Re: [Libreoffice] Rationale for replacing Java with anything but c++ (was Re: web based libre office)

On 28/01/11 14:39, Thorsten Guenther wrote:
> Hi Michael,
>
> Am 28.01.2011 14:58, schrieb Michael Meeks:
> >      Almost certainly you want to get involved with the existing odf toolkit
> > project: http://odftoolkit.org/ they have a new Java API that does this
> > - though not using LibreOffice.
> No, they created a stand alone lib. Great for running headless in your
> appserver. I remember OOo was raped to do such things in the past. I
> want LO to, for example, create an invoice or report from some backends
> data and present it to the user for further editing. Some interaction
> with the user would be desirable, to let him select some additional Data
> or something.
Having done that sort of thing ...

The backend should be able to talk basic XML. That gives us two options.

Bear in mind I was dealing with a lot of data ... our first attempt was
a mailmerge. This was actually rather slow, cumbersome, and prone to
errors. The second attempt was an "active document" if I can call it
that. A bit like a WordPerfect macro, you can build a document using it.
The third attempt was simply to get the database to spit out rtf
documents (which it did quite well, actually).

But as for your examples of invoices or reports, I think they are
actually very BAD examples of things that require inter-active post
processing. In America, that could very easily be a Sarbanes-Oxley
violation. Pretty much anywhere, it's likely to be a violation of GAAP.
And ime the volume will simply overwhelm you anyway.

I don't want to say "don't do it", but I think the market for what
you're proposing will be very limited - either you don't want / can't
handle interactivity, or a simple mailmerge will do. There's actually
almost no space between those two extremes.

Cheers,
Wol