Android Microsoft Office Library (.Doc, .Docx, .Xls, .Ppt, etc.)

Android Microsoft Office Library (.doc, .docx, .xls, .ppt, etc.)

Since most of the documents we need to display are already hosted on the web, we opted to use an embedded web view that opens the document using google docs viewer.

We still have a few locally stored documents though that this approach doesn't work with. For these, our solution was to rely on the support of existing apps. After spending some more time with Android, It seems that most devices come equipped with some sort of document/pdf reading capability installed fresh out of the box. In the event that they don't have a capable app, we direct them to a market search for a free reader.

Embedding Office files (.doc, .ppt, .xls) in my Android App

There is Apache POI.

The Apache POI Project's mission is to create and maintain Java APIs
for manipulating various file formats based upon the Office Open XML
standards (OOXML) and Microsoft's OLE 2 Compound Document format
(OLE2).

Then, there is Aspose which offers APIs to work with MS Office and other documents like PDF, etc.

What is a correct MIME type for .docx, .pptx, etc.?

Here are the correct Microsoft Office MIME types for HTTP content streaming:

Extension MIME Type
.doc      application/msword
.dot      application/msword

.docx     application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
.dotx     application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.template
.docm     application/vnd.ms-word.document.macroEnabled.12
.dotm     application/vnd.ms-word.template.macroEnabled.12

.xls      application/vnd.ms-excel
.xlt      application/vnd.ms-excel
.xla      application/vnd.ms-excel

.xlsx     application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet
.xltx     application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.template
.xlsm     application/vnd.ms-excel.sheet.macroEnabled.12
.xltm     application/vnd.ms-excel.template.macroEnabled.12
.xlam     application/vnd.ms-excel.addin.macroEnabled.12
.xlsb     application/vnd.ms-excel.sheet.binary.macroEnabled.12

.ppt      application/vnd.ms-powerpoint
.pot      application/vnd.ms-powerpoint
.pps      application/vnd.ms-powerpoint
.ppa      application/vnd.ms-powerpoint

.pptx     application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation
.potx     application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.template
.ppsx     application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.slideshow
.ppam     application/vnd.ms-powerpoint.addin.macroEnabled.12
.pptm     application/vnd.ms-powerpoint.presentation.macroEnabled.12
.potm     application/vnd.ms-powerpoint.template.macroEnabled.12
.ppsm     application/vnd.ms-powerpoint.slideshow.macroEnabled.12

.mdb      application/vnd.ms-access

For further details check out this TechNet article and this blog post.

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