Openoffice - Staroffice

Oxygen Office

A recompilation of the standard openffice package. Vastly fitted with extensions. A lot of bugs fixed. So just use it!

• openoffice

Extensions

--Apos 16:29, 12 January 2012 (CET) In newer Openoffice versions some functionality was moved to extensions. They can be mound here:

• Extensions project wiki page of the openoffice.org apache project

The older links are not working any more!

Mediawiki export

--Apos 17:54, 12 January 2012 (CET) To make it short: use oxygen office, which is an openoffice recompile and just works.

Export ODT out of Mediawiki

• Mediawiki extension to import OO-documents

Use the default packages OpenOffice.org

There might be some problems using the distributions packages, so I recommend installing the original openoffice.org from their website.

Ubuntu jaunty / 9.04

[UPDATE] Openoffice 3.1 and ubuntu jaunty (9.04)

The new way of using the very actual version of openoffice in ubuntu is to use the appropriate PPA archive in the /etc/apt/sources.list file:

# Openofffice
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/openoffice-pkgs/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main #Open Office (ppa)
#deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/openoffice-pkgs/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

After an

apt-get update && apt-get upgrade

you should have a working and updated office.

The german language package (for oo 3.1) had to be installed separately from the following link:

 http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/pool/main/o/openoffice.org/openoffice.org-l10n-de_3.1.0-1_all.deb

[/UPDATE]

Older Ubuntu Versions

I like to use the official packages of openoffice due to a mixed computer environment. This is the only way to assure same funcitonality and certification. But I run into trouble doing this.

Download

Download the packages from openoffice.org and extract them into a directory. The package names may vary to depending to your version and download:

tar xzvf OOo_2.3.0_LinuxIntel_install_de_deb.tar.gz
cd OOG680_m5_native_packed-1_de.9221

Naturally, if I like to install the packages provided by openoffice.org in ubuntu/debian via dpkg, i get an error:

# dpkg -i openoffice.org-*
dpkg - warning: downgrading openoffice.org-base from 1:2.3.0-1ubuntu2 to 2.3.0-5.
dpkg: regarding openoffice.org-base_2.3.0-5_i386.deb containing openoffice.org-base:
 openoffice.org-base conflicts with openoffice.org-bundled

Remove distribution packages

That's why I have to uninstall the ubuntu openoffice org packages:

# apt-get remove openoffice.org-common
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  openoffice.org openoffice.org-base openoffice.org-calc openoffice.org-common 
  openoffice.org-core openoffice.org-draw openoffice.org-gnome openoffice.org-gtk 
  openoffice.org-help-de openoffice.org-impress openoffice.org-java-common 
  openoffice.org-l10n-de openoffice.org-math openoffice.org-report-builder
  openoffice.org-style-human openoffice.org-style-industrial 
  openoffice.org-style-tango openoffice.org-thesaurus-de 
  openoffice.org-writer python-uno
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 20 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
After unpacking 275MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y
[...]

I am than able to install the packages:

# dpkg -i openoffice.org-*
Selecting previously deselected package openoffice.org-base.
(Reading database ... 316754 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking openoffice.org-base (from openoffice.org-base_2.3.0-5_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package openoffice.org-calc.
Unpacking openoffice.org-calc (from openoffice.org-calc_2.3.0-5_i386.deb) ...
[...]

Configure apt for unattended upgrades

If I then upgrade my machine, ubuntu tries to uninstall my openoffice packages and upgrades them to the distribution ones.

So I have to manually edit the /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades. Add the part Unattended-Upgrade::Package-Blacklist followed by a list of packages - one per line. This list is surrounded by {...}-brackets. Don't forget the quotation marks around the package name and the semicolon (;) at the end of each line.

Unattended-Upgrade::Package-Blacklist {
//      "package_with_is_commented_out";
       "package_name-will_be_not_upgraded";
};

Let's do it:

vim /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades

// allowed (origin, archive) pairs
Unattended-Upgrade::Allowed-Origins {
        "Ubuntu gutsy-security";
//      "Ubuntu gutsy-updates";
};

// never update the packages in this list
Unattended-Upgrade::Package-Blacklist {
//      "vim";
        "openoffice.org-bundled";
        "openoffice.org";
        "openoffice.org-base";
        "openoffice.org-common";
        "openoffice.org-hyphenation";
};

Test it

When I then try to update, the system won't bother any more:

# apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
  openoffice.org-base openoffice.org-calc openoffice.org-draw 
  openoffice.org-headless  openoffice.org-impress openoffice.org-math
  openoffice.org-writer

TIP

You can use this to hinder ubuntu/debian from automatic kernel updates ;)

Troubleshooting

Distribution upgrates

If you are going to make a distribution upgrade, it might happen, that ubuntu uninstalls the packages. You have to install them again.

