I ran into a couple of interesting things who are interested in Java and have to work within a Microsoft environment: First, for those with Java in their integration/migration plans, Microsoft has released a Type 4 JDBC 2.0 driver for SQL Server 2000: http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/05/02/020502hnjdbc.xml MICROSOFT THIS WEEK released a JDBC driver enabling Java developers to utilize Microsoft's SQL Sever 2000 database as a data management system for Java applications. <snip /> Microsoft has tested the driver to work with JDBC 2.0 and JDK (Java Development Kit) 1.3 and plans to continue testing it to verify that it will work with subsequent versions of the Java software. The driver supports the JNDI (Java Naming Directory Interface) for naming data sources as well as pooling of database connections. Operating platforms supported include Windows XP, Windows 2000 with Service Pack 2 or higher, Sun Solaris, Hewlett-Packard HP-UX, IBM AIX, and Linux. Download and details at (watch the wrap): http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/default.asp?URL=/downloads/sample.asp?ur l=/MSDN-FILES/027/001/779/msdncompositedoc.xml Second, our friends at apache.org has developed a project called POI. Here is the description: The POI project consists of APIs for manipulating various file formats based upon Microsoft's OLE 2 Compound Document format using pure Java. OLE 2 Compound Document Format based files include most Microsoft Office files such as XLS and DOC. POI stands for Poor Obfuscation Implementation. Why would we name our project such a derogatory name? Well, Microsoft's OLE 2 Compound Document Format is a poorly conceived thing. It is essentially an archive structured much like the old DOS FAT filesystem. Redmond chose, instead of using tar, gzip, zip or arc, to invent their own archive format that does not provide any standard encryption or compression, is not very appendable and is prone to fragmentation. Poi is also a Hawaiian delicacy that Merriam Webster's dictionary defines as: "A Hawaiian food of taro root cooked, pounded, and kneaded to a paste and often allowed to ferment." This seemed strangely descriptive of the file format. Components To Date A common misconception is that POI writes Excel files. POI is the name of the project. POI contains several components, one of which, HSSF, writes Excel files. The following are components of the entire POI project and a brief summary of their purpose. POIFS (POI Filesystem) POIFS is the oldest and most stable part of the project. It is our port of the OLE 2 Compound Document Format to pure Java. It supports both read and write functionality. All of our components ultimately rely on it by definition. Please see the POIFS project page for more information. HSSF (Horrible Spreadsheet Format) HSSF is our port of the Microsoft Excel 97(-2002) file format (BIFF8) to pure Java. It supports read and write capability. Please see the HSSF project page for more information. HDF (Horrible Document Format) HDF is our port of the Microsoft Word 97 file format to pure Java. It supports read and write capability. Please see the HDF project page for more information. This component is in the early stages of design. Jump in! HPSF (Horrible Property Set Format) HPSF is our port of the OLE 2 property set format to pure Java. Property sets are mostly use to store a document's properties (title, author, date of last modification etc.), but they can be used for application-specific purposes as well. Currently HPSF supports read functionality only. Please see the HPSF project page for more information. For more information see: http://jakarta.apache.org/poi/index.html * To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, * * etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *