Apache POI Powerpoint Alternative

3
votes

I have an application which currently uses the Apache POI libraries to produce Microsoft Powerpoint documents. I need to move this application into a more restricted environment which doesn't allow the POI libraries.

Are there any alternatives to POI and interfacing with COM for writing information to PowerPoint with Java?

I could learn and work with COM, but I'd rather avoid it at this point.

Thanks

1
javaapache-poipowerpointxslf
A "restricted environment" which allows COM, but doesn't allow a couple of largely self contained jars like POI? That seems really odd... – Gagravarr
@Gagravarr I haven't tried to get a Java COM library approved yet. It depends more on where it was developed and who is contributing than what it does from what I can tell. – deterb
Personally I'd just try to get POI approved to be used, on the grounds that it's from the ASF (that's normally enough for most places), but then I'm a bit biased... :) – Gagravarr
@Gagravarr I'd love to be able to use it, but unfortunately internationally peer reviewed software isn't "safe" enough - they're only really willing to pull in stuff that's only been developed in the USA (and maybe a few other trusted countries). – deterb
pptx4j (part of docx4j) was developed in Australia. – JasonPlutext

1 Answers

0
votes

I would suggest that you look at two commercial libraries.

The first is Aspose. It's a library that works a bit like Apache POI but in a "easiest" way. At my company, we are using it to include charts in Excel file (a thing that is not yet supported by POI).

Ezjcom is probably the library you want. It needs a living Office instance and allow you to interact with excel as if you were making a macro in Basic, but from Java. Watch-out, the documentation is terrible!