NAME

OpenOffice::PerlPoint - an Open Office / Open Document to PerlPoint converter class

VERSION

This manual describes version 0.02.

SYNOPSIS

# load the module
use OpenOffice::PerlPoint;

# build an object
my $oo2pp=new OpenOffice::PerlPoint(file=>$ooFile);

# convert document
my $perlpoint=$oo2pp->oo2pp;

DESCRIPTION

OpenOffice::PerlPoint is a translator class to transform Open Office 1.0 and 2.0 (and generally OASIS Open Document) documents into PerlPoint sources. It is based on OpenOffice::OODoc.

Once you have transformed an Open Office or Open Document document into PerlPoint, it may be furtherly processed using the PerlPoint utilities.

If you prefer, you do not need to perform an explicit transformation. Beginning with release 0.40, PerlPoint::Package can process Open Office / Open Document sources directly. Please see PerlPoint::Parser for details, or the documentation that comes with PerlPoint.

This software is in alpha state. It supports just a subset of the source format features. Please see the NOTES sections below.

METHODS

new()

The constructor.

Parameters:

All parameters except the first are named.

class

The target class name. This parameter is set automatically if you use the usual Perl syntax to call a constructor.

file

The (absolute or relative) path to the Office document that should be converted.

Returns: the new object.

Example:

# build an object
my $oo2pp=new OpenOffice::PerlPoint(file=>$ooFile);

oo2pp()

Perform conversion of the document specified in the constructor call.

Parameters:

object

A object as supplied by new().

Returns: the PerlPoint string.

Example:

# convert document
my $perlpoint=$oo2pp->oo2pp;

NOTES

First of all, please note the alpha state of this software. OpenOffice::PerlPoint does support just a subset of the very rich features potentially occuring in an Open Office document. Some features should be added later, other features have no expression in PerlPoint and therefore are ignored.

Supported features

Meta data

Selected meta data are transformed into PerlPoint variables. The names of these variables are fix in the current version of OpenOffice::PerlPoint, but shall become configurable in later versions.

Title

Stored in $docTitle.

Subject

Stored in $docSubtitle.

Description

Stored in $docDescription.

Author

Stored in $docAuthor.

Date

Stored in $docDate.

Version

If the user defines a data named version, it is stored in $docVersion.

Copyright

If the user defines a data named copyright, it is stored in $docCopyright.

Headlines

Headlines are supported. Make sure to use the predefined headline formats in the Office document, and avoid gaps in headline hierarchies (as they will cause PerlPoint translation errors later).

Text formatting

Bold, italic, underlined, colorized text portions within a paragraph are translated into the related PerlPoint tags \B, \I, \U and \F.

Text marked as code

In Perlpoint, text within a paragraph can be marked as "code" by the \C tag. As there is no comparable feature in OpenOffice (I know of), all text assigned to the font Courier New is treated as such code.

The font is fix for now, but shall be configurable in a future version.

Blocks

In PerlPoint, examples can be written into "code blocks", which are paragraphs marked by indentation. Open Office as an office suite is not focussed on code, so again there is a convention. All paragraphs assigned to a style "Code" are treated as blocks.

The style name is fixed for now, but shall be configurable in a future version.

Lists

Lists are basically supported.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to distinguish between ordered and bullet lists in OASIS OpenDocument. That's why ordered lists are transformed into bullet lists if an OpenDocument source is translated. For OpenOffice 1.0 documents ordered lists are handled correctly.

Tables

Tables are supported as long as they are not nested.

Images

Images embedded into the document are fully supported.

Comments

Comments are supported.

Limitations

Limited to text documents

The current version can handle text documents only. Spreadsheets, presentations etc. cannot be transformed at this time.

Footnote support

... is invalid yet. Current results will not pass a PerlPoint converter.

TOCs

Office document tables of contents cannot easily be transformed into PerlPoint TOCs. That's why they are ignored.

POD

It should be possible to adapt this library for POD output. This might be done in the future. Both versions could use a common base library.

Credits

This module is based on OpenOffice::OODoc. Thanks to its author Jean-Marie Gouarné for the module and his helpful support with many questions.

TODO

• Make document variable names configurable.

• Make certain steps like meta data conversion optional.

• Support nested tables.

• TOC ignoration could become configurable.

• Optionally image file copies stored in a buffer directory should be named generically.

• Support other formats like spreadsheets and presentations.

SEE ALSO

OpenOffice::OODoc

The module that made it possible to write OpenOffice::PerlPoint relatively quickly.

Bundle::PerlPoint

A bundle of packages to deal with PerlPoint documents.

oo2pp

A OpenOffice / OpenDocument format to PerlPoint translator, distributed and installed with this module.

SUPPORT

A PerlPoint mailing list is set up to discuss usage, ideas, bugs, suggestions and translator development. To subscribe, please send an empty message to perlpoint-subscribe@perl.org.

If you prefer, you can contact me via perl@jochen-stenzel.de as well.

AUTHOR

Copyright (c) Jochen Stenzel (perl@jochen-stenzel.de), 2005. All rights reserved.

Parts of the module are derived from an oo2pod example script that came with OpenOffice::OODoc 1.309.

This module is free software, you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the Artistic License distributed with Perl version 5.003 or (at your option) any later version. Please refer to the Artistic License that came with your Perl distribution for more details.

The Artistic License should have been included in your distribution of Perl. It resides in the file named "Artistic" at the top-level of the Perl source tree (where Perl was downloaded/unpacked - ask your system administrator if you dont know where this is). Alternatively, the current version of the Artistic License distributed with Perl can be viewed on-line on the World-Wide Web (WWW) from the following URL: http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html

DISCLAIMER

This software is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but is provided "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either expressed or implied, INCLUDING, without limitation, the implied warranties of MERCHANTABILITY and FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

The ENTIRE RISK as to the quality and performance of the software IS WITH YOU (the holder of the software). Should the software prove defective, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.

IN NO EVENT WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY CREATE, MODIFY, OR DISTRIBUTE THE SOFTWARE BE LIABLE OR RESPONSIBLE TO YOU OR TO ANY OTHER ENTITY FOR ANY KIND OF DAMAGES (no matter how awful - not even if they arise from known or unknown flaws in the software).

Please refer to the Artistic License that came with your Perl distribution for more details.

cpanm OpenOffice::PerlPoint

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install OpenOffice::PerlPoint