Structured storage
Encyclopedia
COM Structured Storage (variously also known as COM
structured storage or OLE
structured storage) is a technology developed by Microsoft
as part of its Windows
operating system
for storing hierarchical data within a single file. Strictly speaking, the term structured storage refers to a set of COM interfaces
that a conforming implementation must provide, and not to a specific implementation, nor to a specific file
format (in fact, a structured storage implementation need not store its data in a file at all). In addition to providing a hierarchical structure for data, structured storage may also provide a limited form of transactional support for data access. Microsoft provides an implementation that supports transactions, as well as one that does not (called simple-mode storage, the latter implementation is limited in other ways as well, although it performs better).
Structured storage is widely used in Microsoft Office
applications, although newer releases (starting with Office 2007
) use the XML
-based Office Open XML by default. It is also an important part of both COM and the related Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) technologies. Other notable applications of structured storage include MSSQL, the Windows shell, and many third-party CAD programs.
Structured storage provides an abstraction known as a stream, represented by the interface
, within a file, within another stream, etc., depending on the implementation. Another important abstraction is that of a storage, represented by the interface
on a file system
. Storages can contain streams, as well as other storages.
If an application wishes to persist several data objects to a file, one way to do so would be to open an
-like structure to represent storages and streams. Chunks of the file, known as sectors (these may or may not correspond to sectors of the underlying file system), are allocated as needed to add new streams and to increase the size of existing streams. If streams are deleted or shrink leaving unallocated sectors, these sectors can be reused for new streams.
, it included a feature titled Native Structured Storage (NSS) for storage of Structured Storage documents (like the binary Microsoft Office
formats and the
uses to cache thumbnails) with each Stream that makes up a document stored in a separate NTFS
data stream. It included utilities that automatically split up the streams in a regular Structured Storage document into NTFS data streams and vice versa. However, the feature was withdrawn after Beta 3 due to incompatibilities with other OS components, and any NSS files automatically converted to the single data stream format.
Component Object Model
Component Object Model is a binary-interface standard for software componentry introduced by Microsoft in 1993. It is used to enable interprocess communication and dynamic object creation in a large range of programming languages...
structured storage or OLE
Object Linking and Embedding
Object Linking and Embedding is a technology developed by Microsoft that allows embedding and linking to documents and other objects. For developers, it brought OLE Control eXtension , a way to develop and use custom user interface elements...
structured storage) is a technology developed by Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
as part of its Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
for storing hierarchical data within a single file. Strictly speaking, the term structured storage refers to a set of COM interfaces
Interface (computer science)
In the field of computer science, an interface is a tool and concept that refers to a point of interaction between components, and is applicable at the level of both hardware and software...
that a conforming implementation must provide, and not to a specific implementation, nor to a specific file
Computer file
A computer file is a block of arbitrary information, or resource for storing information, which is available to a computer program and is usually based on some kind of durable storage. A file is durable in the sense that it remains available for programs to use after the current program has finished...
format (in fact, a structured storage implementation need not store its data in a file at all). In addition to providing a hierarchical structure for data, structured storage may also provide a limited form of transactional support for data access. Microsoft provides an implementation that supports transactions, as well as one that does not (called simple-mode storage, the latter implementation is limited in other ways as well, although it performs better).
Structured storage is widely used in Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office is a non-free commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of...
applications, although newer releases (starting with Office 2007
Microsoft Office 2007
Microsoft Office 2007 is a Windows version of the Microsoft Office System, Microsoft's productivity suite. Formerly known as Office 12 in the initial stages of its beta cycle, it was released to volume license customers on November 30, 2006 and made available to retail customers on January 30, 2007...
) use the XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
-based Office Open XML by default. It is also an important part of both COM and the related Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) technologies. Other notable applications of structured storage include MSSQL, the Windows shell, and many third-party CAD programs.
