Software Development Kit 7.4

Developer's Guide Examples

The Developer's Guide comes with a wide range of examples from all application areas which shows the use of the API in the context of the different functional areas. Furthermore the examples can be used as a first starting point to modify an existing example to their own needs.

Some of the examples need a running office instance listening on a port. If this is necessary you will get further information in the makefiles.

All examples marked with a are executable and be started using a run target in the makefile. The name of the binary (C++) can differ compared to the source file, please see the run target in the appropriate makefile. Some of the examples which create a component have no run target. In these cases a document is provided which instantiates and runs the component (see the makefile output). Also the Basic examples provide documents which use and shows the implemented functionality. The database and forms examples need a running database, please see the description below. But note that is not described in detail how to create a working data source (see the office help).
First Steps Professional UNO Writing UNO components
Office Development Text Documents Spreadsheet Documents
Drawing and Presentation Documents Charts LibreOffice 7.4 Basic and Dialogs
Database Access Forms Universal Content Broker (UCB)
Configuration Management Office Bean
Scripting Framework Graphical User Interfaces
FirstSteps examples
Text Document Examples Description
FirstUnoContact Shows how to initialize UNO and get a remote office service manager from a running LibreOffice 7.4 in a different process space.
FirstLoadComponent Demonstrates how to load a component into LibreOffice 7.4 by a Java application.
HelloTextTableShape Performs some generic text and shape operations on a text document, a spreadsheet document and a drawing document.
Professional UNO examples1
Lifetime Examples Description
MyUnoObject Shows that it depends on the implementation of the Java VM whether finalize() will be called or not.
object_lifetime.cxx (ProfUnoLifetime) Shows the UNO reference counting mechanism in C++.
Interprocess Connection Example Description
ConnectionAwareClient Implements a client which is aware of losing connection to LibreOffice 7.4.
UrlResolver Builds a connection to LibreOffice 7.4 using the URL given on the command line. This example shows the usage of XUnoUrlResolver.
C++ Binding Examples Description
office_connect.cxx Builds a connection to LibreOffice 7.4 using C++.
string_samples.cxx Demonstrates usage of RTL string classes OString, OUString and OUStringBuffer.
SimpleBootstrap Java Example Description
SimpleBootstrap_java.java Shows the transparent use of office UNO components from Java. The remote office component context is obtained by using the com.sun.star.comp.helper.Bootstrap.bootstrap() method, which bootstraps the component context from a UNO installation.
manifest.mf Contains the additional manifest file entries.
SimpleBootstrap C++ Example Description
SimpleBootstrap_cpp.cxx Shows the transparent use of office UNO components from C++. The remote office component context is obtained by using the ::cppu::bootstrap() function, which bootstraps the component context from a UNO installation.
Deployment Features Description
description.xml Demonstrates how license files can be embedded, so that they are shown to the user during installation.
Writing UNO components examples
Jobs Addon Example Description
AsyncJob An java example showing how a job can analyze the given arguments and how the environment can be detected, in which the job is executed.
Jobs.xcu Contains the example job configuration.
Addons.xcu Contains the configuration entries for the Jobs addon where different entries are configured.
ProtocolHandler Addon Java Description
ProtocolHandlerAddon Implements a ProtocolHandler addon component in Java.
ProtocolHandler.xcu Contains the ProtocolHandler configuration.
Addons.xcu Contains the configuration entries for the ProtocolHandler addon where different entries are configured.
ProtocolHandler Addon C++ Description
addon.cxx Implements a ProtocolHandler addon component in C++.
addon.hxx Contains the class definition of the c++ ProtocolHandler example.
component.cxx Implements the administrative component functions (component_writeInfo, component_getFactory, component_getImplementationEnvironment).
ProtocolHandler.xcu Contains the ProtocolHandler configuration.
Addons.xcu Contains the configuration entries for the ProtocolHandler addon where different entries are configured.
Java Component Example Description
TestJavaComponent Demonstrates how to extend the service provider with a new factory and instantiates the example components.