Automation of OpenOffice and Java

Some Links

(some in german language)

Basic

• OpenOffice.org Scripting Framework
• Writing Scripts in BeanShell, JavaScript and Java
• Developing Scripts in NetBeans
• How to create a Java component with Eclipse
• OpenOffice.org application programming interface
• This is the Uno Project
• Was sind Beans? (german)

Practical

• Writing Scripts in BeanShell, JavaScript and Java, PDF(1)
• How to create a Java component with Eclipse, PDF(1)
• GERMAN - Open-Office-Dokumente mit Java verarbeiten, PDF(1)
• GERMAN - Openoffice.org mit Java automatisieren, PDF(1)

(1) Password saved - for private use only. Do not download without permission, crack, copy or (re)distribute.

Develop with Netbeans

Best for developing java applications for openoffice is with sun's netbeans. The openoffice plugin - accessible via the update function of netbeans - is the fastest way to get ready.

Increasing the fontsize

Add the following to the /netbeans_install_dir/etc/netbeans.conf

netbeans_default_options="  [...] fontsize 14"

Postgresql and Openoffice

According to PostgreSQL-Datenbanken in OpenOffice.org 2.0 unter Linux.

This applies an is tested for ubuntu gutsy, Hardy.

Openoffice <-> JDBC

1. Java settings

Install the corresponding version of the jdbc jar file in the classpath of your oo java settings (extras). the *jdbc3 works fine with java 1.5.

There are problems with java 1.6 and the according *jdbc4.jar. So be shure to use java 1.5.

• e.g. postgresql-8.2-506.jdbc3.jar, /usr/share/java/postgresql-jdbc3-8.2.jar, ...

2. Connection

In the settings wizard of openoffice use ...

• jdbc:postgresql: [ //servername [:port/] ] databasename
• org.postgresql.Driver

... for the connection settings.

3. Change the database in an existing oo form

• Open the form file.
• Go to Edit->Database->Connection Type.
• On the second screen you can change the server settings.

Openoffice <-> ODBC

For connection between openoffice and odebc:

apt-cache search odbc | grep unix
   unixodbc - ODBC tools libraries
   unixodbc-bin - Graphical tools for ODBC management and browsing

apt-get install unixodbc unixodbc-bin

With the command ODBCConfig you can manage the configuration files (part of the package unixodbc-bin). Start it as superuser with gksu or use it to manage your local database configuration files - stored in your home directory.

But for nowe, we will - later - edit the configuration files by ourself.

ODBC <-> Postgresql

For connection between the odbc layer and the database:

apt-cache search odbc
   odbc-postgresql - ODBC driver for PostgreSQL

apt-get install odbc-postgresql

Configuration files

Ubuntu installs its odbc libraries in /usr/lib/odbc. There are two versions of the postgres odbc driver: an ascii version (psqlodbca.so) and a unicode version (psqlodbcw.so). We are using the latter.

vim /etc/odbcinst.ini

[PostgreSQL]
Description = PostgreSQL ODBC Driver
Driver = /usr/lib/odbc/psqlodbcw.so
Setup = /usr/lib/odbc/libodbcpsqlS.so

For system wide database location you have to edit the /etc/odbc.ini file.

There is a section Driver. You have to insert exactly the same name as defined in the odbcinst.ini between the braces, e.g. use PostgreSQL, if your odbcinst.ini is defined as [PostgreSQL]:

vim /etc/odbc.ini

[pgTestDBSource]
Description = PostgreSQL Test Database
Driver = PostgreSQL
Servername = localhost
Database = pgtest
Port = 5432
ReadOnly = No

Establish connection

If you like to connect to an database via openoffice you should use a string like:

odbc://servername/databasename

Don't forget to allow connections in /etc/postgresql/8.2/main/pg_hba.conf (see above) to your database server!

The rest is really self explanatory within the openoffice database assistant ;)