Motivation
Structured storage addresses some inherent difficulties of storing multiple data objects within a single file. One difficulty arises when an object persisted in the file changes in size due to an update. If the application that is reading/writing the file expects the objects in the file to remain in a certain order, everything following that object's representation in the file may need to be shifted backward to make room if the object grows, or forward to fill in the space left over if the object shrinks. If the file is large, this could be a costly operation. Of course, there are many possible solutions to this difficulty, but often the application programmer does not want to deal with low level details such as binary file formats.Structured storage provides an abstraction known as a stream, represented by the interface
IStream. A stream is conceptually very similar to a file, and the IStream interface provides methods for reading and writing similar to file input/output. A stream could reside in memoryRam
-Animals:*Ram, an uncastrated male sheep*Ram cichlid, a species of freshwater fish endemic to Colombia and Venezuela-Military:*Battering ram*Ramming, a military tactic in which one vehicle runs into another...
, within a file, within another stream, etc., depending on the implementation. Another important abstraction is that of a storage, represented by the interface
IStorage. A storage is conceptually very similar to a directoryDirectory (file systems)
In computing, a folder, directory, catalog, or drawer, is a virtual container originally derived from an earlier Object-oriented programming concept by the same name within a digital file system, in which groups of computer files and other folders can be kept and organized.A typical file system may...
on a file system
File system
A file system is a means to organize data expected to be retained after a program terminates by providing procedures to store, retrieve and update data, as well as manage the available space on the device which contain it. A file system organizes data in an efficient manner and is tuned to the...
. Storages can contain streams, as well as other storages.
If an application wishes to persist several data objects to a file, one way to do so would be to open an
IStorage that represents the contents of that file and save each of the objects within a single IStream. One way to accomplish the latter is through the standard COM interface IPersistStream. OLE depends heavily on this model to embed objects within documents.Format
Microsoft's implementation uses a file format known as compound files, and all of the widely deployed structured storage implementations read and write this format. Compound files use a FATFile Allocation Table
File Allocation Table is a computer file system architecture now widely used on many computer systems and most memory cards, such as those used with digital cameras. FAT file systems are commonly found on floppy disks, flash memory cards, digital cameras, and many other portable devices because of...
-like structure to represent storages and streams. Chunks of the file, known as sectors (these may or may not correspond to sectors of the underlying file system), are allocated as needed to add new streams and to increase the size of existing streams. If streams are deleted or shrink leaving unallocated sectors, these sectors can be reused for new streams.
Native Structured Storage
During the beta testing phase of Windows 2000Windows 2000
Windows 2000 is a line of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, business desktops, laptops, and servers. Windows 2000 was released to manufacturing on 15 December 1999 and launched to retail on 17 February 2000. It is the successor to Windows NT 4.0, and is the...
, it included a feature titled Native Structured Storage (NSS) for storage of Structured Storage documents (like the binary Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office is a non-free commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of...
formats and the
thumbs.db file Windows ExplorerWindows Explorer
This article is about the Windows file system browser. For the similarly named web browser, see Internet ExplorerWindows Explorer is a file manager application that is included with releases of the Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows 95 onwards. It provides a graphical user interface...
uses to cache thumbnails) with each Stream that makes up a document stored in a separate NTFS
NTFS
NTFS is the standard file system of Windows NT, including its later versions Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, and Windows 7....
data stream. It included utilities that automatically split up the streams in a regular Structured Storage document into NTFS data streams and vice versa. However, the feature was withdrawn after Beta 3 due to incompatibilities with other OS components, and any NSS files automatically converted to the single data stream format.
Related or competing products
- For Microsoft .NET:
- GemBox.CompoundFile – .NET component for accessing structured storage files.
- OpenMCDF – Free .NET component for accessing OLE structured storage files, MPL licensed.
- For Linux:
- GNOME Structured File Library – Can read Microsoft structured storage files.
- POLE.
- For Java:
- POIFS – Java implementation of the OLE 2 Compound Document format, part of Apache POI.
- For Perl: