Developers FAQ

The Developers FAQ is a collection from different questions asked by Developers who are new to OpenOffice.org:

This is work in progress, the developer mentioned behind the question will write the answer soon.

FRAMEWORK

• Description of the SFX2 framework (MBA)
• There are the roles of the different shells and views? (MBA)
• Explanation of the dispatch/interceptor mechanism / command handling (MBA)
• How is the OOo framework generated, and how to implement the framework-model-controller mode?(CLARIFY QUESTION)
• How is the slot mechanism implemented, and how is the listener and broadcast mechanism implemented? (MBA)
• Generic user interface: How does the framework implement the interface management, how to load toolbar, and how to implement berth area? (CD)
• The mechanism of messages: IMPL_LINK,listen and slots (CLARIFY QUESTION: listen?)
• Filter configuration (AS)
• API for accessing OOo package format (MAV)
• Embedding (MAV)
• Templates (MAV)
• Add-ons / Extensions support (CD)
• The general part of the document storing/loading process (MAV)

UDK

• Mechanisms of Multi-Platform support (JSC)
• How to communicate with other OOo components, and how to implement a bridge (JSC)
• Python UNO components may be run within the OOo process - how can they be called from Java, C++ or StarBasic? (JSC)
• The relationship between UNO, COM+, CORBA (JSC)

APPLICATION, WRITER

• Structure of tables (FME) Writer_Core_And_Layout
• Mechanism/Implementation of Undo (AMA) Writer_Core_And_Layout
• Mechanism/Implementation of Frames, relationship (FME) Writer_Core_And_Layout
• Class structure of SwNode, SwNodes, SwNodeIndex, ..., relationship (AMA) Writer_Core_And_Layout
• The relationship between the class ViewShell and SwDoc (OS)

APPLICATION, DRAW/IMPRESS

• The mechanism of slide show and animation (what is the difference between before and after). The slideshow itself, and all animation functionality are implemented in the Slideshow module. (CL)

What is the meening of "before" and "after" in the context of this question?

• Copy&Paste: Memory structure of clipboard in SD, difference between coping objects inside slides and coping objects from or into other applications like SW, SC (CL)

Clipboard between the same application type is done by using core implementations. Clipboard between different application types is done by using xml.

• Mechanism of designing and implementation of master page and layout style in presentation (CL)

Master pages and layout styles are already implemented in OOo.

• Flash Export: (CL)
  • Difference between the export of the simple character and the complex character?

Simple characters are exported using the font tags of the flash format, complex characters are exported as polygons.

• • The implementation of the Polygon in VCL. Such as the EM square，Body，Ascent and Descent to realize of the glyph.

This question needs more data as the implementation of the Polygon in VCl itself has nothing to do with glyphs. It is only used to represend glyphs.

• • The custom animation will be lost after the slides being exported into the swf. What cause it? There is no support to export the animation, is there? Do you have any plan to consummate it? And what's your purpose in this area?

It is caused by the absence of an implementation that exports this particular feature. There is currently no assigned developer for the task to add this feature to the flash export. There is one developer from Redflag activly contributing to the flash export.

APPLICATION, CALC

• How are the areas for charts recognized, and how does the update notification work? (NN)
• Relationship between cells, sheets and workbooks (class diagram) (NN)
• Copy&Paste: What's happening on Copy directly, and later if someone pastes into same spreadsheet or other application (NN)

APPLICATION, DATABASE

• Why was the dbase driver engineered into file_based driver? And compared with the text/csv driver, what are the advantages of it in OOo's database, and how it was being designed in OOo's database? (FS)
• What are the project's short-term plan or the direction of development now? (FS)
• In the project named "Native, cross-platform access to MS Access databases", what is the current solution? Is there anyone beginning to re-engineer the MDB format himself? (FS)

APPLICATION, CHART2

• Description of the Chart2 module (BM)

GENERAL QUESTIONS

• Which are the common threads started at start up time and used by all OOo applications at runtime, and what are their functions? (KR)?
• Structure of VCL (PL)

A general overview about VCL was created by Eric Bachard, please have a look here [1]

• Font rendering process (HDU)
• How to improve stability? Where to start? (MT)
• How to improve performance? Where to start? (MT)
• Which code of OOo is responsible for the VBA Macro parse? How are they implemented? (AB)
• Which code/features are affected by the "Design Mode? (FS)
• How is the code implemented to fulfill the specification of Unicode and gb2312 (SB)
• How/where is the Boost library used? See boost for an overview.
• Which code/features are affected by the "Design Mode? (FS)
• The process of SVG protraction and SVG parse. The relationship between controller protraction and the resource of the controller. (SJ)
• Mozilla and ActiveX plugins (MAV)
• Which internet protocols are supported in OOo, and what can be improved to the network ability of OOo? (KSO)

FEATURE QUESTIONS

• Currently a document can only be processed by one of the OOo applications - what about having just one application processing all kind of documents?
• Are there any plans to integrate a desktop search engine? (Could be done as an extension)
• Any plans to introduce classes comparable to CObject and CWinApp in MFC? (???)