Handling Spreadsheet Document Files

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  • Handling Spreadsheet Documents Files



Creating and Loading Spreadsheet Documents

If a document in Apache OpenOffice API is required, begin by getting a com.sun.star.frame.Desktop service from the service manager. The desktop handles all document components in Apache OpenOffice API. It is discussed thoroughly in the chapter Office Development. Office documents are often called components, because they support the com.sun.star.lang.XComponent interface. An XComponent is a UNO object that can be disposed of directly and broadcast an event to other UNO objects when the object is disposed.

The Desktop can load new and existing components from a URL. For this purpose it has a com.sun.star.frame.XComponentLoader interface that has one single method to load and instantiate components from a URL into a frame:

  com::sun::star::lang::XComponent loadComponentFromURL( [IN] string aURL, 
             [IN] string aTargetFrameName, 
             [IN] long nSearchFlags, 
             [IN] sequence <com::sun::star::beans::PropertyValue[] aArgs > )

The interesting parameters in our context is the URL that describes the resource that is loaded and the load arguments. For the target frame, pass a "_blank" and set the search flags to 0. In most cases, existing frames are not reused.

The URL can be a file: URL, an http: URL, an ftp: URL or a private: URL. Locate the correct URL format in the Load URL box in the function bar of Apache OpenOffice API. For new spreadsheet documents, a special URL scheme is used. The scheme is "private:", followed by "factory". The resource is "scalc" for Apache OpenOffice API spreadsheet documents. For a new spreadsheet document, use "private:factory/scalc".

The load arguments are described in com.sun.star.document.MediaDescriptor. The properties AsTemplate and Hidden are boolean values and used for programming. If AsTemplate is true, the loader creates a new untitled document from the given URL. If it is false, template files are loaded for editing. If Hidden is true, the document is loaded in the background. This is useful to generate a document in the background without letting the user observe what is happening. For instance, use it to generate a document and print it out without previewing. Refer to Office Development for other available options. This snippet loads a document in hidden mode:

  // the method getRemoteServiceManager is described in the chapter First Steps
  mxRemoteServiceManager = this.getRemoteServiceManager(unoUrl);
 
  // retrieve the Desktop object, we need its XComponentLoader
  Object desktop = mxRemoteServiceManager.createInstanceWithContext(
      "com.sun.star.frame.Desktop", mxRemoteContext);
 
  // query the XComponentLoader interface from the Desktop service
  XComponentLoader xComponentLoader = (XComponentLoader)UnoRuntime.queryInterface(
      XComponentLoader.class, desktop);
 
  // define load properties according to com.sun.star.document.MediaDescriptor
 
  /* or simply create an empty array of com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue structs:
     PropertyValue[] loadProps = new PropertyValue[0]
   */
 
  // the boolean property Hidden tells the office to open a file in hidden mode
  PropertyValue[] loadProps = new PropertyValue[1];
  loadProps[0] = new PropertyValue();
  loadProps[0].Name = "Hidden";
  loadProps[0].Value = new Boolean(true);
  loadUrl = "file:///c:/MyCalcDocument.ods"
 
  // load
  return xComponentLoader.loadComponentFromURL(loadUrl, "_blank", 0, loadProps);
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