Referencing automatically cell data from a dynamic list of files

users
#1

Hi,

I have a a list of invoices created with LibreOffice Calc inside a folder. Now I would like to retrieve the data inside of those invoices to create another spreadsheet called "All" that contains a row for each invoice.

Name Phone Street
John 677 Main
Mary 897 Niceday

Is there any way to do that automatically?

One more: imagine, I add a new invoice file, I would like that after addding it, the Name, Phone and Street inside it, were added automatically to the "All" file.

Is possible? Should I create an script? What language shoould I use (LibreOffice Basic, Javascript, Python..)? I would like to use Javascript if possible.

Im on Ubuntu, but the script should work in the computer of my customer (Windows 8 ), where I also installed LibreOffice.

Javier

#2

Hi,

I have a a list of invoices created with LibreOffice Calc inside a
folder. Now I would like to retrieve the data inside of those invoices
to create another spreadsheet called "All" that contains a row for each
invoice.

>
Name Phone Street
John 677 Main
Mary 897 Niceday
>

Is there any way to do that automatically?

One more: imagine, I add a new invoice file, I would like that after
addding it, the Name, Phone and Street inside it, were added
automatically to the "All" file.

Is possible? Should I create an script? What language shoould I use
(LibreOffice Basic, Javascript, Python..)? I would like to use
Javascript if possible.

Im on Ubuntu, but the script should work in the computer of my customer
(Windows 8 ), where I also installed LibreOffice.

Javier

Javier

If you define ranges in ranges in the original files you could use

LINK TO EXTERNAL DATA. I have not do this in a long time so I am

fuzzy on the details.

You can write a script/macro to do this. LO supports LO Basic, Python,
and Javascript for scripts/macros.

#3

Hi :slight_smile:
Have you tried using a specialist tool such as;

GnuCash, runs on Windows too
http://www.gnucash.org/
This one is reasonably famous. Competes with mainstream programs such
as Sage, Quickbooks etc.

Grisbi
http://www.grisbi.org/
(website down for maintenance right now and i've no idea how long it's
been). Never heard of this one before but that doesn't mean much.
Not sure if it runs on Windows.

HomeBank
http://homebank.free.fr/
Reasonably famous but i think its more for small business and personal
finance where you might be thinking more about larger scale. I got
their English page. Not sure if they have other languages too but i
suspect the original is in French. Does work on Windows too.

Skrooge
http://skrooge.org/
Again, never heard of this one but again that doesn't mean much. I
don't like the look of it because it's KDE-based and wants to install
tons of dependencies on my very default Ubuntu. Also they say
"possibly works on Windows".

So, without actually having tried any of them i'd probably go for
GnuCash or maybe HomeBank. I did open GnuCash once but it reminded me
of work so i quickly closed it again.

Assuming you have looked at those sorts of things and decided that
making your own might be simpler then in the future it might be easier
to get your existing invoice form to get it's data from a spreadsheet
rather than using this way around. It might be possible to pull in
data from separate forms into a single spreadsheet but it might be
easier to just copy&paste it this time.

How many invoices have you already done? If it's just 2 or 3 then
it's no contest. Just copy&paste. More than 10 to 30 would need some
thought. I'd be leaning towards automating or hiring a touch-typist
for a couple hours.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile: