[Libreoffice] pyuno problems

[Dag Wieers]

On Fri, 1 Apr 2011, Jan Holesovsky wrote:

> On 2011-04-01 at 13:42 +0200, Dag Wieers wrote:
>
>> I am the author of a tool called unoconv. It's a tool that uses the pyuno
>> bindings to allow non-interactive conversions using OpenOffice
>> import/export filters.
>>
>>      http://dag.wieers.com/home-made/unoconv/
>>
>> I plan to support and track LibreOffice development in the future, but I
>> currently am having difficulties using the provided python binary and the
>> provided pyuno.so.
>
> Thank you very much for adding LibreOffice support!  Just one note -
> LibreOffice can convert between various formats itself from the command
> line, see the LibreOffice's -help:
>
> -infilter=<filter>
>      Force an input filter type if possible
>      Eg. -infilter="Calc Office Open XML"
> -convert-to output_file_extension[:output_filter_name] [-outdir
> ouput_dir] files
>      Batch convert files.
>      If -outdir is not specified then current working dir is used as
> output_dir.
>      Eg. -convert-to pdf *.doc
>          -convert-to pdf:writer_pdf_Export -outdir /home/user *.doc
>
> Is there anything missing that unoconv can support?  Would you be
> interested in extending this mechanism, so that it has the unoconv
> features?  [Eg. we cannot expand wildcards on Windows, if I am not
> mistaken.]

That's cool. It should have been like this from the start :-) Having to 
start our own listener for communicating with UNO has been problematic 
from the start, mostly because it's not very stable.

The differences I see:

  - Remote conversions (only with shared storage)
  - No need to know the internal filter names
  - Possibility to provide filter options to filters
  - Possibility to apply styles/formats (from templates or other
      documents) during conversion
  - Output to stdout

I am not a C programmer, so I don't think I can be very useful.

-- 
-- dag wieers, dag at wieers.com, http://dag.wieers.com/
-- dagit linux solutions, info at dagit.net, http://dagit.net/

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