OpenOffice.org Add-in Updates – GSoC 2009

NiMaL, July 6th, 2009

I’ve been working on the GSoC 2009 project, where I’m working on certain updates to the existing Creative Commons Add-in for OpenOffice.org. This project is mentored by Nathan Yergler.

The main goals for this project is to provide the following updates to the existing plugin.

• Update the codebase to the OOo 3 SDK
• The license selection UI could be refined to provide help around what each option means (”what is Share Alike”).
• Display license information when opening CC licensed documents
• Internationalization – prepare the code for translation and write the scripts to integrate PO files prepared by translators
• Support for OOo Draw
• Add support for CC0
• Make a release incorporating Flickr Image Re-Use for OpenOffice.org.

As there are many distinct tasks, I’m working on complete the most I can. I have been struggling a bit in the past couple of weeks with my progress, but I’m now bouncing back and coming back to track.

I hope I’ll be able to present the CC community with an updated version of the Add-in at the end of the project completion.

Flickr Image Re-Use for OpenOffice.org new updates

Mihai Husleag, August 12th, 2008

Since my last article new functionalities were implemented :

- more results per page (16 to be more exactly)

- an image is inserted if you double click on it(previous was on a single click)

- i add it the functionality for Impress and Calc

- fixed some bugs related to search

Unfortunately i have a problem with the popup menu on right click menu. It seems if that if set the location of the popup on the place where the right click happens, the popup indeed will appear but only for a moment. This happens not for all those 16 results, but for lets say more than half.

Now i found some settings and at this moment the popup will appear for each result, unfortunately the location where the popup appears is not exactly on the result (slightly above). I have to work more on this.

Some screenshots :

Results

Writer

Impress

Calc

Download extension (right click and save as)

Flickr Image Re-Use for OpenOffice.org Demo availlable

Mihai Husleag, July 12th, 2008

Never trust a programmer when he gives you a date for something to be done . Thats what i did in my last article (2 weeks i think i said then) and here we are a month later.

What has be done since my last article :

• right click on an result (image) will show you a popup menu with the available sizes on Flickr server
• left click on a result will insert directly in Writer the image with size medium as default
• once the image is inserted some text will be added beside the image(title , link to the image, license and link to the license)
• i improved searching and the way the image is adding into Writer
• i added a more friendly interface when you want to search over license (similar with advanced search on Flickr website)
• added a previous button to see previous results if needed
• if you insert a image, when you open again the extension the previous search will be done immediately ( on the exact the same position if you used the previous or next buttons)
• about searching : we can have multiple tags (separated by space : ” “) and the relation between them is AND . also the results are ordered by interestingness
• a progress bar was added
• the extension after installation can be found here : Insert \ Picture \ From Flickr …

Some screenshots :

The results from a search by the extension vs Flickr search

Right click on an image

Inserted image into Writer

Also i would to add that this extension, at this momment, works only in Writer.

Download (right click and save as)

Any suggestions or remarks are greatly appreciated.

Flickr Image Re-Use for OpenOffice.org update

Mihai Husleag, June 13th, 2008

I`m happy to announce that i succeeded in doing, in a basic manner, all the 3 requirements for this project : search photos by tags, by license and to insert one photo into a document.

Here you have a screenshot made after a search was done on tag mountains and license Attribution License :

Also here you have the screenshot with the photo inserted into a document . As you can see the image was inserted with a default size, but this will be changed later.

What i`ll try to do next :

• add menus to each image with the available sizes
• improve the searching
• inserting the image into the document with the selected size
• adding the license into the document
• more testing

I hope, that in less than 2 weeks i will make available a good version.

Any comments or suggestions are well appreciated.

ps : I came across this article. “I for one can’t wait.” says Andrew Min about this project. I`ll try to not disappoint him :)

GSoC 2008 : Flickr Image Re-Use for OpenOffice.org

Mihai Husleag, May 29th, 2008

As title might suggest, i have been selected for GSoC 2008. As mentor for this project has been assigned Nathan Yergler.

The developing will focus on 3 key functionalities:

• ability to search photos by tags
• filter search results by license attributes
• insert the image into the document along with attribution information

The first 2 steps were done(of course, this will not be the final version) in small demo that i attached to my application for GSoC 2008. The OpenOffice components for which the extension will be implemented are Writer, Impress and Calc.

