OpenOffice Basic is cool. It can manipulate everything in your document, spreadsheets and slides. It helps you to create complicated reports automatically. But OpenOffice Basic is not cool. It lacks everything a modern hardcore developer needs: Personal favorite text editors, version controls, source repositories, etc. OpenOffice Basic macros are created and edited only with Basic IDE, and stored in some hidden place in your hard disk, not in the source form but in XML. They cannot be managed with modern development tools like svn, git, different text editors, and cloud storage backup. What if there is a tool that let you work off-line, out of the OpenOffice Basic IDE box, with your favorite text editor, on anywhere on your hard drive? That's why I wrote obasync to do this job: Synchronize your local Basic macro sources with OpenOffice Basic storage. It frees me from Basic IDE and I can apply every source code development tools now. Talk delivered in FOSDEM’17 ULB Solbosch Campus, Brussels, 4 & 5 February 2017 Track: Developer rooms: Open Document Editors Room: K.4.401 Date/Time: Saturday 4 February 2017 13:30-13:50 https://fosdem.org/2017/schedule/event/office_source_code_mgmt/ Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB1rAAgkYGY obasync - Office Basic macro source synchronizer https://pypi.python.org/pypi/obasync https://github.com/imacat/obasync

1. Office Basic
Source Code
Management
imacat
imacat@mail.imacat.idv.tw
2017/2/4, 2017/8/5

2. “Office Basic Source Code Management” is created by imacat (Yang Shih-Ching),
and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

3. imacat / Yang Shih-Ching
● Taiwan OpenOffice/LibreOffice community
● Apache OpenOffice PMC
● Women in FOSS in Taiwan

4. OpenOffice Basic is cool!

5. It connects programming
with everybody’s daily routines.

6. I create Basic toolkit applications
for all kinds of jobs.

7. For example,

8. Accounting Sheet

9. Meet-up Sign Book

10. Mosaic Spreadsheet

11. Geometrical Paintings

12. Piano

13. Christmas Tree

14. Pokémon GO IV Calculator

15. But still,
OpenOffice Basic sucks!

16. I lost all my Basic macros
when I reinstall my system,
if I forget to export them.

17. I cannot synchronizing my Basic macros
among my office PC, my home PC,
and my laptop
unless I keep export and import
everything, everyday.

18. Finally, Basic IDE sucks.

19. And the macros are exported XML files,
which I cannot work with directly.

20. This means I cannot do complicated things
that Basic IDE does not support.
Things like…

21. …regular expression search and replace,
/w+@w+(.w+)+/
/w+@w+(.w+)+/
/w+@w+(.w+)+/
/w+@w+(.w+)+/

22. …looking into all the occurrence of something
for code refactoring,
grep -r "getNumUsers" *.*
grep -r "getNumUsers" *.*
grep -r "getNumUsers" *.*
grep -r "getNumUsers" *.*

23. …and many, many more.

24. So, I wonder:
Can I write Basic macros
outside of Basic IDE?

25. What do I need
if I want to write Basic macros
outside of Basic IDE?

26. I can keep a source directory.
Whenever I update my macro sources,
I copy-and-paste them into Basic IDE.

27. But this doesn’t make things easier.

28. Or I can create a tool to do this.
Whenever I update my macro sources,
it copy-and-pastes them into Basic IDE.

29. To do this,
I need to be able
to read and update the Basic macros.

30. This reminds me of
something similar I’d done before.

31. Calc Mosaic
http://sf.net/p/calcmosaic

32. In Calc Mosaic,
after all the mosaic sheets are created,
Basic macros are inserted to play these sheets.

33. Document Basic Macro Storage
● The document Basic macro storage is the
BasicLibraries attribute of the
OfficeDocument object.
OfficeDocumentOfficeDocument
BasicLibrariesBasicLibraries
Basic LibraryBasic Library
Basic Module (String)Basic Module (String)
doc_libs = doc.getPropertyValue("BasicLibraries")

