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Hello All,Is there any way to define customized options at the "system level"
that won't be overridden when a new version of LibreOffice is
installed?Right now, we use xmlstarlet to make a few entries in
/usr/lib/libreoffice/share/registry/main.xcd (and writer.xcd,
calc.xcd).However, this directory appears to beoverwrittenwhen LibreOffice upgrades (on Ubuntu based systems using the
LibreOffice PPAs).We can "hack around" to make sure that every user's
registrymodifications.xcu has the values we want (again using
xmlstarlet), but this seems like an ugly hack.Better to have
system level settings persistent, and then IF a user's
registrymodifications.xcu overrides this value, so be it.We also know we can modify registrymodifcations.xcu at the /etc/skel
level, or put registrymodifications.xcu in
/usr/lib/libreoffice/presets (however, it seems like a bug that this
file is NOT copied to a users ~/.config/libreoffice folder ... see
this bug:https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=69609)Again, I am thinking it is the cleanest would be if there were a way
to make the change at the system level, if a user has overridden
then respect it.So, any pointers on how to define "persistentsystem level
customized options" would be much appreciated.Thanks,iveand
No idea what specific system integration Ubuntu offers for LibreOffice, but the recommended way to install site-wide configuration settings for stock LibreOffice is via extensions that are installed as shared or bundled. (See <https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/DevGuide/Extensions> for details.)
Stephan
Hi,
calc.xcd).However, this directory appears to beoverwrittenwhen LibreOffice upgrades (on Ubuntu based systems using the
LibreOffice PPAs).We can "hack around" to make sure that every user's
registrymodifications.xcu has the values we want (again using
xmlstarlet), but this seems like an ugly hack.Better to have
This was always my gripe with Ubuntu provided versions of OpenOffice.org
previously, and now the same happens with LibreOffice. This is just
anecdotal, but some time in the distant past, the firm I was working in
used an external Linux IT support firm which had a dedicated support
contract with Ubuntu, and a request was filed to have it corrected, but
nothing ever came back from Ubuntu at the time, and that was 6 or so
years ago (this wasn't the only OOo bug that gave us grief at that
time). It would seem that nothing has changed since 
Good luck in your quest !
Alex
Hi
From the sounds of it the 4.2.0 might have addressed some of these
concerns, at least on Windows.
However i thought that the User Profile kept a lot of the users
settings and configurations and that the User Profile could be copied
or shared between users or even over a network. A new install of
LibreOffice doesn't touch the User Profile except to add stuff for new
features.
Part of the joy of using OpenSource is surely that reasonably sized
companies can employ their own devs, even if it's very part-time or
for just a couple of months, and still make a huge saving on costs vs
MS license fees. For smaller companies it might be possible to offer
rewards through crowd-sourcing/funding. This sort of approach gives
companies the ability to target specific areas.
Also there seem to be a lot of lurking lurgies that Sun and then
Oracle were completely disinterested in solving but have already been
solved by TDF or are on the way, or could easily be started without
being blocked by the company that owns LibreOffice. Similarly with
Apache OpenOffice although LibreOffice seems to be developing far
faster. If a 6 year-old problem has not yet been solved then maybe
post it as a new problem in LibreOffice because it's difficult to pick
through old bugs that might have been solved already just through
doing the code-cleanup
Regards from
Tom .
No
idea what specific system integration Ubuntu offers for
LibreOffice, but the recommended way to install site-wide
configuration settings for stock LibreOffice is via extensions
that are installed as shared or bundled.(Seehttps://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/DevGuide/Extensionsfor details.)Stephan and others,Thanks for the reply, but unfortunately the above link seems
basically empty.I then checked outhttp://extensions.libreoffice.org/and see some resources on getting
started developing.But I am not wanting to re-invent the wheel here and code something
up from scratch so is there any sample extension that anyone knows
of that will adjust any default values in the *.xcd XML files (or
alternatively maybe they point LibreOffice to an additional location
for settings that could be held in a custom "system wide" .xcu
file?)I am not looking to add "interactive features" to LibreOffice, but
simply to adjust some of the default settings on a "system wide"
level.If I could bundle these as an extension that would be just
fine to deploy.I could even have the .xml file (I would guess an
.xcu?) of "my" unique settings static, and the extension would just
put it in place and update whatever needs modifying to point to it?Regards and thanks again,iveand
I am
not looking to add "interactive features" to LibreOffice, but
simply to adjust some of the default settings on a "system wide"
level.If I could bundle these as an extension that would be just
fine to deploy.I could even have the .xml file (I would guess an
.xcu?) of "my" unique settings static, and the extension would
just put it in place and update whatever needs modifying to point
to it?I think I am making some progress as I found this link:https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/Non-code_extensionsIn that link is this information:Extension
support in the Configuration Manager
I am
not looking to add "interactive features" to LibreOffice, but
simply to adjust some of the default settings on a "system wide"
level.If I could bundle these as an extension that would be just
fine to deploy.I could even have the .xml file (I would guess an
.xcu?) of "my" unique settings static, and the extension would
just put it in place and update whatever needs modifying to point
to it?I think I am making some progress as I found this link:https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/Non-code_extensionsIn that link is this information:Extension
support in the Configuration Manager
I'd suggest a simple method: install LibO on a clean machine. Set it up
to your liking then save the user profile from this machine. All you've
got to do afterwards is to restore the saved user profile to each and
every new install. Then everyone has got the same in-house settings.
