Talk:Apache POI

Name(s)
OK, there's one piece of information that this page could really do with: WTF does "POI" mean? acronymfinder has various suggestions, but none of them seem very likely to me. And for some reason, there appears to be no explanation on the project page itself. So, anyone have any ideas? - IMSoP 17:56, 15 Oct 2004 (UTC)


 * I had to write the authors for this. They removed the explanations from the web pages for marketing reasons (apparently it is now used in a lot of large financial companies so the silly names didn't work)


 * POI stands in this case for "Poor Obfuscation Implementation" - apparently the authors could find no other reason for the file format to be structured the way it is other than to obfuscate it. Furthermore, the authors managed to crack it so they felt it was a "poor implementation" of obfuscation at that.  The other APIs under the project are also similarly named: Horrible SpreadSheet Format (HSSF), Horrible Word Processor Format (HWPF) and Horrible Property Set Format (HPSF). - Reboot


 * Wow, good research! Given that all official documents have been purged of this, I've added a note that is the origin of the name, and removed the statement implying it is the name. Obvously, we don't have to slavishly follow their squeamishness, but it seems pretty clear to me that "POI" is now the official name, and this is just another example of a name that was an acronym once. I've also added the explanation of why they were removed, since it's an interesting fact in its own right. - IMSoP 18:35, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)


 * Here is an old version of the POI site: http://web.archive.org/web/20041015142404/http://www.coyotesong.com/poi/ -Reboot


 * Seems like it's worth noting that they haven't expunged any rude remarks from their API docs:

http://poi.apache.org/apidocs/overview-summary.html — Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.98.83.235 (talk) 15:00, 30 September 2011 (UTC)

HSSF not a very robust utility ?
I removed the comment on HSSF utility which was said to be Not a very robust utility and is notoriously finicky. First, it was not -based and seemed as Original Research to me. Second, we use at work POI 3.0 Alpha 1 for one year now to read Excel files generated by both EXCEL 8.0 and 11.0 (and parse their content) and write them back after modifications, and we never had any problems, even when specific fonts, foreground and background colors, and alignment stuff are used in the cells. Hervegirod 10:29, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

HSSF/POI is a cursed name at my company. It's seen as a necessary evil. Haven't used 3.0 Alpha 1 much, but a lot of times it would refuse to open the Excel file and you'd have to do stuff like make spaces in a blank cell, save it, and then clear the spaces and save it again. Also, as far as I know, it still won't open files with charts or filters. 209.2.118.14 (talk) 20:55, 25 March 2008 (UTC)
 * What version do you use ? You really should try 3.0.2, it is even able to write EXCEL files with formulas. I think EXCEL support has improved a lot since 3.0. However I did not try to read EXCEL files with charts or filters. Hervegirod (talk) 11:16, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Jakarta POI Logo.gif
Image:Jakarta POI Logo.gif is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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BetacommandBot (talk) 22:26, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

= More fun facts =

When I used to give talks on the project / APIs, I sometimes brought in actual poi. . It was disgusting and stank my dishwasher/dishes up for days. I stopped mainly because my wife really didn't like all of our dishes smelling disgusting. Andrew C. Oliver (founder) ;-) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.147.199.228 (talk) 03:04, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

= XWPF support = According to http://poi.apache.org/hwpf/index.html there is a component XWPF available to support Word docx files. The article might be updated to describe the current state of development for reading docx files.