Category: Community News

Talks and Slides by Collabora at the LibreOffice Conference 2021

Marc Rodrigues Leave a comment

Watch the talks and download the slides of Collabora’s contributions to LibOCon 2021

The LibreOffice Conference 2021 (LibOCon) was held from September 23rd to 25th as an online event. Developers from Collabora have contributed a significant number of talks on various aspects of LibreOffice technology, like interoperability or performance improvements, and regarding Collabora Online and the ecosystem. Did you miss any of those? Don’t worry! The talks are available for you on YouTube. We also encourage you to download the slides of the presentations available in this overview.

Day 1: Thursday, September 23rd, 2021

Michael Meeks: Collabora Keynote

Michael Meeks, Managing Director of Collabora Productivity and member of the LibreOffice Board, looks at the latest developments around LibreOffice from an organizational and ecosystem perspective. See details

Watch the talk
Download the slides!

Noel Grandin: I feel the need… The need for speed…

Optimization is a lengthy process. But also an adventure that requires a bit of detective instinct and plenty of exploratory talent. Discover which adjustments are being made to make LibreOffice even faster and better performing. See details

Watch the talk
Download the slides!

Marco Cecchetti: Some improvements for the SVG export filter

Marco Cecchetti reports on progress around the use of SVG in presentations and the improvements in performance and storage requirements on export. See details

Watch the talk
Download the slides!

Tomaž Vajngerl: Improved document searching with LibreOffice

Collabora developer Miklos Vajna introduces the latest enhancements to LibreOffice and Collabora Online search that visualize hits across different documents. See details

Watch the talk
Download the slides!

Mike Kaganski: Multi-column support in LibreOffice 7.2

The new feature, its relevance, obstacles and implementation status. Mike Kaganski shares his experience, how interesting was it to work on this. See details

Watch the talk
Download the slides!

Day 2: Friday, September 24th, 2021

Cor Nouws: A year of COOL …

Find out about the improvements that LibreOffice technology in the browser experienced. Hear about success stories and new features in Collabora Online! See details

Watch the talk
Download the slides!

Michael Meeks COOL performance

Recently, we have been focusing our Collobora Online development on improving the feel and slickness of document editing. Come and hear about the things that we’ve found and fixed, both in COOL and also in the LibreOffice core to improve the experience! See details

Watch the talk!
Download the slides!

Sarper Akdemir: PPTX footer export & import interoperability

Sarper Akdemir outlines the challenges around the export & import of Footers in PPTX and how they have been mastered. See details

Watch the talk
Download the slides!

Miklos Vajna: Gutter margin in Writer page styles

LibreOffice was already capable of handling various margins in Writer page styles. A missing piece was the support for the gutter margins. Find out, how this was implemented! See details

Watch the talk
Download the slides!

Tomaž Vajngerl: Built-in “Xray” like UNO object inspector

When developing macros and extensions in LibreOffice, it is very useful to have an object inspector. The Document Foundation put up a tender to create a built-in Xray-like UNO object inspector. It was awarded to Collabora, and we are now in the process of implementing it. See details

Watch the talk
Download the slides!

Tomaž Vajngerl: PDF and other graphic improvements

The LibreOffice technology in Draw is key to PDF annotations, and the support of a recently added review-based workflow. Find out, how this has been implemented! See details

Watch the talk
Download the slides!

Day 3: Saturday, September 25th, 2021

Szymon Kłos: JSDialogs improvements over the past year

JSDialogs is a LibreOffice component used to share UI elements with Collabora Online. Hear about the most recent updates added. See details

Watch the talk
Download the slides!

Follow us for more insights on LibreOffice technology


Collabora Productivity created Collabora Online and is the driving force behind putting LibreOffice in the Cloud. Collabora provides a wide range of products, as well as consulting services for enterprises and governments. Powered by the largest team of certified LibreOffice engineers in the world, Collabora is a leading contributor to the LibreOffice Technology codebase and community. Collabora Office for Desktop and Collabora Online provide a business-hardened office suite with long-term support. Collabora’s multi-platform policy is completed with Collabora Office for iOS, Android, and Chrome OS. Collabora Productivity is a division of Collabora, the global software consultancy dedicated to providing the benefits Open Source to the commercial world, specializing in mobile, automotive and consumer electronics industries. For more information, follow us  on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

 

 

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Developers Day: September 30th

Pedro Silva Leave a comment

COOL Days 2021 starts very soon with a Developers Day. Meet other developers at this event. It is free to join, virtual this year, and we expect the very first of many COOL Days to come! Reserve your seat by filling the form.