I'm using this very method to do exactly that.
Under Windows, I combine this with ActiveSetup so that I get an
automatic user-setting: I save the user profile somewhere on the PC (in
a subdir of ProgramFiles/LibreOffice) and configure ActiveSetup to go
and copy these settings to the new user profile. And that's it.
I'd suggest a simple method: install LibO on a clean machine. Set it up
to your liking then save the user profile from this machine. All you've
got to do afterwards is to restore the saved user profile to each and
every new install. Then everyone has got the same in-house settings.
I'm using this very method to do exactly that.
Under Windows, I combine this with ActiveSetup so that I get an
automatic user-setting: I save the user profile somewhere on the PC (in
a subdir of ProgramFiles/LibreOffice) and configure ActiveSetup to go
and copy these settings to the new user profile. And that's it.
Sorry, my DevGuide URL was wrong, it should be <https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/DevGuide/Extensions/Extensions>.
For an example "configuration-only" extension, <https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=69609#c3> has a link to <http://www.linuxtag.org/2012/fileadmin/www.linuxtag.org/slides/Thorsten%20Behrens%20-%20LibreOffice%20configuration%20management%20-%20Tools_%20approaches%20and%20best%20practices.p331.pdf> which in turn has a link to <http://users.freedesktop.org/~thorsten/extensions/config_only_sample.oxt>.
Stephan
[Btw, your reply mail looked really garbled, see above. Could it be you're using a mail client that only produces poorly formatted plaintext alongside an HTML alternative?]
Stephan (and others),
Thanks again for your reply. With your help here and from the bug
report referenced earlier I have been able to successfully create an
.oxt that will set "our preferred settings". As it is a "shared"
extension it sits between the "system settings" (which are overridden on
new version upgrade) and the "user settings". So, a user can still
override these settings should they wish.
Sorry, my DevGuide URL was wrong, it should be
<https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/DevGuide/Extensions/Extensions>.
Unfortunately this seems "offline" today, as it is just displaying an
empty page. I got it from Google Cache, however, and with your other
example links was able to put something together. I would hope that
somehow <http://extensions.libreoffice.org> would link to a "how to make
extensions for beginners guide", which could be the AOO docs for now as
a minimum.
For an example "configuration-only" extension,
<https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=69609#c3> has a link to
<http://www.linuxtag.org/2012/fileadmin/www.linuxtag.org/slides/Thorsten%20Behrens%20-%20LibreOffice%20configuration%20management%20-%20Tools_%20approaches%20and%20best%20practices.p331.pdf>
which in turn has a link to
<http://users.freedesktop.org/~thorsten/extensions/config_only_sample.oxt>.
For anyone interested, here then is my first stab at creating an
extension which will set our required "system wide defaults". It is
installed with "unopkg add --shared ssg-defaults.oxt"
<https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0WVXg1DL6duNkE2WUFZWGFETEE>
For first timers (this was me until yesterday), the .oxt source can be
viewed the same as a .zip archive (can even change the extension to .zip
if you like: they are interchangeable but you want it as an .oxt in the
finished form)
For some of the settings, they aren't correctly seen by the user until
after we remove the user's pre-existing "registrymodifications.xcu"
(even if we didn't intentionally have any of those values overridden).
It is my guess that is because there are some of the keys listed in the
default generated registrymodifications.xcu that conflict -- if it was
generated BEFORE the installation of this newly created extension.
Thanks again,
iveand
[Btw, your reply mail looked really garbled, see above. Could it be
you're using a mail client that only produces poorly formatted plaintext
alongside an HTML alternative?]
I noticed that too, so thanks for the warning: I think it is the
thunderbird "always html" extension, which I have now disabled.
Unfortunate bug it seems in thunderbird which will revert things to text
only email even if they were intended as html otherwise. Another
discussion for another list, however! So, we'll see how this one turns
out, and if people can follow it clearly or not.
Yes, if ever a value has been written into the user's registrymodifications.xcu it wins over any (non-final) value from lower layers. (And for some entries the writing may well have been solely at LO's discretion, not obviously linked to an explicit user action.) Do you have an example of an entry that didn't work?
Stephan
Hi
Wow!!! It's rare for someone to go ahead and make something like that
which many other people would also probably find useful!! Welcome in
chap!
Is there any chance of you uploading your Extension to
http://extensions.libreoffice.org/
Preferably give it an Open Source / copyleft license such as a
"Creative Commons" license? Then other people might be able to help
by looking over your code, suggesting and making changes and generally
helping keep it up-to-date
http://creativecommons.org/
Many thanks and regards (and congrats) from
Tom :)))