Using custom XML schemas after i4i judgment

[Michael Feingold]

Custom XML tags in word documents is used in one of out applications. Now
because of the i4i judgment we have to find a way to make it work without
changing too much.
It looks like the patch removing the custom xml support DOES NOT remove the
actual editor. You still can place tags and manipulate them.

The only problem is that you cannot save document with tags. To be more
precise the next time you open saved document the tags will not be there. In
other words the editor is there but it is useless. Which makes me wonder - is
the editor there just by accident and will disappear in the future, or I just
do not know how to save the document with the tags (i what format or what
have you)

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Unfortunately I do not have a copy of the new version of Word that
implements the various restrictions you now face, so can only make some
suggestions.

a. AIUI the restrictions only apply to new copies of Word 2007
purchased in the USA, and will presumably be applied to the release
version of Word 2010 unless the judgment is overturned. And possibly
Word 2010 will drop this stuff even then - I don't know. So if you only
need a short-term solution for Word users who can obtain a version of
Word that works, you are probably OK, but I agree there is a problem if
you need your documents to be useable by any Word 2007 user, or to be
usable longer term when 2010 arrives.
b. you should at least be able to see whether the custom XML is being
saved by either
- opening it in a copy of Word that does not have the restriction
(assuming you have such a copy) or
- extracting the main document.xml part from your .docm/.docx and
inspecting the XML, or
- saving as WordProcessingML/WordML .xml format, which you can
inspect without that extraction step.
c. AFAICS there is no simple alternative in Word to the built-in
feature that has been removed. If I had to consider replacing it I would
probably think in terms of
- using Word 2007 and later only
- designing and implementing a SmartDocument (probably using .NET
and VSTO) that used content controls instead of the elements you are
probably used to, and perhaps tried to emulate the XML Structure pane
that you may be using. However, I have no idea how well that could be
made to replace existing functions. I suspect creating a general-purpose
version that could work with an arbitrary schema would be difficult and
expensive, and that you would end up doing one specialised SmartDocument
for each schema/document you need to work with. Then you have to
consider deployment, maintenance, etc.

Since I don't understand the basis on which the judgment was made it
isn't completely clear to me why Microsoft people seem to believe that
only the type of custom XML used for tagging is affected. Perhaps the
consequences of getting rid of the custom XML used for holding the
new-style custom properties used with SharePoint is just too much for
them to contemplate.

Peter Jamieson

http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk