Open Office XML Expertise (Microsoft Office 2007 Format)

Synerzip wrote the entire Document Processing Engine for OOXML from scratch. OOXML is the format used for Microsoft Office documents since 2007 version.   The OOXML format is vast and the Document Processing Engine was developed in Agile manner, sprint by sprint.
This Core Document Processing Engine that we developed was written on Java and then later ported to C++ using an internal tool.
Our biggest challenges were the following:
1. Creating a Prioritized Backlog

OOXML Specs has many feature for each format. For Example for Power Point we have

• Relationships Mapping between Slide, Layout, Theme, etc
• Slides
• Text in the Slides
• Shapes
• Slide Layout
• Slide Master
• Themes
• Group
• Picture
• Smart Art
• Tables
• Chart

The question is which features to implement before others. For some features, it was very clear since that feature was prerequisite for another feature. For others, such as should we do Groups first or Pictures, is a more challenging question.

2. Delivering Thin Slices of OOXML Specs

Second challenge was to break a feature into sprints and ensure that part is completed.

Document Fidelity Expertise (Supporting Formats and Feature) 

Analyzing Real world Documents for finding feature frequency

 QA Automation for Document Processing Engine

Microsoft Office 2003 Expertise

LibreOffice Expertise

One of Synerzip’s esteemed Customer is into Office Productivity Space. Their model for Office Productivity was to actually run Microsoft Office on the Cloud for Rendering Office Documents on Mobile Devices. This meant they had to spend alot of money on Licensing cost.
Synerzip successfully helped this customer to move to Open Source LibreOffice Platform enabling them to be Offline Office Productivity App and save money they previously spent on Microsoft Office Licensing.

While LibreOffice has ability to import and export to Microsoft Office Format (OOXML), there are interoperability Issues resulting in content loss or document corruption. Synerzip has deep expertise in OOXML format, which it used to apply patches to LibreOffice to increase the interoperability with Microsoft Office format (OOXML)
Two of Synerzip’s Engineer’s even presented at LibreOffice Conference 2014 at Bern, Switzerland around the topic of OOXML Interoperability.
Click to view their slides on Slideshare:

Android Document Viewer/Editor Expertise

Synerzip developed Word, PowerPoint and Excel office viewers and editors for Android.  This was created for various screen sizes, as well as various OEM partners.  OEM customization work was done for both large and small OEM partners. Proper processes and tools were put in place for this OEM customization work. Also, QA automation was put in place to test Word, PowerPoint and Excel apps on various devices using tools like Sikuli and Android instrumentation.

iOS Document Viewer/Editor Expertise

Synerzip primarily helped its customer by adding new features and bug fies to the already existing iOS Office Productivity Apps.  The App was developed for iPhone and iPad.  This was the same time Retina display came to market.  HD versions of the same apps were also published in the market.

HTML5 Document Viewer/Editor Expertise

Synerzip has done office productivity work on HTML5/JaveScript in the form of Chrome Extension, apart from Android and iOS platforms.  The same c++ Core (document processing engine) was used in this Chrome extension.  The entire rendering and eiting features were developed in HTML5, JaveScript and CSS3.  Test driven development approace was followed using JaveScript frameworks like Jasmine and browser automation frameworks like Selenium.
Certain research and development work is also under way to find out how Google’s new polymer library could be used in this office productivity product.

Sync Engine Development Expertise

Synerzip developed a sync engine and document collaboration product that was based on a “System Delivery Platform”. The idea was to build a platform that can deliver various services to end-users; and more services can be added in the future, hence the name “Service Delivery Platform”.
The main services offered during that time were: sync, publish, Office document viewer and login with Facebook, Twitter, etc.
This product also had connections into various cloud-based storage services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, etc., so the user can access their documents stored anywhere in the cloud.  Further, the product also allowed publishing documents to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, SlideShare, Scribd, etc.
This product supported Android devices, iOS devices, Mac machines and Windows machines. It provided deeper integration with Explorer on Mac and Windows, similar to what Dropbox provides.

In summary, Synerzip has worked in the Office Productivity Space for the past 6 years in areas such as Document Fidelity, Collaboration or full-fledged Mobile Office Suites. Synerzip developers built complete Office Productivity Platforms for various sized companies: from startups to Fortune 500 companies. Benefit from our experience in Office Productivity space to accelerate your products.
Follow Rohit Ghatol on Twitter: @rohitghatol