SFDocuments.Document service

The SFDocuments library provides methods and properties to facilitate the management and manipulation of LibreOffice documents.

Methods that are applicable for all types of documents (Text Documents, Sheets, Presentations, etc) are provided by the SFDocuments.Document service. Some examples are:

warning

The properties, methods or arguments marked with (*) are NOT applicable to Base documents.


Methods and properties that are specific to certain LibreOffice components are stored in separate services, such as SFDocuments.SF_Calc and SFDocuments.SF_Base.

Although the Basic language does not offer inheritance between object classes, the latter services may be considered as subclasses of the SFDocuments.Document service. Such subclasses can invoke the properties and methods described below.

Service invocation

Below are three variants of how the Document service can be invoked.

In Basic

Using the getDocument method from the ScriptForge.UI service:


    Dim ui As Object, oDoc As Object
    Set ui = CreateScriptService("UI")
    Set oDoc = ui.GetDocument("Untitled 1")
  

Alternatively you can use the methods CreateDocument and OpenDocument from the UI service.


    Set oDocA = ui.CreateDocument("Calc")
    Set oDocB = ui.OpenDocument("C:\Documents\MyFile.odt")
  

Directly if the document is already open.


    Dim oDoc As Object
    Set oDoc = CreateScriptService("SFDocuments.Document", "Untitled 1") 'Default = ActiveWindow
  

From a macro triggered by a document event.


    Sub RunEvent(ByRef poEvent As Object)
        Dim oDoc As Object
        Set oDoc = CreateScriptService("SFDocuments.DocumentEvent", poEvent)
        ' (...)
    End Sub
  
note

The Document service is closely related to the UI and FileSystem services.


Except when the document was closed by program with the CloseDocument method (it is then superfluous), it is recommended to free resources after use:


    Set oDoc = oDoc.Dispose()
  
In Python

    from scriptforge import CreateScriptService
    ui = CreateScriptService("UI")
    doc = ui.GetDocument("Untitled 1")
    # (...)
    doc.Dispose()
  

    docA = ui.CreateDocument("Calc")
    docB = ui.OpenDocument("C:\Documents\MyFile.odt")
  

    doc = CreateScriptService("SFDocuments.Document", "Untitled 1")
  

    def RunEvent(event)
        doc = CreateScriptService("SFDocuments.DocumentEvent", Event)
        # (...)
  
tip

The use of the prefix "SFDocuments." while calling the service is optional.


Properties

Name

Readonly

Type

Description

CustomProperties (*)

No

Dictionary service

Returns a ScriptForge.Dictionary object instance. After update, can be passed again to the property for updating the document.
Individual items of the dictionary may be either strings, numbers, (Basic) dates or com.sun.star.util.Duration items.

Description (*)

No

String

Gives access to the Description property of the document (also known as "Comments")

DocumentProperties (*)

Yes

Dictionary service

Returns a ScriptForge.Dictionary object containing all the entries. Document statistics are included. Note that they are specific to the type of document. As an example, a Calc document includes a "CellCount" entry. Other documents do not.

DocumentType

Yes

String

String value with the document type ("Base", "Calc", "Writer", etc)

IsBase
IsCalc
IsDraw
IsImpress
IsMath
IsWriter

Yes

Boolean

Exactly one of these properties is True for a given document.

Keywords (*)

No

String

Gives access to the Keywords property of the document. Represented as a comma-separated list of keywords

Readonly (*)

Yes

Boolean

True if the document is actually in read-only mode

Subject (*)

No

String

Gives access to the Subject property of the document.

Title (*)

No

String

Gives access to the Title property of the document.

XComponent

Yes

UNO Object

The UNO object com.sun.star.lang.XComponent or com.sun.star.comp.dba.ODatabaseDocument representing the document


Example:

In Basic

The example below prints all the properties of a document. Note that the oDoc object returned by the UI.OpenDocument method is a SFDocuments.Document object.


    Dim ui as Variant : Set ui = CreateScriptService("UI")
    Dim oDoc as Object
    Set oDoc = ui.OpenDocument("C:\Documents\MyFile.ods")
    Dim propDict as Object
    Set propDict = oDoc.DocumentProperties
    Dim keys as Variant : propKeys = propDict.Keys
    Dim k as String, strProp as String
    For Each k In propKeys
        strProp = strProp & k & ": " & propDict.Item(k) & CHR$(10)
    Next k
    MsgBox strProp
    oDoc.CloseDocument()
  
In Python

To access document properties in a Python script the user needs to directly access them using their names, as shown below:


    doc = ui.GetDocument(r"C:\Documents\MyFile.ods")
    msg = doc.Title + '\n' + doc.Description + '\n' + doc.Keywords
    bas = CreateScriptService("Basic")
    bas.MsgBox(msg)
    doc.CloseDocument()
  

List of Methods in the Document Service

Activate
CloseDocument
Forms

RunCommand
Save

SaveAs
SaveCopyAs


Activate

Returns True if the document could be activated. Otherwise, there is no change in the actual user interface. It is equivalent to the Activate method of the UI service.

This method is useful when one needs to give focus for a document that is minimized or hidden.

Syntax:

svc.Activate(): bool

Example:

The example below considers that the file "My_File.ods" is already open but not active.

