struggling to auto-run a macro.

[Boca]

Hi, thanks to Liberel I have a macro to export the list of recently used files ( Export of recently used files list?) I want to assign that macro so it autoruns but trying the Jeff’s “Tools > Customize, go to the Events tab, click on Open Document, then click the Macro button”,
I CAN assign a macro but it seems that closing LO loses the event-macro link. I have tried saving to LibreOffice and Untitled1. Any thoughts please?

[Pansmanser]

What system and version? It works for me on Ubuntu 16.04 & LO 6.0.0

[Boca]

Hi, I am on LO Version: 5.1.6.2 and Mint 18.3 ( which I believe runs on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS)

[librebel]

When you close LO and then reopen the document, do you see any “Assigned Action” for the Open Document event displayed in the Customize dialog ?

[librebel]

Also please clarify, do you want to run your macro:

a) every time that the LibreOffice application starts?
b) every time that any document is opened in LibreOffice?
c) every time that a particular document is opened in LibreOffice (  e.g. “Untitled1” )?

[Boca]

Hi, i do not recall seeing any Customize dialog when opening a doc after saving teh event-macro into that doc.
Also, if I try to save the Event-macro link into LibreOffice, the macro disappears from alongside the event as I do so.
In terms of when I want the macro to run, the most routine option would be to run, your, macro every time I start LibreOffice.
Thanks.

[librebel]

Hello @Boca,

As you indicated, you want to auto-run the macro every time that LibreOffice starts.
This requires connecting the “Start Application” event from “Save in: LibreOffice” ( rather than the “Open Document” event or “Save in: Untitled1” ).

You also stated that connecting the event via the GUI ( Customize Events dialog ), did not stay permanently after restarting LO.

( i’ve also had that problem once in a previous version of LO, it was resolved after i updated to a newer version ).

However in the mean time, it is also possible to connect an event without using the GUI, by calling a dedicated macro instead. ( That approach worked for me at the time when setting the same event via the GUI did not ).

So here i present the following workaround as a solution:

Assuming that you already possess the method exportRecentDocumentsList() from my previous answer, you would need the following 2 methods in addition:

• on_ApplicationStart() – the Callback method to be connected to the LO “Start Application” event; Calls exportRecentDocumentsList();
• connect_Start_Application_Event() – One time macro as a workaround to connect the “Start Application” event to the method on_ApplicationStart() without using the GUI.

Steps to perform:

1. Copy-paste the 2 Basic methods from the code section below into any Module inside your Standard Basic Macro Library ( preferably into the same Module as where you stored the method exportRecentDocumentsList() before;
2. Inside the method connect_Start_Application_Event, change the value of the Constant sModule to the name of the Module where you stored the above methods;
3. Run the macro connect_Start_Application_Event one time, e.g. by choosing the menu “Tools : Macros : Run Macro…”, and then browse to the location where you stored the above methods, e.g. [My Macros].Standard.Module1.connect_Start_Application_Event(), and then click on the button “Run”.

If all went well with step 3), it should display a messagebox that the Event was set.

Now you can check in the menu “Tools : Customize… : Events” ( for LibreOffice ) if the Start Application event was correctly set to the method on_ApplicationStart().

After restarting LibreOffice, if everything worked alright, there should now be an exported text file present in the location that is specified inside the method on_ApplicationStart().

code

Sub on_ApplicationStart( oEvent As Object )
REM Should be connected to the "Start Application" event of LibreOffice.
	exportRecentDocumentsList( "$(home)/Desktop/recent_documents.txt" )
End Sub

Sub connect_Start_Application_Event()
REM Call this macro once to programmatically connect the LibreOffice "Start Application" event to the Basic macro `on_ApplicationStart()`.
REM
	REM #****  Specify here the Name, Module, and Library of your Basic Macro to be called whenever LibreOffice starts:
	REM #****  This macro should be located inside your "[My Macros & Dialogs].Standard" library:
	REM #****  This macro should be defined with an Event Object as the first parameter:
	Const sMacro As String    = "on_ApplicationStart"	REM The Basic Macro to be called when the Application starts.
	Const sModule As String	  = "Module1"	REM The name of the Basic Module that contains the above Macro.
	Const sLibrary As String  = "Standard"	REM The name of the Basic Library that contains the above Module.

	Dim aProps(1) As New com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue
	aProps(0).Name		= "EventType"
	aProps(0).Value		= "Script"
	aProps(1).Name		= "Script"
	aProps(1).Value		= "vnd.sun.star.script:" & sLibrary & "." & sModule & "." & sMacro & "?language=Basic&location=application"
	
	Dim oGlobalEventBroadcaster As Object
	oGlobalEventBroadcaster = GetDefaultContext().getByName( "/singletons/com.sun.star.frame.theGlobalEventBroadcaster" )
	oGlobalEventBroadcaster.Events.replaceByName( "OnStartApp", aProps() )
	
	Msgbox "Application Event Connected: <OnStartApp> :--->  " &  sLibrary & "." & sModule & "." & sMacro
End Sub

With Regards, lib

[Boca]

Thanks lib, I’ll check into this asap.