes at what point during the load process that it strips out the custom XML. It presently occurs before the open document event (which I assume is when x4w inserts the custom XML back in). But Word could strip it out right after that event – and it is then a much harder hack to get the custom XML back in.

For those that have to get programs converted to a different tagging system, I know this change sucks. But when you complete the switch to content controls, fields, and/or bitmaps, you will be a lot happier as you will have a much more robust approach. To see how well this works, you can take a look at our report designer AutoTag (it provides the capability to design reports, documents, & dashboards in Word, Excel, & PowerPoint).

Get all types a COM object implements

When you get a COM object in C#, if you know classes & what interfaces it implements, you can easily cast it to the desired type. But what about when you don't know it's type. Or more to the point, you think you know it's type and it doesn't implement that type. What to do.

The following method will return all Types that a COM object implements. I don't use this in production code but I do use it occasionally when writing code.

Download SystemUtils (the below code)  

/// <summary>
/// Get all implemented types in a COM object. Code based on work at
/// http://fernandof.wordpress.com/2008/02/05/how-to-check-the-type-of-a-com-object-system__comobject-with-visual-c-net/
/// </summary>
/// <param name="comObject">The object we want all types of.</param>
/// <param name="assType">Any type in the COM assembly.</param>
/// <returns>All implemented classes/interfaces.</returns>
public static Type[] GetAllTypes(object comObject, Type assType)
{
    // get the com object and fetch its IUnknown
    IntPtr iunkwn = Marshal.GetIUnknownForObject(comObject);

    // enum all the types defined in the interop assembly
    Assembly interopAss = Assembly.GetAssembly(assType);
    Type[] excelTypes = interopAss.GetTypes();

    // find all types it implements
    ArrayList implTypes = new ArrayList();
    foreach (Type currType in excelTypes)
    {
        // com interop type must be an interface with valid iid
        Guid iid = currType.GUID;
        if (!currType.IsInterface || iid == Guid.Empty)
            continue;

        // query supportability of current interface on object
        IntPtr ipointer;
        Marshal.QueryInterface(iunkwn, ref iid, out ipointer);

        if (ipointer != IntPtr.Zero)
            implTypes.Add(currType);
    }

    // no implemented type found
    return (Type[])implTypes.ToArray(typeof(Type));

   

The Frank Buff Seal of Approval

One of the downsides of producing a solid, easy to use product is that we don't hear much from our customers. (One extreme example of this, we had a customer insist that they were not using our software. When we showed them an invoice they did a search and found we were part of a mission critical application of theirs. But it had been running for 3 years with no issues or questions so they forget we existed.)

One of the downsides of this is we will push out a new version and pretty much have to go with "no news is good news." But there are a few users who are happy to try out most new versions and give us their feedback. These customers are really valuable because it gives us a 3^rd party real-world opinion. And there's also something reassuring about hearing from a customer that everything works (and that they love the new features).

For a couple of years Frank Buff was one of our best for this. It got to the point that when a new version went out, I would ask a couple of days later if we had received the "Frank Buff Seal of Approval."

Frank moved on from the consulting job he had and so we no longer heard from him. Then a couple of weeks ago he shot us an email (telling us where a link on our webpage went to the wrong page – he's got a talent). It was really wonderful to hear from him again.

We shot a couple of emails back and forth and I gave him a free copy of Windward. He was really appreciative to get it – and I'm thrilled that we might get him trying out new versions. Even more so, it was nice to hear from him again. (And to the Geneva Administration where he is presently working – you've got a superb individual in Frank.)

What does your software do for Valentines Day?

For the week up to and including Valentines Day our AutoTag product uses a Valentines Day skin. And every year we get tech support calls asking us what has happened to their program. Once we explain, people love it. To the extent that some users have set their copy of AutoTag to always use this skin.

It's a small thing but it does make people smile. And it's a fun way to help celebrate the holidays.

• What does your software do for Halloween?

We had a fire at work today

Turns out it was the emergency exit light fixture. So the device in the building to make us safer in case of a fire - caused the fire.

Boulder definitely has a good fire response - 4 fire trucks, 1 SUV, and 2 police cars. (They send that much because when you call in smoke and can't find the fire - it can be a bad situation with the fire inside the walls.)

That was our excitement for today. Back to work tomorrow.