TestComponentA Shows a simple demo component which implements XTypeProvider, XServiceInfo and an own interface XSomethingA.
TestComponentB Shows a simple demo component which implements XTypeProvider, XServiceInfo and an own interface XSomethingB.
TestServiceProvider Implements a factory (service provider) which can create the two test components.
C++ Component Example Description
TestCppComponent.cxx Shows how to create new instances of the demo services and calls some methods of the demo interface.
service1_impl.cxx Implements a simple UNO service with an own interface in C++.
service2_impl.cxx Implements another simple UNO service in C++.
Thumbs Example Description
ImageShrink Contains a framework for a component which scales images in a directory and stores them to another directory. This code does not really do anything, it just contains the framework.
Thumbs This example registers a factory for the image shrink component and instantiates it.
Dialog Component Example Description
DialogComponent.java Implements a component accessing a dialog created with the LibreOffice 7.4 Basic IDE. The component provides methods that can be bound to dialog respectively control events .
XTestDialogHandler.idl Interface implementing a createDialog method showing the dialog and some methods to be used as event handler for the dialog.
TestDialogHandler.idl Service definition for the component implementing its own interface XTestDialogHandler.
DialogComponent.odt Document containing Basic code to instantiate the Dialog Components and a Dialog containing controls with events bound to methods supported by the Dialog Component.
Office Development examples
Ascii Filter Example Description
AsciiReplaceFilter Implements an example for an import/export filter service.
FilterOptions Offers some helper methods to analyze and prepare the arguments of the filter method.
TypeDetection.xcu Contains the necessary configuration items for the AsciiReplaceFilter.
FlatXmlFilter C++ Example Description
FlatXml.cxx Implements an import/export filter storing the data in one xml stream instead of the normal three streams in for example an .odt file. The example is implemented in C++.
FlatXmlFilter_cpp.xcu Contains the necessary configuration items for the C++ flat xml filter.
FlatXmlFilter Java Example Description
FlatXml Implements an import/export filter storing the data in one xml stream instead of the normal three streams in for example an .odt file. The example is implemented in Java.
FlatXmlFilter_java.xcu Contains the necessary configuration items for the Java flat xml filter.
FlatXml FilterDetection Example Description
filterdetect.cxx Implements an example filter detection for the flat xml filter. The example is implemented in C++.
filterdetect.hxx Contains the class definition of the filter detection example.
fdcomp.cxx Implements the administrative component functions (component_writeInfo, component_getFactory, component_getImplementationEnvironment).
FlatXmlTypeDetection.xcu Contains the necessary configuration items for the C++ flat xml type detection.
Desktop Environment Example Description
CustomizeView Offers a view which allows hiding and showing of the menubar, toolbar and objectbar of the related document component.
Desk This is the main part of a demo application based on the framework APIs. It mainly shows the mechanisms to load, store and convert documents, as well as dispatch and dispatch interception. It integrates windows from LibreOffice 7.4 via system window handle. This is the same mechanism as used by the OOoBean, but the OOoBean itself is not used here, just the JNI window handle access.
DocumentView Deals with the application window and it's actions.
FunctionHelper This helper comprises all LibreOffice 7.4 API calls. Thus it is possible to learn about these aspects separately from the rest of the application example.
IOnewayLink This is an interface to receive asynchronous events from UNO oneway calls.
IShutdownListener This is a listener interface to clean up on shutdown of LibreOffice 7.4.
Interceptor This implements a dispatch interceptor for a specific URL.
JavaWindowPeerFake Fakes an XWindowPeer for the Java native window handle to create a child window for the office frame.
NativeView Implements native JNI methods to get the window handle of the Java window.
OfficeConnect Builds the remote bridge to LibreOffice 7.4 and exports its UNO service manager for the Java side of the application.
OnewayExecutor Implements IOnewayLink to decouple asynchronous oneway calls in the Java process.
StatusListener Implements a listener for a FeatureStateEvent.
