Automating creation of PDF from Calc

mcmurchy1917-libreof · May 8, 2014, 1:22pm

Hi all

I have a requirement to generate PDF's from specific set sheets contained in one Calc document, the document has 85 individual sheets.

I've generated a macro to do this, having first recorded the steps using the macro recorder. Though the steps to record the macro worked perfectly as only the individual selection, i.e, all the cells on a specific sheet, was generated as a PDF. If I then run the macro with the same selection it always creates a PDF of the entire document - all 85 sheets instead of just the selection!

Here's the recorded macro, note the selection "$A$1:$G$35"

sub exporttopdf
rem ----------------------------------------------------------------------
rem define variables
dim document as object
dim dispatcher as object

rem ----------------------------------------------------------------------
rem get access to the document
document = ThisComponent.CurrentController.Frame
dispatcher = createUnoService("com.sun.star.frame.DispatchHelper")

rem ----------------------------------------------------------------------
dim args1(0) as new com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue
args1(0).Name = "ToPoint"
args1(0).Value = "$A$1:$G$35"

dispatcher.executeDispatch(document, ".uno:GoToCell", "", 0, args1())

rem ----------------------------------------------------------------------
dim args2(2) as new com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue
args2(0).Name = "URL"
args2(0).Value = "file:///home/alex/example.pdf"
args2(1).Name = "FilterName"
args2(1).Value = "calc_pdf_Export"
args2(2).Name = "FilterData"
args2(2).Value = Array( _
Array("UseLosslessCompression",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("Quality",0,90,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("ReduceImageResolution",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("MaxImageResolution",0,300,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("UseTaggedPDF",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("SelectPdfVersion",0,0,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("ExportNotes",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("ViewPDFAfterExport",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("ExportBookmarks",0,true,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("OpenBookmarkLevels",0,-1,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("UseTransitionEffects",0,true,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("IsSkipEmptyPages",0,true,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("IsAddStream",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("FormsType",0,0,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("ExportFormFields",0,true,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("AllowDuplicateFieldNames",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("HideViewerToolbar",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("HideViewerMenubar",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("HideViewerWindowControls",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("ResizeWindowToInitialPage",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("CenterWindow",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("OpenInFullScreenMode",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("DisplayPDFDocumentTitle",0,true,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("InitialView",0,0,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("Magnification",0,0,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("Zoom",0,100,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("PageLayout",0,0,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("FirstPageOnLeft",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("InitialPage",0,1,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("Printing",0,2,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("Changes",0,4,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("EnableCopyingOfContent",0,true,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("EnableTextAccessForAccessibilityTools",0,true,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("ExportLinksRelativeFsys",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("PDFViewSelection",0,0,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("ConvertOOoTargetToPDFTarget",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("ExportBookmarksToPDFDestination",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("SignPDF",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("_OkButtonString",0,"",com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("Watermark",0,"",com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("EncryptFile",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("PreparedPasswords",0,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("RestrictPermissions",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("PreparedPermissionPassword",0,Array(),com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("Selection",com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("SignatureLocation",0,"",com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("SignatureReason",0,"",com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("SignatureContactInfo",0,"",com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("SignaturePassword",0,"",com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("SignatureCertificate",0,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE))

dispatcher.executeDispatch(document, ".uno:ExportToPDF", "", 0, args2())

end sub

Clearly the recorded macro has failed to record correctly, I do know that this can happen from time to time, and that I should tweak something in the above array, but don't not what and am finding it difficult to track down where these parameters are described in the documentation. Can anyone point me to where these parameters are described?

I've managed to derive a workaround for this which is to hide all the sheets that I'm not interested in then executing this block of code. It's a bit cumbersome as I have to hide 84 sheets just to create a PDF of one sheet.

Whilst writing this note I've thought of another method that is to print the active sheet to a pdf file. I'm busily reading Andrew Pitonyak’s book
OpenOffice.org Macros Explained. Again I need to find the methods and properties associated with printin Calc sheets. Again can anyone point me in the right direction?

Could this be a question for the Developer's list?

Thanks

Alex

Brian_Barker · May 8, 2014, 2:43pm

You could set print ranges (Format | Print Ranges) on all the relevant sheets - which could cover either entire sheets or ranges, even multiple ranges, within them - and then either use File | Export as PDF... (or the Export Directly as PDF button in the Standard toolbar) or print to a virtual PDF printer (free versions are available).

Or have I misunderstood the detail of your requirement?

I trust this helps.