The application will be written in Java, using NetBeans with its plugin OpenOffice NetBeans Integration.

A short introduction : I`m Mihai Husleag, 24 years old, student in Computer Science, at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania. My previous experience as programmer is more related to the .NET framework. Another thing about me, if in the weekends i`m not reachable then its a high probability that you will find me here.

If you have any suggestions about this project(new functionalities, things you don’t like, etc) feel free to leave a comment.

CC OpenOffice Addin Update: Added Impress funcionality!

ksiomelo, July 24th, 2007

Hello everyone!

I’ve made some changes in the addin and enabled to put licenses in Impress documents. The entire architecture has changed and I’m working on this right now. The newer version is in the CC sourceforge repository!

CC OpenOffice.Org AddIn updates

ksiomelo, July 7th, 2007

Hello all,

updates of the version 0.0.2:

* Creative Commons menu became visible in Calc and Impress

Although it’s is not working properly yet, the addin is now supporting the other ooo applications.

* License Image bug fixed

Now the addin is retrieving the licenses images perfectly!

* Display dialog when opening licensed documents

A simple dialog box is shown when a CC licensed document is opened.

* Checks if the document is already licensed and warns the user

Something like “You have chosen a different license, do you want to proceed anyway?”

… serveral other minor-updates were made in the addin.

Take a look at the screen shots!

License inserted in the document
Document already licensed
Opening a licensed document
Using the CC autotext to replicate the license

Want to try? Just download the ccooo.oxt file and install it from Extension Manager in OpenOffice.Org!

Next steps:

It’s coming! CC OpenOffice.Org Add-in

ksiomelo, June 27th, 2007

As you may know, I am working on this project as part of the Google Summer of Code program. Before starting, François Dechelle was already engaged and now we are joining efforts to develop this potentially-popular application!

The current state of the prototype is already adding the licenses in the body of the document.

After the license have been chosen, it becomes available as an Auto-Text, being able to be easily replicable in the document without having to create a new wizard. The name of the license and the URL are also being stored in the document’ metadata.

Currently I am working on a weird bug which is not allowing the ooo API to retrieve some images of the available licenses at http://i.creativecommons.org/l/ (it was working perfectly few days ago…)

We’re going to commit a stable version ready for download in the next weeks, but if you are eager to use it you can check out this folder at cctools repository:

./ccooo/

Feedbacks and suggestions are welcome!

Cheers

Summer of Code Project: “OpenOffice.org Writer Add-in for Publishing CC Licensed Documents”

ksiomelo, April 14th, 2007

Hi there!

I also was selected for the Google Summer of Code with this project mentored by Nathan R. Yergler. An introduction about the project:

The goal of this project is to provide a tool for supporting the process of licensing documents. Microsoft Office has a Creative Commons plug-in to put licenses metadata in its documents. I propose a similar Creative Commons add-in for OpenOffice.org that would allow license information to be embedded in OpenOffice.org documents. Despite being a requested feature for OpenOffice.org for more than two years, nothing has materialized. Having a simple way to add Creative Commons licenses will help to spread those licenses much more broadly. Making licenses available as Autotext for example, is one way this can be reached.

At first moment, I will concentrate on OOo Writer plugin, but of course, I have plans to extend this functionality to Calc and Impress as well. Get the full proposal here. If you have any suggestion, please let me know.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Cassio Melo, I’m 22 old and I live in Recife, Brazil. I’m an undergraduate at the same university of Alan Kelon (Informatics Center, Federal University of Pernambuco).

Beyond my passion for Computer Science, I also have interests in Business and Economy. Eric Drexler and Clayton Christensen are my preferred authors.

I did work for a summer in my undergraduate course at Federal University of Pernambuco with the SimPLe, which is an open source software factory using Product Line approach for action games domain.

This year, I developed an OOo plugin to replace the existing OOo notes. Public distribution will begin in the near future.

Additionally I have a year of industrial experience, having worked as a software engineer on C.E.S.A.R, developing a tool (codenamed BART project) for software components search and retrieval. We also have developed plugins for Eclipse, MS Word and OpenOffice.org for supporting artifacts searching. As a member of the R.i.S.E group, I’ve worked on algorithms for ranking software components.

You can view my full profile here.

Finally, I would like to share the thanks with my friends. We hope to bring new energy and enthusiasm to CC projects. :)