StatusView Shows the current status for which the application is registered as an event listener.
ViewContainer Performs a clean up on the Java side on LibreOffice 7.4 shutdown.
Office Development Examples Description
OfficeConnect Builds the remote bridge to LibreOffice 7.4 and exports its UNO service manager to the Java side.
ContextMenuInterceptor This example shows a context menu interceptor that creates a new menu entry that has a sub menu. This sub menu is in inserted into the context menu on the topmost position. It provides some helper functions to the user that are reachable through the menu Help.
MenuElement A helper class for the context menu interceptor example. It determines the menu element type.
Number_Formats Demonstrates the use of number formats in a spreadsheet document.
Termination Test Example Description
TerminationTest This example uses the TerminateListener and shows the use of them in a running program.
TerminateListener An example implementation of XTerminateListener. It is called when LibreOffice 7.4 terminates.
Clipboard Example Description
Clipboard Demonstrates the usage of the clipboard service by registering a clipboard listener, getting a list of formats from the current clipboard content and copying some data to the clipboard.
ClipboardListener Implements a clipboard listener for the Clipboard example. In such a class, actions can be implemented which happen whenever the clipboard content changes.
ClipboardOwner Implements a clipboard owner for the Clipboard example. This class is notified when it loses ownership of the clipboard.
TextTransferable Implements a data object for the Clipboard example. Such classes supply clients with data in a variety of formats.
Linguistic Example Description
LinguisticExamples A short example that uses most of the functionality from the LibreOffice 7.4 linguistic API.
OneInstanceFactory This class is used to provide a service factory for the linguistic services. It enforces that the actual implementations are only instantiated once.
PropChgHelper The base class for several property change helpers which are used to keep track of the changes of the service relevant linguistic properties. It is also used by the thesaurus directly.
PropChgHelper_Hyph The property change helper that is tracking the hyphenation relevant properties.
PropChgHelper_Spell The property change helper that is tracking the spell checking relevant properties.
SampleHyphenator A simple implementation for a Hyphenator service.
SampleSpellChecker A simple implementation for a SpellChecker service.
SampleThesaurus A simple implementation for a Thesaurus service.
XHyphenatedWord_impl An object implementing the XHyphenatedWord interface. An instance of this type may be returned by the hyphenator.
XMeaning_impl An object implementing the XMeaning interface. An instance of this type may be returned by the thesaurus.
XPossibleHyphens_impl An object implementing the XPossibleHyphens interface. An instance of this type may be returned by the hyphenator.
XSpellAlternatives_impl An object implementing the XSpellAlternatives interface. An instance of this type may be returned by the spell checker.
Path Settings Example Description
PathsettingsTest This code example creates the service com.sun.star.util.PathSettings and retrieves all path properties from it. It shows how a developer can change the path properties using the XPropertySet interface.
Path Substitution Example Description
PathSubstitutionTest This code example creates the path substitution service com.sun.star.util.PathSubstitution and retrieves the pre-defined Office path variables. It shows the variable values on the screen. The reSubstiuteVariables function is used to show how the service exchanges parts of a path with a path variable supporting platform independent path usage.
Disable Commands Example Description
DisableCommandsTest Implements an example showing how a developer can use the configuration API to disable/enable commands at runtime.
Text Documents examples
Example Description
TextDocuments

Demonstrates a wide variety of API functions in text documents and text document views.

  • use of templates
  • using the view cursor, including visible text selections
  • changing the paragraph style
  • using various editing facilities like text insertion
  • using various cursor interfaces
  • creating text contents, like tables, sections and frames, well as text fields and columns
  • using stylesheets
  • applying numbering styles
  • using references, indexes, footnotes and autotext
  • loading, storing and printing a text document

Adjust the strings at the beginning of the class definition to match your installation!
Spreadsheet Documents examples
Example Description
ExampleAddIn Implements a simple add-in component for spreadsheet documents. This component needs to be deployed before it can be used.