Brian Barker

Alex_Kempshall · May 8, 2014, 6:56pm

Hi Brian

I want to do it via a macro.

Out of the 85 sheets in the document I would want to create PDFs for 24 of them. I would soon get bored or make mistakes if I generated each manually.

Really what I'm looking for is to see if anyone can point me in the direction of the documentation for the API properties for exporting to PDFs.

Thanks

Alex

Brian_Barker · May 9, 2014, 4:05am

I have a requirement to generate PDF's from specific set sheets contained in one Calc document, the document has 85 individual sheets.

You could set print ranges (Format | Print Ranges) on all the relevant sheets - which could cover either entire sheets or ranges, even multiple ranges, within them - and then either use File | Export as PDF... (or the Export Directly as PDF button in the Standard toolbar) or print to a virtual PDF printer (free versions are available).

I want to do it via a macro.

So you have the same problem as the Alex McMurchy who made the original enquiry? I'd hoped you had a problem and were looking for a solution - whatever it might be.

Out of the 85 sheets in the document I would want to create PDFs for 24 of them. I would soon get bored or make mistakes if I generated each manually.

I don't want to argue, but I didn't see anything in your macro that referred to the separate sheets, so you appear to have to run the macro "manually" on each sheet in any case.

But chacun à son goût. Good luck!

Brian Barker

mcmurchy1917-libreof · May 12, 2014, 7:49am

Well eventually I seem to be getting somewhere. There seems to be a lot of choice.

There are some people who use the method of hiding all the sheets except the sheet to be converted into a PDF. Which is the method I used below.

Another methed seems to be to use printareas. To me this only seemed useful if one wanted to print a specific section of a sheet. Though I didn't quite master the intricacies of swithing on/off print areas though thgis code started to look promising -

rem ----------------------------------------------------------------------
rem define variables
dim oFrame as object
dim oDispatcher as object
Dim CellRangeAddress As New com.sun.star.table.CellRangeAddress
Dim oDoc As Object
Dim oSheet As Object
Dim oFirstSheet As Object
Dim iEndCol As Integer
Dim aPrintRanges(0) As Object

oDoc = ThisComponent
oFirstSheet = oDoc.Sheets.getByIndex( 0 )
iEndCol = getLastUsedColumn(oFirstSheet)

rem ----------------------------------------------------------------------
rem get access to the document
oFrame = ThisComponent.CurrentController.Frame
oDispatcher = createUnoService("com.sun.star.frame.DispatchHelper")

rem ----------------------------------------------------------------------
CellRangeAddress.Sheet = 0
CellRangeAddress.StartColumn = 0
CellRangeAddress.StartRow = 0
CellRangeAddress.EndColumn = 6
CellRangeAddress.EndRow = 35
aPrintRanges(0)=CellRangeAddress

oDoc.Sheets.getByIndex(0 ).setPrintAreas(aPrintRanges())

I used this method to erase the print areas on particular sheets so that the entire sheet became printable.

oDoc.Sheets.getByIndex(1 ).AutomaticPrintArea=True

The third method which seems to be the most promising selects the range of cells to be PDF'd and actually uses a method from the API. I cobbled this together from this tutorial

https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/API/Tutorials/PDF_export

and Andrew Pitonyak’s book converting from Java as I went along

Sub exporttopdf1()

Dim oFrame as object, oDispatcher as object, oDoc as object, oController as object, oSheet as object
Dim oRange as object, oDispatcherService as object, oSelection as object
Dim aFilterData(0) as new com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue
Dim aMediaDescriptor(1) as new com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue

oDocument = ThisComponent
oFirstSheet = oDocument.Sheets(0)
oSecondSheet = oDocument.Sheets(1)
oController = oDocument.getCurrentController()
oFrame = oController.getFrame()
oDispatcherService = createUnoService("com.sun.star.frame.DispatchHelper")
oRange = oFirstSheet.getCellRangeByPosition(0, 0, getLastUsedColumn(oFirstSheet), 3)
oController.Select(oRange)
oSelection = ThisComponent.getCurrentController().getSelection()

sURL= "file:///home/alex/example1.pdf"

aFilterData(0).Name = "Selection"
aFilterData(0).Value = oSelection

aMediaDescriptor(0).Name = "FilterName"
aMediaDescriptor(0).Value = "calc_pdf_Export"
aMediaDescriptor(1).Name = "FilterData"
aMediaDescriptor(1).Value = aFilterData

oDocument.storeToURL(sURL, aMediaDescriptor)

