Frequently Asked Questions for the Office Scripting Framework
Questions
Why are you developing the OpenOffice.org Scripting Framework?
In what release of OpenOffice.org will the Scripting Framework be released?
Answers
What is the OpenOffice.org Scripting Framework?
The Scripting Framework is a project to allow users of OpenOffice.org to write scripts to automate commonly performed tasks in a language of their choice.
Why are you developing the OpenOffice.org Scripting Framework?
The Scripting Framework is a project to allow users of OpenOffice.org to write scripts to automate commonly performed tasks in a language of their choice.
There are currently two ways for users and developers to add functionality to OpenOffice.org, namely macros and UNO components.
Macros are a set of instructions which OpenOffice.org can interpret at runtime to carry out a specific set of tasks in OpenOffice.org. Users can create a macro by recording a number of tasks in OpenOffice.org, save this set of tasks as a macro and then bind this macro to a menu or keypress. The macro is run by hitting the bound menu or key. Advanced users can write their own StarBasic macros in an embedded StarBasic IDE if they wish.
UNO components are compiled C++ or Java components, which a developer can write using the UNO API to access and manipulate OpenOffice.org. The component is written in an external IDE in C++ or Java (or any language with a supported UNO bridge). The end user needs to install any new component in their OpenOffice.org to make use of this new functionality. UNO component development is supported by the ODK.
The Scripting Framework aims to strike a balance between these two approaches of customizing OpenOffice.org. The framework will allow scripts to be written in a variety of languages, deployed into OpenOffice.org installations or documents, loaded at runtime and executed in OpenOffice.org. The framework will allow any number of different scripting languages to be plugged into OpenOffice.org for which there is an UNO bridge. Our focus will be to support languages with a Java implementation, but the framework can be made to work with any scripting langauge with a supported UNO bridge such as the UNO Python bridge. In this way users and developers will be able to write
In what release of OpenOffice.org will the Scripting Framework be released?
The Scripting Framework will be released as part of OpenOffice.org 2.0. In the meantime completed features will be made available via developer builds.
Why is there a delay in starting the first script?
The delay is caused by the startup of the inprocess JVM by OpenOffice.org.
I have removed the examples provided with the Script Framework installation and installed my own but the script in ExampleSpreadSheet.sxc still works. Why?
Both the script and the Key bindings are contained in the document itself.
Last Modified: Nov 19 2003
