Filter extensions

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OOo Filter Extensions: Basic Principles

Any document filter (either import or export of both in one component) can be provided as an extension. This extension will contain the filter either as a UNO component (shared library, jar file, Python module) or an xslt file. A detailed description how filters are developed can be found in the Developer's Guide. What you can find here is: how can I deploy my filter as an extension? To make it simple, a sample extension is used and described here. The sample contains the built-in MediaWiki filter of OOo3.0, packaged as an extension.

A filter extension must contain the filter configuration and the type configuration in case the filter is made for a type that OOo does not know already. Here's the configuration of the sample extension:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<oor:component-data xmlns:oor="http://openoffice.org/2001/registry" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" oor:name="Filter" oor:package="org.openoffice.TypeDetection">
 <node oor:name="Filters">
        <node oor:name="MediaWiki" oor:op="replace">
                <prop oor:name="FileFormatVersion"><value>0</value></prop>
                <prop oor:name="Type"><value>MediaWiki</value></prop>
                <prop oor:name="DocumentService"><value>com.sun.star.text.TextDocument</value></prop>
                <prop oor:name="UIComponent"/>
                <prop oor:name="UserData"><value oor:separator=",">com.sun.star.documentconversion.XSLTFilter,,,com.sun.star.comp.Writer.XMLOasisExporter,,%origin%/filter/odt2mediawiki.xsl</value></prop>
                <prop oor:name="FilterService"><value>com.sun.star.comp.Writer.XmlFilterAdaptor</value></prop>
                <prop oor:name="UIName">
                        <value xml:lang="x-default">MediaWiki</value>
                </prop>
                <prop oor:name="Flags"><value>EXPORT ALIEN 3RDPARTYFILTER</value></prop>
        </node>
        <node oor:name="MediaWiki_Web" oor:op="replace">
                <prop oor:name="FileFormatVersion"><value>0</value></prop>
                <prop oor:name="Type"><value>MediaWiki</value></prop>
                <prop oor:name="DocumentService"><value>com.sun.star.text.WebDocument</value></prop>
                <prop oor:name="UIComponent"/>
                <prop oor:name="UserData"><value oor:separator=",">com.sun.star.documentconversion.XSLTFilter,,,com.sun.star.comp.Writer.XMLOasisExporter,,%origin%/filter/odt2mediawiki.xsl</value></prop>
                <prop oor:name="FilterService"><value>com.sun.star.comp.Writer.XmlFilterAdaptor</value></prop>
                <prop oor:name="UIName">
                        <value xml:lang="x-default">MediaWiki</value>
                </prop>
                <prop oor:name="Flags"><value>EXPORT ALIEN 3RDPARTYFILTER</value></prop>
        </node>
 </node>
</oor:component-data>

The various parameters are described in the Developer's Guide. The "Type" parameter points to the "MediaWiki" type that is configured in another configuration node:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE oor:component-data SYSTEM "../../../../component-update.dtd">
<oor:component-data xmlns:oor="http://openoffice.org/2001/registry" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" oor:package="org.openoffice.TypeDetection" oor:name="Types">
        <node oor:name="Types">
        <node oor:name="MediaWiki" oor:op="replace">
                <prop oor:name="DetectService"><value>com.sun.star.comp.filters.XMLFilterDetect</value></prop>
                <prop oor:name="URLPattern"/>
                <prop oor:name="Extensions"><value>txt</value></prop>
                <prop oor:name="MediaType"/>
                <prop oor:name="Preferred"><value>false</value></prop>
                <prop oor:name="PreferredFilter"/>
                <prop oor:name="UIName">
                        <value xml:lang="x-default">MediaWiki</value>
                </prop>
                <prop oor:name="ClipboardFormat"/>
        </node>
        </node>
</oor:component-data>

Again the parameters are described in the [Guide].

The filter configuration also points to the place where the xsl file (or in case of a more complex transformation: the main xsl file) is found. It's coded as %origin%/filter/odt2mediawiki.xsl. "%origin%" points to the root directory of the zip package. So the xsl is found in a folder "filter" inside the package.

As always in extensions, a manifest and a description.xml have to be added. That's it.

If you want to provide your own xsl filter, just adapt the Filter.xcu and Type.xcu files and the description.xml and of course add your xsl file(s).