ExampleDataPilotSource Shows usage of a wide variety of spreadsheet interfaces like XCellRangeData, XCellSeries, XArrayFormulaRange and XMultipleOperations as well as named ranges, label ranges and data pilot.
GeneralTableSample Executes some examples working on generic tables.
SpreadsheetDocHelper Defines a helper class for the other examples to access spreadsheet documents, sheets and cells.
SpreadsheetSample Executes some examples working on a spreadsheet document.
ViewSample Shows how to manipulate view settings like splitting sheeting sheets and selecting cells.
Drawing and Presentation Documents examples
Example Description
ChangeOrderDemo Shows how to change the painting order of shapes.
ControlAndSelectDemo Demonstrates the creation of a control shape and selects it in the current view.
CustomShowDemo Creates two custom shows and selects one of these.
DrawViewDemo Prints the view data properties and the controller properties of a drawing view and shows an example of setting such a property.
DrawingDemo Creates several shapes on several slides. Nice pattern included!
FillAndLineStyleDemo Demonstrates usage of area fill and line style properties.
GluePointDemo Creates two shapes with glue points and connects them with two connectors.
GraphicExportDemo Loads a drawing document and exports it to a GIF file. Run this program with source URL, target URL and page index on the command line, where the URLs are fully qualified URLs.
Helper Contains a helper class for the other examples to connect to LibreOffice 7.4 and open or create a drawing document.
LayerDemo Creates shapes in different layers to show how to protect shapes from modifications.
ObjectTransformationDemo Shows geometric transformations on a shape using a homogeneous matrix.
Organigram Demonstrates the creation of an organigram consisting of shapes and connectors.
PageHelper Contains a helper class for accessing several kinds of draw pages in a presentation or drawing document.
PresentationDemo Creates a presentation and runs it with some user interaction.
ShapeHelper Contains a helper class for accessing and creating shapes for the other examples.
StyleDemo Creates a shape and applies a predefined shape stylesheet.
TextDemo Demonstrates usage of text and text styles in shapes.
Charts examples
Example Description
CalcHelper Contains some helper methods for charts in spreadsheet documents, like accessing sheets by name, inserting a chart into a sheet, filling cell ranges with random numbers etc.
ChartHelper Contains some helper methods for charts, like creating a chart as an embedded object.
ChartInCalc Demonstrates how to create an embedded chart object with a random scatter chart within a spreadsheet.
ChartInDraw Inserts a 3D-bar chart into a drawing document.
ChartInWriter Inserts an embedded chart object with a random bar chart in a text document. This example does not really work, because the API for embedding objects into text documents is not implemented. To be more precise.
Helper Shows how to connect to LibreOffice 7.4 and create text, drawing or spreadsheet document. This class is used as a helper class for the other examples.
JavaSampleChartAddIn Gives an example of how to implement chart add-ins to create new or specialized diagram types. The resulting component has to be deployed before it can be used.
ListenAtCalcRangeInDraw This helper class is used to build connection between an embedded chart object in a drawing document and a data range in a spreadsheet document.
SelectionChangeListener Shows how to register a handler which is called when the selection within an embedded chart object changes.
LibreOffice 7.4 Basic and Dialogs examples
Example Description
FirstStepsBasic.odt This StarBasic example shows how to create an own dialog which inserts a graphics object into a text document.
SampleDialog This example builds a Java component which creates a simple dialog.
CreatingDialogs.odt This document contains a simple Basic macro which loads the SampleDialog component. The macro will be executed by pressing a Push button.
ToolkitControls In this directory you find a Basic library which implements several examples using toolkit controls. You can easy pack this Basic library as a UNO package and can install it using the package manager (see the makefile output).
After the installation you will find a new library "ToolkitControls" in the Basic IDE containing 4 modules and the necessary dialogs.