End Sub

All the best

Alex

Fernand_Vanrie · May 12, 2014, 10:38am

Alex ,

using the Dispatcher is not a good idea , use te API and basic to automate some functions as printing to PDF under specific conditions.
Please find below the code i use to print from a Writer doc

Sub export2PDF()

dim oDoc as object

CheckReportUser()
sParent = checkparent

OpenParams = Array(MakePropertyValue("Hidden",True),)

odoc = ThisComponent
'dispatcher = createUnoService("com.sun.star.frame.DispatchHelper")
aray = Split(Date,"/")
D = Join(aray,"-")
aray = Split(Time,":")
T = Join(aray,".")
'path = ConvertToUrl( "file:///C:/export/test " & D & "_" & T & ".pdf" )
sfilename = left(odoc.title,12)& ".pdf"
path = ConvertToUrl( "file:///H:/LowRes_" & sfilename )
'********
'all documentation about filderdata: >>> http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/API/Tutorials/PDF_export#PDF_Export_filter_data
'**********
pdfFilterData() = array((makepropertyvalue("UseLosslessCompression", false))
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"Quality",90) ' only if we set UseLosslessCompression to FALSE ( jpg)
'AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"ReduceImageResolution",false)
'AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"MaxImageResolution",300) ' only if we set ReduceImageResolution to TRUE (only 75, 150, 300, 600 or 1200 can been used
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"UseTaggedPDF",false)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"SelectPdfVersion",0) '0= pdf1.4 , 1= pdf-xa
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"ExportNotes",false)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"ExportBookmarks",false)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"OpenBookmarkLevels",-1)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"UseTransitionEffects",true)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"IsSkipEmptyPages",true)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"IsAddStream",false)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"EmbedStandardFonts",false)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"FormsType",0)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"ExportFormFields",true)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"AllowDuplicateFieldNames",false)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"HideViewerToolbar",false)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"HideViewerMenubar",false)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"HideViewerWindowControls",false)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"ResizeWindowToInitialPage",false)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"CenterWindow",false)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"OpenInFullScreenMode",false)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"DisplayPDFDocumentTitle",true)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"InitialView",0)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"Magnification",0)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"Zoom",100)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"PageLayout",0)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"FirstPageOnLeft",false)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"InitialPage",1)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"Printing",2)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"Changes",4)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"EnableCopyingOfContent",true)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"EnableTextAccessForAccessibilityTools",true)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"ExportLinksRelativeFsys",false)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"PDFViewSelection",0)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"ConvertOOoTargetToPDFTarget",false)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"ExportBookmarksToPDFDestination",false)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"_OkButtonString","")
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"EncryptFile",false)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"DocumentOpenPassword","")
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"RestrictPermissions",false)
AddPropertyValue(pdfFilterData,"PermissionPassword","")

    oExport = Array( _
       MakePropertyValue("Overwrite", True), _
       MakePropertyValue("FilterName", "writer_pdf_Export"), _
       MakePropertyValue("FilterData", pdfFilterData), _
    )

oDoc.storeTOURL(path,oExport)
' oDoc.close(True)
End Sub

Alex_Kempshall · May 13, 2014, 8:31am

Hi Fernand and everyone else.

Thanks for the note. The reason for my initial posting was that I realised that using the Dispatcher was not helpful and I wanted to use the API methods. It wasn't until several days later with lots of googling that I fould that the API method to export to a PDF was

oDocument=ThisComponent
oDocument.storeToURL(sURL, aMediaDescriptor)

plus the filter

calc_pdf_Export

and it wasn't until I fell over the link

https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/API/Tutorials/PDF_export

that things became a lot clearer. Prior to this I was googling for a method like export as PDF and as there isn't one that explicitly has this or a similar name I couldn't find what I was looking for but suffering from information overload with the hundreds of thousands hits I was getting.

I've now decided to follow the discussions in the Apache Open Office Community Forum for "Macros and UNO API" as it seems to contain a wealth of information. I've not found any information of any relevance on the LibreOffice sites relating to the API. If there is any, can someone point me in the right direction. A simple guide to the key areas of the API would be really useful.

OpenOffice has this page which can search their API - http://www.openoffice.org/api/

So if I enter "export as pdf" in the "The Office API Reference" and push the Search button I get 2 results which contains the information I was looking for. Though I do think the Description for the page found http://www.openoffice.org/api/docs/common/ref/com/sun/star/frame/XStorable.html could also include something like "You are here because you want to export as PDF and here are some relevant examples.

Or am I being unhelpful and just complaining because I don't undestand how to navigate the API documentation?

Alex