Difference between revisions of "Groovy UNO Extension"

Revision as of 00:32, 7 January 2016

Overview

The goal of the Groovy UNO Extension is to provide convenience methods and allow UNO programming that is less verbose than using the Java UNO API's alone.

These methods are implemented using Groovy Extension Modules. An extension module allows you to add new methods to existing classes, including classes which are precompiled, like classes from the JDK or in this case Java UNO classes. These new methods, unlike those defined through a metaclass or using a category, are available globally.

Initial efforts have been on enhancing the spreadsheet API's and future work will be on enhancing the other applications.

Getting Started

The Extension is a Gradle based project and information about checking it out of Apache SVN can be found on the OpenOffice_Gradle_Integration page.

Usage

The best way to explain the differences between the Java UNO API's and using Groovy with and without the extension is with some example code. Many of the examples are from SCalc.java that is included with the AOO SDK.

Get the first sheet in the spreadsheet document and insert data into a cell
The example leaves out the try/catch for brevity and assumes we have a reference to XSpreadsheetDocument myDoc..
Java way

   XSpreadsheets xSheets = myDoc.getSheets() ;
   XIndexAccess oIndexSheets = (XIndexAccess) UnoRuntime.queryInterface(
       XIndexAccess.class, xSheets);
   xSheet = (XSpreadsheet) UnoRuntime.queryInterface(
      XSpreadsheet.class, oIndexSheets.getByIndex(0));
   xCell = xSheet.getCellByPosition(1,0);
   xCell.setFormula("Sample");

Groovy Extension way

   XSpreadsheet xSheet = myDoc.getSheetByIndex(0)
   xSheet.setTextToCell(1,0,"Sample")

Using Groovy without the extension allows removing the Interface cast on the right side and not using semi-colons.
The following examples are in that style and other than that, similar to the Java way.

Setting the Cell Style property
The extension adds a setter method for CellStyle allowing what looks like property access to cellStyle. (ToDo add getter method)
Without Extension

  XPropertySet xCellProps = UnoRuntime.queryInterface(XPropertySet.class, xCell)
  xCellProps.setPropertyValue("CellStyle", "Result")

With extension

  xCell.cellStyle = "Result"

Using Enum Types
The extension adds getter and setter methods for CellVertJustify allowing what looks like property access to vertJustify.
Without extension

   xCellProps.setPropertyValue("VertJustify", com.sun.star.table.CellVertJustify.TOP)

With extension

   xCell.vertJustify = com.sun.star.table.CellVertJustify.TOP

Setting the active sheet
Without Extension but using SpreadsheetDocHelper.groovy included with the OpenOffice_Gradle_Integration aoo-client template.

   XModel xSpreadsheetModel = sdHelper.getModel()
   XController xSpreadsheetController = xSpreadsheetModel.getCurrentController()
   XSpreadsheetView xSpreadsheetView = UnoRuntime.queryInterface(XSpreadsheetView.class, xSpreadsheetController)
   xSpreadsheetView.setActiveSheet(xSpreadsheet)

With extension and a SpreadsheetDocHelper.groovy method to get the XSpreadsheetView directly

   XSpreadsheetView xSpreadsheetView = sdHelper.getSpreadsheetView()
   xSpreadsheetView.setActiveSheet(xSpreadsheet)

Get cell ranges
Without extension

   XCellRangesQuery xCellQuery = UnoRuntime.queryInterface(XCellRangesQuery.class, xSpreadsheet)
   XSheetCellRanges xFormulaCells = xCellQuery.queryContentCells((short)CellFlags.FORMULA)

With extension

   XSheetCellRanges xFormulaCells = xSpreadsheet.getCellRanges(CellFlags.FORMULA)

Use of XEnumerationAccess
Without extension we get an Enumeration and use it iterate through Cells

   XEnumerationAccess xFormulas = xFormulaCells.getCells()
   XEnumeration xFormulaEnum = xFormulas.createEnumeration()
   while (xFormulaEnum.hasMoreElements()) {
       Object formulaCell = xFormulaEnum.nextElement()
       xCell = UnoRuntime.queryInterface(XCell.class, formulaCell)
       XCellAddressable xCellAddress = UnoRuntime.queryInterface(XCellAddressable.class, xCell)
       println("Formula cell in column " +
           xCellAddress.getCellAddress().Column + ", row " + xCellAddress.getCellAddress().Row
           + " contains " + xCell.getFormula())
       }

With extension we can use a List provided by a new method and a closure to iterate through each cell

   XCell[] cellList = xFormulaCells.cellList
   cellList.each() {println("Formula cell in column ${it.address.Column}, " + 
       "row ${it.address.Row} contains ${it.formula}")
   }

Create a new cell range container
Without Extension

   com.sun.star.lang.XMultiServiceFactory xDocFactory = UnoRuntime.queryInterface(
       com.sun.star.lang.XMultiServiceFactory.class, xSpreadsheetDocument)
   com.sun.star.sheet.XSheetCellRangeContainer xRangeCont = UnoRuntime.queryInterface(
       com.sun.star.sheet.XSheetCellRangeContainer.class,
       xDocFactory.createInstance("com.sun.star.sheet.SheetCellRanges"));

With extension

   XSheetCellRangeContainer xRangeCont = xSpreadsheetDocument.rangeContainer

Query the list of filled cells from a range container
Without Extension

   print("All filled cells: ")
   com.sun.star.container.XEnumerationAccess xCellsEA = xRangeCont.getCells()
   com.sun.star.container.XEnumeration xEnum = xCellsEA.createEnumeration()          
   while (xEnum.hasMoreElements()) {
       Object aCellObj = xEnum.nextElement()
       com.sun.star.sheet.XCellAddressable xAddr = UnoRuntime.queryInterface(
           com.sun.star.sheet.XCellAddressable.class, aCellObj)
       com.sun.star.table.CellAddress aAddr = xAddr.getCellAddress()
       println(sdHelper.getCellAddressString(aAddr.Column, aAddr.Row) + " ")
   }

With extension and using a closure to iterate through the list of cells

   XCell[] cellList2 = xRangeCont.cellList
   print("All filled cells: ")
   cellList2.each() {println("Formula cell in column ${it.address.Column}, " + 
       "row ${it.address.Row} contains ${it.formula}")
   }