Proposal: build service for LibreOffice extensions

[Hossein Nourikhah]

Hello,

In the LibOCon 2023, there were a lot of presentations on extensions, 
and even C++ was among the languages of choice for creating extensions 
in practice.

I had discussions about the possibility of creating a build service, and 
now I think it is good to also discuss this in the dev mailing list. So, 
here is my proposal, in which I would be happy to implement at least 
parts of it:

I suggest to create a build service for LibreOffice extensions, that 
works this way:

1. The extension creator provides the source code, and the required 
makefiles. It can be in BASIC, Java, Python, C++, or any other supported 
language. It would be something like SUSE openbuildservice.org for OS 
packages.
2. A review is done to avoid certain problems with accepting every 
possible random input. Gerrit might be an option for the review.
3. The extension is built, and tested to see if it is usable in certain 
versions of LibreOffice. If it is a C++ extension, the build process 
builds it for different architectures. CI (Jenkins) can be used for this 
purpose, after the review is done.
4. The output is provided via the LibreOffice extensions website.

The benefits of such a build service is as follows:

1. Make the source code available to everyone, and probably visible in 
the website similar to userstyles.org, etc.
2. Make the build process easier for different architectures, at least 
for the compiled languages. For the interpreted languages, it would be 
reviewing, then creating a zip package.
3. Respond to the concerns about security of the binary extensions.
4. Possibility to clarify the license.
5. Checking the compatibility and possible problems with different 
versions of LibreOffice.

Binary only extensions are OK, and will be usable, but I suggest that 
only those extensions built this way be displayed in the LibreOffice 
extensions website.

Regards,
Hossein

-- 
Hossein Nourikhah, Ph.D., Developer Community Architect
Tel: +49 30 5557992-65 | Email: hossein at libreoffice.org
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