Developers Day features more than 40 sessions with included breaks for Q&A. All talks will be short, from 5 to 15 minutes, this in turn will allow you to watch more cool stuff and perhaps participate in Q&A slots! The full schedule will be released soon, but here is a test.

Starting off with the opening keynote at 09:30 CEST then a couple of talks ranging from insight on Localization of Collabora website; walk-through the Notebookbar structure; Updates on newly FreeBSD port; HowTo session on the Cypress tests and ending the morning session with Canvas for rendering UI.

Q&A ( max 15 min) followed by lunch break (1 hour), during the conference you will have multiple opportunities to participate during these Q&A time slots.

In the afternoon session, attendees will receive an update on the latest Calc canvas improvements followed by a presentation on Performance wins; Editing simulation; Android and iOS new features; Scaling improvements and Dialog improvements.

Q&A break (max 15 min)

See some of the Mobile design improvements; Get to know the ins and outs of bisecting; Collabora Online forum update; Learn how to get involved with translation; Stability and cleanup improvements; How 1&1 embeds COOL and right before the break Kubernetes setup & deployment.

Q&A break (max 15 min)

At 20:00 attendees will hear about all of the effort on the New sidebar and dialog backend. The proceeding talks will touch a variety of challenges and improvements: Async-save design; VBA macro support; OOXML document analysis; Rendering wasteage; Document searching; Multi-page PDF viewing; Text/JSON protocol performance improvement; Fuzzing / asan / string-vectors; User sentiment reporting; Setting up your own Collabora Online; SDK: creating a new integration.

Q&A break (max 15 min)

The last Collabora Online related talks centers on integration pieces and the latest development on that front. From the New Nextcloud/richdocuments pieces and New ownCloud integration pieces to the Moodle integration or the New Mattermost integration ending with a talk on how to contribute and the closing session.

The event as a whole is a great opportunity for people who are familiar with Open Source and Collabora Online. People who just want to learn more about the technology free of cost also have a great opportunity to experience the openness of COOL and the event itself.

Join us to celebrate the 1st COOL day on September the 30th, it’s free of charge:

Reserve your seat

If you have more of a business interest in deploying Collabora Online in the enterprise
then perhaps you should attend the Business Day? Early booking: 50% off before September 18!

Collaboran talks at the LibreOffice Conference 2021

Marc Rodrigues Leave a comment

An online conference all about LibreOffice technology

Hosted by The Document Foundation, the LibreOffice Conference 2021 (LibOCon) will be an online event. The live-streaming of the talks and workshops will be taking place from September 23rd to September 25th. Collabora developers will give interesting talks on LibreOffice technology, Collabora Online and the ecosystem on all three days, providing profound insights around the latest features and developments. This article gives you an overview of our presentations. Meet us at LibOCon 2021 and just one week later at our COOLdays!

Day 1: Thursday, September 23rd 2021

Michael Meeks

 13:00 – 13:30 – Room 1

Collabora Keynote

Michael Meeks, Managing Director of Collabora Productivity and member of the LibreOffice Board, looks at the latest developments around LibreOffice from an organizational and ecosystem perspective.

See details  Save to calendar

Noel Grandin

 15:00 – 15:30 – Room 1

I feel the need… The need for speed…

Optimization is a lengthy process. But also an adventure that requires a bit of detective instinct and plenty of exploratory talent. Discover which adjustments are being made to make LibreOffice even faster and better performing.

See details  Save to calendar

Marco Cecchetti

 16:00 – 16:20 – Room 1

Some improvements for the SVG export filter

Marco Cecchetti reports on progress around the use of SVG in presentations and the improvements in performance and storage requirements on export.

See details  Save to calendar

Tomaž Vajngerl

 16:30 – 17:00 – Room 1

Improved document searching with LibreOffice

Collabora developer Miklos Vajna introduces the latest enhancements to LibreOffice and Collabora Online search that visualize hits across different documents.

See details  Save to calendar

Mike Kaganski

 17:00 – 17:30 – Room 1

Multi-column support in LibreOffice 7.2

The new feature, its relevance, obstacles and implementation status. Mike Kaganski shares his experience, how interesting was it to work on this.

See details  Save to calendar

Day 2: Friday, September 24th 2021

Cor Nouws

 12:00 – 12:30 – Room 1

A year of COOL …

Find out about the improvements that LibreOffice technology in the browser experienced. Hear about success stories and new features in Collabora Online!

See details  Save to calendar

Michael Meeks

 12:30 – 13:00 – Room 1

COOL performance

Recently, we have been focusing our Collobora Online development on improving the feel and slickness of document editing. Come and hear about the things that we’ve found and fixed, both in COOL and also in the LibreOffice core to improve the experience!