Select one of the following modules and press the Run button:

  • FileDialog = simple dialog which ask for a filename (nothing else)
  • MultiPage = a more complex dialog with several tab pages
  • ProgressBar = a dialog which shows a progress bar
  • ScrollBar = a dialog which shows a scroll bar
Database Access examples
The Database examples use a SQL database named "MYDB0" with write access. Make sure that you have a data source operating on such a database in your office before you run the example.
Database Examples Description
CodeSamples Creates the connection to LibreOffice 7.4 and executes the code SalesMan samples for database API.
OpenQuery Demonstrates the use of XResultSetUpdate and XRowUpdate.
RowSet Demonstrates the usage of a row set.
RowSetEventListener Demonstrates how to define listener for the row set example.
Sales Creates a simple database table.
SalesMan Creates a simple database table.
sdbcx Demonstrates the usage of the SDBCX layer services.
Driver Skeleton Example Description
OSubComponent.hxx Helper class to delegate special dispose handling.
OTypeInfo.hxx Contains the database types from the DatabaseMetaData getTypes call.
SConnection.hxx This file contains the declaration of a class implementing the service com.sun.star.sdbc.Connection.
SConnection.cxx This file contains the implementation of the class declared in SConnection.hxx.
SDatabaseMetaData.hxx This file contains the declaration of a class implementing the interface com.sun.star.sdbc.XDatabaseMetaData.
SDatabaseMetaData.cxx This file contains the implementation of the class declared in SDatabaseMetaData.hxx.
SDriver.hxx This file contains the declaration of a class implementing the service com.sun.star.sdbc.Driver.
SDriver.cxx This file contains the implementation of the class declared in SDriver.hxx.
SPreparedStatement.hxx This file contains the declaration of a class implementing the service com.sun.star.sdbc.PreparedStatement.
SPreparedStatement.cxx This file contains the implementation of the class declared in SPreparedStatement.hxx.
SResultSet.hxx This file contains the declaration of a class implementing the service com.sun.star.sdbc.ResultSet.
SResultSet.cxx This file contains the implementation of the class declared in SResultSet.hxx.
SResultSetMetaData.hxx This file contains the declaration of a class implementing the interface com.sun.star.sdbc.XResultSetMetaData.
SResultSetMetaData.cxx This file contains the implementation of the class declared in SResultSetMetaData.hxx.
SServices.cxx This file contains a class implementing the service needed to register the driver.
SStatement.hxx This file contains the declaration of a class implementing the service com.sun.star.sdbc.Statement.
SStatement.cxx This file contains the implementation of the class declared in SStatement.hxx.
propertyids.hxx Defines some common used strings and declare a helper class for properties.
propertyids.cxx Implements the property helper class.
Forms examples
Example Description
BooleanValidator The class BooleanOperator implements an validator for a form control, which can veto certain radio button or check box states.
ButtonOperator The form created by the sample program contains various buttons which are tied to certain functionality. The class ButtonOperator, well, operates these buttons.
ComponentTreeTraversal Helper classes for traveling through a tree of FormComponent's.
ControlLock Helper class for implementing the locking of control depending on the state of the underlying RowSet.
ControlValidation This is the main class for the control validation example. It creates a sample document, fills it with controls, and attaches several validators to those controls
ControlValidator Base class implementing the common denominator for components validating form controls.
DataAwareness This class implements the basic example for a form working on a database. Two tables will be created and a form (writer document) with a business example will fill its fields from these tables.
DateValidator The class DateValidator implements an validator for a form control, which can check the content of a form date field.
DocumentBasedExample This class collects common functionality of examples which require a document.
DocumentHelper Helper class for encapsulating working with a document.
DocumentType A simple enumeration class for classifying a document.
DocumentViewHelper Helper class for encapsulating working with a view for a document.
FLTools Various small tools for the form layer sample program.
FormLayer Helper class for accessing and manipulating the form layer of a document.
GridFieldValidator GridFieldValidator is responsible for validating the input in a specific grid control column. This is not to be mixed up with the control-based validation as described in the validation module. Instead, a GridFieldValidator assembles and uses various other concepts.
