There are a lot of python libraries for dealing with Libre/OpenOffice via API (UNO). As for me, one of the most interesting projects is pyoo. It supports a lot of feature from open/save documents up to cell merging and working with charts and diagrams. But none of them implements number of functions wich I need.
I have to generate different documents for number of projects such as accounting system, estate management, document circulation and others. The easiest way is to use standard office software. End users can create their own template without great efforts.
It's easy to create template but how to know where I have to insert data into
the template. I can use Cell indexes (column, row) or name (E5).
But what if I want to use more then one template for the report. For example
one report for landscape format another for portrait. There is no warranty that
I have to set the same value into the same cell name or cell position
in different templates. So I have to store rules for different templates
somewhere. I have found easier way and that is NamedRange.
NamedRange is a name for a cell or cell range on a sheet. NamedRange
is unique for entire document.
One more unfound feature is inserting rows. Any report or invoice has table with header and footprint. So I need to insert rows into table area and keep row format (font, cell merging etc).
- Opening and creation of spreadsheet documents
- Saving documents to all formats available in OpenOffice
- Insert remove sheets
- Insert rows
- Set/get value by NamedRange
- Set/get value by Cell address or name
You can find an example of the document with NamedRanges and how to work with it in the examples folder.
PyOOCalc runs on Python 3.
The only dependency is the Python-UNO library (imported as a module uno). It is often installed with the office suite. On Debian based systems it can be installed as python-uno or python3-uno package.
Obviously you will also need OpenOffice or LibreOffice Calc. On Debian systems it is available as libreoffice-calc package.
You can copy the pyoocalc.py file somewhere to your PYTHONPATH.
Starting OpenOffice / LibreOffice
PyOOCalc requires a running OpenOffice or LibreOffice instance which it can connect to. On Ubuntu you can start LibreOffice from a command line using a command similar to:
$ soffice --accept="socket,host=localhost,port=2002;urp;" --norestore --nologo --nodefault # --headless
The LibreOffice will be listening for localhost connection on port 2002. Alternatively a named pipe can be used:
$ soffice --accept="pipe,name=hello;urp;" --norestore --nologo --nodefault # --headless
If the --headless option is used then no user interface is visible even when a document is opened.
For more information run:
$ soffice --help
It is recommended to start directly the soffice binary. There can be various scripts (called for example libreoffice) which will run the soffice binary but you may not get the correct PID of the running program.
You can find documentation here:
./doc/index.html
You can find an example file here:
$ ./src/examples/example.py
Run example:
$ python3 example.py
Automated integration unit tests cover most of the code.
The test suite assumes that OpenOffice or LibreOffice is running and it is listening on localhost port 2002.
Tests script path:
$ ./src/unit-tests/test.py
Run tests:
$ python3 test.py
This library is released under the GPL-V3 license.
See the LICENSE file.
Copyright (c) 2015.