34. System and User
Basic Macro Storage
● But the system and user Basic macros are
stored together at a different location, the
ApplicationScriptLibraryContainer service.
ApplicationApplication
ApplicationScriptLibraryContainerApplicationScriptLibraryContainer
Basic LibraryBasic Library
Basic Module (String)Basic Module (String)
app_libs = service_manager.createInstance(
"com.sun.star.script.ApplicationScriptLibraryContainer")

35. Basic Library Storage
● ApplicationScriptLibraryContainer has the
XNameAccess interface.
– Use hasByName() to check if a library exist.
– Use getByName() to obtain a library.
ApplicationApplication
Basic LibraryBasic Library
Basic Module (String)Basic Module (String)
ApplicationScriptLibraryContainerApplicationScriptLibraryContainer

36. Basic Library
● The Basic library is an XNameContainer.
– Use getByName() to obtain a module.
– Use replaceByName() to update a module.
– Use insertByName() to add a module.
– Use removeByName() to delete a module.
ApplicationApplication
ApplicationScriptLibraryContainerApplicationScriptLibraryContainer
Basic Module (String)Basic Module (String)
Basic LibraryBasic Library

37. Basic Module
● The Basic module obtained with the previous
getByName() is a String that contains one or
more Basic subroutines as Basic macros.
ApplicationApplication
ApplicationScriptLibraryContainerApplicationScriptLibraryContainer
Basic LibraryBasic Library
Basic Module (String)Basic Module (String)

38. The logic is simple.

39. Synchronize Between
Files and Basic Storage

40. Update Basic Modules
(Upload / Check In)
● Add the missing Basic modules.
● Replace the updated Basic modules.
● Delete the obsoleted Basic modules.

41. Update Source Files
(Download / Check Out)
● Add the missing source files.
● Replace the updated source files.
● Delete the obsoleted source files.

42. (obasync Demonstration)

43. So,
what’s so good
to leave Basic IDE?

44. Developers can store the source files
with cloud sync servicescloud sync services,
and access their source files EVERYWHERE!

45. Developers can apply version control systemversion control system
to manage their source files.
CVSCVS

46. Developers can host their projectshost their projects
on common project hosting services.

47. Developers can apply build toolsbuild tools
to automate extension packaging,
unit tests, and releases.
makemake

48. In addition, with the build tools,
we can establish
project layout rulesproject layout rules and templatestemplates
to simplify and automate project management.
makemake

49. Take my Pokémon GO IV Calculator
for example.

50. Pokémon GO IV Calculator
● It is entirely in my folder.
– I work seamlessly on my PC and my laptop.

51. Pokémon GO IV Calculator
● It is entirely in my folder.
– I work seamlessly on my PC and my laptop.
– I do not worry if my hard disk dies.

52. Pokémon GO IV Calculator
● It is entirely in my folder.
– I work seamlessly on my PC and my laptop.
– I do not worry if my hard disk dies.
● I use for version control.

53. Pokémon GO IV Calculator
● It is entirely in my folder.
– I work seamlessly on my PC and my laptop.
– I do not worry if my hard disk dies.
● I use for version control.
● I host my project on .

54. Pokémon GO IV Calculator
● It is entirely in my folder.
– I work seamlessly on my PC and my laptop.
– I do not worry if my hard disk dies.
● I use for version control.
● I host my project on .
● I use with a build.xml and a
fixed project template to build and release.

55. Pokémon GO IV Calculator
Project Structure
rootroot PokemonGoIVPokemonGoIV
oxtoxt META-INFMETA-INF
PokemonGoIVPokemonGoIV
pkg-descpkg-desc
Main.vb, …etc.
Addons.xcu
description.xml
build.xml
README
VERSION
Main.vb, …etc.manifest.xml
pkg-description.txt
Main.xba, …etc.

56. Try obasync!
PyPI: pypi.python.org/pypi/obasync
GitHub: github.com/imacat/obasync
For an example project using obasync,
check the Office Pokémon GO IV Calculator
on GitHub: github.com/imacat/pokemongoiv

57. Thank you.
Any questions?