InteractionRequest A simple implementation of a XInteractionRequest. Not tied to the form layer example, but a general helper.
KeyGenerator Helper class which is able to generate (unique) keys for a (RowSet ) column. An instance of this class can be tied to a specific row set column. It then monitors the state of the underlying row set, and upon inserting a new record into it (two operation modi are possible here), it automatically inserts a newly created (two modi, too) key into the column.
ListSelectionValidator The class ListSelectionValidator implements an validator for a form control, which can veto certain selections in a list box control.
NumericValidator The class NumericValidator implements an validator for a form control, which can veto certain values in every control which allows exchanging numerical values.
SingleControlValidation Though form documents feature inbuilt mechanisms for visually indicating invalid control content (see com.sun.star.form.validation for discussions about validity), the ControlValidation example extends this. The validity state of every control in this example, as well as possible explanations for invalidity, are displayed in dedicated texts. The SingleControlValidation class ties together a validatable control and those status texts.
SpreadsheetDocument A specialized DocumentHelper which represents a spreadsheet document, and offers some form related functionality. For instance, this class allows the creation of CellValueBinding instances, which can be used to couple the content of a form control with the content of a spreadsheet cell.
SpreadsheetValueBinding This example demonstrates how to bind form controls to spreadsheet cells.
SpreadsheetView A specialized DocumentViewHelper which represents a view to a spreadsheet document.
TableCellTextBinding This class allows binding the control of a form control with a table cell in a text document. For this, it uses the mechanisms of the com.sun.star.form.binding module.
TextValidator The class TextValidator implements an validator for a form control, which can monitor a form text field.
TimeValidator The class TimeValidator implements an validator for a form control, which can monitor the content of a form time field.
UNO A small UNO-syntax related helper class.
ValueBinding An example how to bind the content of a form control to a table cell in a text document.
WaitForInput A pretty small helper for the interactive examples, which notifies another instance when the user pressed key on the console.
Universal Content Broker (UCB) examples
Example Description
ChildrenRetriever Shows child entries of a given folder. Try -help or -? on the command line to view optional parameters.
DataStreamComposer Demonstrates usage of the data stream by copying the data from one UCB node to another.
DataStreamRetriever Shows how to obtain the data stream from a document resource.
Helper Some helper methods to access the UCB which are used by the other examples.
MyActiveDataSink A helper class for the DataStreamRetriever example which implements a data sink.
PropertiesComposer Shows how to set property values of a UCB resource.
PropertiesRetriever Shows how to access property values of a UCB resource.
ResourceCreator Creates a new file in an existing file system folder.
ResourceManager Demonstrates how to copy and move UCB resources.
ResourceRemover Demonstrates how to remove UCB resources.
Configuration Management examples
Example Description
ConfigExamples This example connects to a LibreOffice 7.4, gets the configuration manager and accesses the configuration in various ways.
Office Bean example
Example Description
OOoBeanViewer Shows how to use the OOoBean embedded in a Java AWT component. It shows how to load and store documents as well as how to control toolbar visibility.
Scripting Framework Examples
Example Description
SayHello A Scripting Framework Java macro that opens a new Writer document and inserts the word Hello in it.
ScriptSelector A Scripting Framework Java macro that opens a Java Swing dialog with a tree view of the macro hierarchy for the Office application.
Graphical User Interfaces
Example Description
DialogDocument A sample showing how to display an office document in a dialog window.
MessageBox A sample showing how to display a simple message box.
UnoDialogSample A sample showing how to create various controls in a dialog (fixed text field, currency field, progress bar, fixed line, group box, edit field, time field, date field, pattern field, numeric field, progressbar, check box, radio button, list box, combo box, formatted field, file control, button control, roadmap control)
UnoDialogSample2 A dialog sample showing how to use a roadmap control.
UnoMenu A sample showing a top window with some menus.
UnoMenu2 A dialog sample showing how to use or work with a context menu.
ImageControlSample2 Dialog sample showing how to use an image control.