I’m having a hard time with the documentation I’ve found on the web, including the openoffice site. Some of it is outdated and doesn’t work, some is very complex. I’m spending hours and getting nowhere. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good resource for learning as you go? Thanks.
I am also unhappy with what I could find. I cannot even find a sufficiently complete and reliable specification of BASIC functions / procedure statements. Concerning the API the situation is worse again: Bureaucratic and mostly insignificant.
As Andrew surely studied the relevant sources to much more detail than I ever could, and still also does not know a lot of meaningful things, I am led to the conclusion, that information often is not available for “outsiders” or does not exist at all.
A list of elements, functions and procedures is exactly what I’m looking for, along with some simple examples. IME, that’s the best way to learn, then the theory can follow. I have found this, but it’s very esoteric.
I agree. Not anywhere at your levels. I can’t get a simple openform to work. What helped me the most learning in MSAccess was using their wizards then actually looking at their generated code in the forms module. I’m not anywhere near the API but I was able to do/learn a considerable amount over time. To be more to the point this product is designed for “geeks”, not casual users. Not bad, just an observation. At 70 yrs. I’ll probably not get beyond fundamental forms. Whats IDE?. Get the point?
Ran out of characters. I don’t speak API so how am I going to understand most examples. I have crashed more that a demolition derby to the point I had to uninstall and re install loosing my DB completely. Seems every time an error(cryptic at best) LO won’t start requiring a restart. Very poor learning environment. But, I have committed to getting off the MS cloud. I won’t be going to Win10. You’ll have to pry my Win7 from my dying fingers. I just spent a $load for a 64bit Win7 sys.
Everybody is using the texts by Andrew Pitonyak as a practical guide. They are to find here.
Don’t worry about the AOO / LibO gap or about versions. There aren’t many differences concerning the API yet. (Things may get worse, however.)
[Edit1 with respect to the above comment by the OQ]
I sometimes use this page and the linked in ones. There is no precise specification and little explanation, however. The examples are banal and even misleading. Some functions that actually exist are not mentioned …
In short: I am very dissatisfied.
The uno-API is not explained there. http://api.libreoffice.org/ will not help you much? Please tell.
Anyway we have to accept that the handling of LibreOffice documents by user code is fundamentally different from the ways the offten compared VBA does such things. Except for very few objects like ‘ThisComponent’ and routines like ‘CreateUnoService’ the needed entities are not integrated into any specific programming language, but must be accessed via uno constructs.
[/Edit1]
Thanks Lupp. I’m aware of those resources and am having a terrible time with them. Examples right off the page aren’t working, and I don’t find them conducive to learning as you go. Very frustrated at the moment.
The best documentation is only in spanish: Macros - Apache OpenOffice Wiki
You can ask in this forum too!!
@paul1149: It seems to still be a central problem with complex software that the creation and maintenance of reliable and complete written documentation is not ensured. I would even prefer a complete specification, open to the public, in advance. Obviously many coding is done, however, without such a specification, and possibly trusting in its being “self-documenting”. It’s a mess, and I don’t believe it’s much better with commercial software. VBA may be documented better?
And: The “Macro Language”, may it be BASIC or Python, or whatever else, is not the problem (except that BASIC is very poor in relevant routines). It is the API (uno based) and its interdependence with the basical architecture of the software. The “Universal Network Objects” was a huge project of SUN’s by itself, not only meant to be a means for the then StarOffice reworking project. So was Java. But: We live in ruins in a sense anyway, and our DNA is working without specification, too.
VBA’s documentation is also not great, IME, but MSO has the advantage of a macro editor with a wonderful element completion function, so that most of the syntax is suggested and taken care of for you. And because of the numbers using MSO, there are several third-party resources on the market.
LO would benefit from a large benefactor, but google has its own docs franchise that it’s pushing now. I’m encouraged by the pace of development of late, but huge challenges remain.
Most of the VBA code (from stackoverflow e.g.) I studied meanwhile was junk. I must have missed the valuable specimen.
We can make a better documentation… I am a expert in API UNO, but my english is very basic, if you help with this, I help you with that
@Lupp, I’m glad I checked back and caught your edit. That runtime page looks good, but it’s not what I’m looking for. I need very practical building blocks for some fairly basic macro work. Thanks.
@mauricio, I have no interest in the API, but your offer is great. May I suggest that you put out a tender on it, so you find the right person to combine efforts with.
@Paul1149: You may, of course program some functions without relying on the API. Insofar VBA and Staroffice BASIC do not differ at all. For any relevant work exceeding the very basics, and needing access to the living document, you will need to use uno services and thus the API.
@mauricio: I will try to come back to this later. Nothing for sure yet.