See details  Save to calendar

Sarper Akdemir

 13:00 – 13:05 – Room 2

PPTX footer export & import interoperability

Sarper Akdemir outlines the challenges around the export & import of Footers in PPTX and how they have been mastered.

See details  Save to calendar

Miklos Vajna

 13:30 – 13:50 – Room 1

Gutter margin in Writer page styles

LibreOffice was already capable of handling various margins in Writer page styles. A missing piece was the support for the gutter margins. Find out, how this was implemented!

See details  Save to calendar

Tomaž Vajngerl

 14:00 – 14:30 – Room 1

Built-in “Xray” like UNO object inspector

When developing macros and extensions in LibreOffice, it is very useful to have an object inspector. The Document Foundation put up a tender to create a built-in Xray-like UNO object inspector. It was awarded to Collabora, and we are now in the process of implementing it. Hear about the progress!

See details  Save to calendar

Tomaž Vajngerl

 15:30 – 16:00 – Room 1

PDF annotations support

The LibreOffice technology in Draw is key to PDF annotations, and the support of a recently added review-based workflow. Find out, how this has been implemented!

See details  Save to calendar

Day 3: Saturday, September 25th 2021

Szymon Kłos

 13:00 – 13:15 – Room 1

JSDialogs improvements over the past year

JSDialogs is a LibreOffice component used to share UI elements with Collabora Online. Hear about the most recent updates added.

See details  Save to calendar

More interesting talks on LibreOffice technology at the COOLdays


We’re excited to announce the COOL Days 2021 – just one week after the LibOCon. The online conference will take place on September 30th and October 1st and feature a vast range of topics around Collabora Online’s technological and commercial development. The 30th of September – Development Day – is focused on developers to share their experiences. The 1st of October – Business Day – concentrates on commercial topics. Discover the COOL Days program.

 

Experience COOL Days

 
 

GSoC 21 Projects mentored by Collabora for LibreOffice

Marc Rodrigues Leave a comment

Collabora mentors students on LibreOffice projects during this year’s Google Summer of Code

Summer is synonymous with the opportunity to participate in beautiful projects. Let’s look at the students who work in improving LibreOffice during the Google Summer of Code. This year, four of the approved GSoC projects for the LibreOffice community are mentored by Collabora developers. Find out about the improvements they are currently implementing!

Tests for the VCL graphic backends

The Visual Class Library (VCL) tests identifies if a graphic backend works correctly. This is especially important if the backend depends on the client hardware or drivers (like e.g. on Skia/Vulkan). This task’s main objective is adding more test cases to the pre-existing tests, and implementing a usable UI for users to test the graphic’s feasibility themselves. This project can be considered as of medium difficulty and requires C++ knowledge. It has been taken over by Akshit Kushwaha who is being mentored by Collaborans Tomaž Vajngerl and Luboš Luňák.

Creating a powerful Text Style deck

Text Style deck mock-up by the LibreOffice design team

The current styles deck sidebar is going to see a redesign. The paragraph and character styles will be merged into a single Text Style deck, as illustrated in the mock-up to the left. Furthermore, Anshu Khare, who has picked-up this project, does also want to rework the filter workflow. Anshu Khare is being mentored by Collaborans Tomaž Vajngerl and Mike Kaganski and Heiko Tietze from the LibreOffice design team.

Making SVM format independent of the VCL Metafile

The SVM file is a 1-to-1 pullout of the content of the VCL Metafile. We mentioned the VCL already before. It is a complex code area and since the SVM should not change, stay consistent, modernizing and updating VCL is very hard. Now after this task, there will be a test for the SVM format. And there will also be new classes, making it easier to update/improve VCL. This project can be considered of medium difficulty. It is being taken over by Panos Korovesis who is being mentored by Tomaž Vajngerl and Miklos Vajna.

100 paper cuts

100 Paper Cuts is a versatile and multifaceted project in which Bayram Çiçek will be implementing enhancement requests and solving some issues on the UX side of LibreOffice. This requires knowledge in C++ and the ability to read other peoples code. Due to its nature, the difficulty of this project can vary. Bayram Çiçek is being mentored by Collaboran Muhammet Kara and Heiko Tietze from the LibreOffice design team.

More Projects – Boost.Gil 2D convolution and correlation

Apart from those for the LibreOffice project, Collaboran developers participate in other Google Summer of Code projects. For the Boost C++ Libraries organization, a 2D convolution and correlation algorithm aligned with existing 1D convolution and correlation is to be implemented. Prathamesh Tagore will improve the existing prototype and make it ready for release. He is being mentored by Collaboran Pranam Lashkari, who was himself a successful GSoC scholarship holder a few years ago.