In Basic

    Dim oDoc As Object
    Set oDoc = CreateScriptService("Document", "MyFile.ods")
    oDoc.Activate()
  
In Python

    doc = CreateScriptService("Document", "MyFile.ods")
    doc.Activate()
  
tip

Keep in mind that you can invoke the Document service by passing to CreateScriptService either "Document" or "SFDocuments.Document"


CloseDocument

Closes the document. If the document is already closed, regardless of how the document was closed, this method has no effect and returns False.

The method will also return False if the user declines to close it.

Returns True if the document was successfully closed.

Syntax:

svc.CloseDocument(saveask: bool = True): bool

Parameters:

saveask : If True (default), the user is invited to confirm if the changes should be written on disk. This argument is ignored if the document was not modified.

Example:

In Basic

    If oDoc.CloseDocument(True) Then
        ' ...
    End If
  
In Python

    if doc.CloseDocument(True):
        # ...
  

Forms

Depending on the parameters provided this method will return:

note

This method is applicable only for Writer documents. Calc and Base documents have their own Forms method in the Calc and Base services, respectively.


Syntax:

svc.Forms(): str[0..*]

svc.Forms(form: str = ''): svc

svc.Forms(form: int): svc

Parameters:

form: The name or index corresponding to a form stored in the document. If this argument is absent, the method will return a list with the names of all forms available in the document.

Example:

In the following examples, the first line gets the names of all forms in the document and the second line retrieves the Form object of the form named "Form_A".

In Basic

    Set FormNames = oDoc.Forms()
    Set FormA = oDoc.Forms("Form_A")
  
In Python

    form_names = doc.Forms()
    form_A = doc.Forms("Form_A")
  

RunCommand

Runs a command on a document. The command is executed without arguments.

A few typical commands are: Save, SaveAs, ExportToPDF, SetDocumentProperties, Undo, Copy, Paste, etc.

The document itself does not need to be active to be able to run commands.

Syntax:

svc.RunCommand(command: str)

Parameters:

command: Case-sensitive string containing the command in English. The command itself is not checked for correctness. If nothing happens after the command call, then the command is probably wrong.

Example:

The following example runs the "SelectData" command in a Calc sheet named "MyFile.ods", which will result in the selection of the data area based on the currently selected cell.

In Basic

    Set oDoc = CreateScriptService("Document", "MyFile.ods")
    oDoc.RunCommand("SelectData")
  
In Python

    doc = CreateScriptService("Document", "MyFile.ods")
    doc.RunCommand("SelectData")
  

The example above actually runs the UNO command uno:SelectData. Hence, to use the RunCommand method it is necessary to remove the "uno:" substring.

tip

Each LibreOffice component has its own set of commands available. One easy way to learn commands is going to Tools > Customize > Keyboard. When you position your mouse over a function in the Function list, a tooltip will appear with the corresponding UNO command.


Save

Stores the document to the file location from which it was loaded. The method is ignored if the document was not modified.

Returns False if the document could not be saved. An error is raised if the file is open as read-only, or if it is a new file that has not been saved yet.

The document itself does not need to be active to run this method.

Syntax:

svc.Save(): bool

Example:

In Basic

    If Not oDoc.Save() Then
        ' ...
    End If
  
In Python

    if not doc.Save():
        # ...
  

SaveAs

Stores the document to the given file location. The new location becomes the new file name on which simple Save method calls will be applied.

Returns False if the document could not be saved. An error is raised when overwriting the destination is rejected or when the destination has its read-only attribute set.

The document itself does not need to be active to run this method.

Syntax:

svc.SaveAs(filename: str, overwrite: bool = False, password: str = '', filtername: str = '', filteroptions: str = ''): bool

Parameters:

filename: A string containing the file name to be used. It must follow the SF_FileSystem.FileNaming notation.

overwrite: If True, the destination file may be overwritten (default = False).

password (*): A non-space string to protect the document.

filtername (*): The name of a filter that should be used for saving the document. If this argument is passed, then the filter must exist.

filteroptions (*): An optional string of options associated with the filter.

Example:

In Basic

    oDoc.SaveAs("C:\Documents\NewCopy.odt", overwrite := True)
  
In Python

    doc.SaveAs(r"C:\Documents\NewCopy.odt", overwrite = True)
  

SaveCopyAs

Stores a copy of or export the document to the given file location. The actual location is unchanged.

Returns False if the document could not be saved. An error is raised when overwriting the destination is rejected or when the destination has its read-only attribute set.

The document itself does not need to be active to run this method.

Syntax:

svc.SaveCopyAs(filename: str, overwrite: bool = False, password: str = '', filtername: str = '', filteroptions: str = ''): bool

Parameters:

filename: A string containing the file name to be used. It must follow the SF_FileSystem.FileNaming notation.

overwrite: If True, the destination file may be overwritten (default = False).

password (*): A non-space string to protect the document.

filtername (*): The name of a filter that should be used for saving the document. If this argument is passed, then the filter must exist.

filteroptions (*): An optional string of options associated with the filter.

Example:

In Basic

    oDoc.SaveCopyAs("C:\Documents\Copy2.odt", Overwrite := True)
  
In Python

    doc.SaveCopyAs(r"C:\Documents\Copy2.odt", overwrite = True)
  
warning

All ScriptForge Basic routines or identifiers that are prefixed with an underscore character "_" are reserved for internal use. They are not meant be used in Basic macros.


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