We wish all participants an equally successful and insightful summer and would like to thank all mentors for devoting the time necessary for the success of these projects. At Collabora, we believe that the sharing of knowledge is an essential part of open source and also a driver of progress and innovation.

Searching for a mentor? Join us GitHub!

Google Summer of Code is an excellent opportunity to learn to work in many open-source projects. But where to find mentors during the rest of the year? We suggest you to take a look at the code of Collabora Online on GitHub and join the growing community there, with easy hacks to get started and regular round-ups. Community Mentor Muhammet Kara and the rest of our team of open-source developers are there and willing to share their vast experience.

Join the Collabora Online community

CODE 6.4.6 Introduces Fontwork, Gutter Margins and More Improvements

Marc Rodrigues Leave a comment

The latest version of the Collabora Online Development Edition (CODE) 6.4.6 introduces new features and improvements. The newly introduced Fontwork feature, allows you to create the well known graphical text art objects inside Collabora Online. The feature can be accessed via the Insert tab, both on the NotebookBar and in the classic UI. The Fontart Gallery allows you to choose from a set of different text art objects, each of which can be customized via the Sidebar. It is now also possible to define gutter margins. And of course there is more!

Use the latest features now – and do give your feedback

CODE gives you the latest and greatest features in online collaboration earlier than the supported version Collabora Online. Of course, we would love to hear about your experiences. Please leave your feedback on CODE in the community forum or report any possible issues on GitHub.

How to use the attractive Fontwork objects

Working with Fontwork in Collabora Online is very straightforward. After choosing a Fontwork object from the gallery, double-click the object to update the text. When selected, the colour, transparency, and the orientation of the graphical text can be adjusted through the Sidebar. The new Fontwork panel makes it easy to work with the characters’ height, or change the alignment and the character spacing. If you are using Collabora Online via your mobile phone’s browser you will benefit from the mobile-friendly interface, as shown in these images.

The main colour of the Fontwork object is defined by the Area colour, similar as to when working with Shapes. You can also choose from different types of fills (e.g. colour, gradient, bitmap, pattern) and set the transparency. Secondary or tertiary colours of Fontwork can be defined through the Line or Shadow colour.

Mobile optimized Fontwork interface. Click to enlarge!
1. Choose Fontwork from the Galery
2. Edit shape, letter height and alignment in the Sidebar panel.
3. Define Colour, Type of fill & transparency level in the Area panel

 

Easier and better page formatting in Writer with Gutter Margins

Writer now features improved support for gutter margins. This is often requested for government documentation and really popular among our users in Asian countries.
Mind that this new feature is not yet available in the Writer on desktop. You can test it on desktop though, with the unstable snapshot of our supported Collabora Office version. And the work is of course also committed for the next LibreOffice release.

How to use the new gutter margins

This margin type can be specified explicitly, and it is also possible to select whether the gutter should be located on the left or at the top. The feature works with mirrored margins as well and is very useful for printed publications. To utilize this feature, access the Page Style dialog through the Layout tab. In the Page dialog you will find a new Gutter option below the Margin settings. On the right-hand side there is a drop-down menu that lets you choose the Gutter position (left or top). The small page icon in the dialog renders a preview of the margin size.

Microsoft Word also includes a gutter margin option, so this feature is also an interoperability improvement. When importing or exporting documents, this feature is now supported with DOCX, DOC, ODP, and RTF formats. While the feature has been primarily developed for Collabora Online, it is also available in the desktop version. If you are interested in more, and technical, details of this implementation, please take a look at the blog by developer Miklos Vajna.

1. Define the size of the gutter margin
2. Choose the position of the gutter margin
3. A preview of the gutter margin’s size and position is rendered in the dialog

 

New configuration option for integrators

Collabora Online now does support the FileUrl property of WOPI. This is a URI to the file location that the WOPI client uses to get the file and can be used to get the file instead of a GetFile request. FileUrl brings better performance in some configurations and has been implemented in cooperation with partners.

About CODE

CODE is the Collabora Online Development Edition. It contains the latest developments and is perfect for home users. It enables them to regain control of their own online documents and to host them themselves in a secure and private environment. For tech-enthusiasts, it is a low-threshold way to get involved and familiar with our online office solution. CODE will be improved continuously and our next supported and maintained Collabora Online product will be built from it. All of our code is Open Source, and a vibrant community in participating in growing Collabora Online. Would you like to be part of the story? Join the community!

 

Get CODE 6.4