Goal

LibreOffice Basic is pretty limited, and calling Calc functions is cumbersome. Hence the idea of this add-on.

There is a major limitation: the services won't be available unless the add-on is installed. That means that your scripts won't be usable on a standard LibreOffice installation.

Use cases:

One PC script (typically personal script): install the add-on on the PC and use the services;
Prototype: the add-on will help you to keep the code clean;
Developer: the Tests service is mandatory on the developer PC but not on the end user PC.

Rationale

There are already dozens of functions available via the com.sun.star.sheet.FunctionAccess service, but the syntax is tedious:

functionAccess = createUnoService("com.sun.star.sheet.FunctionAccess")  
MsgBox functionAccess.callFunction("SUBSTITUTE", Array("123123123", "3", "abc"))

Versus:

Strings = createUnoService("com.github.jferard.mbfs.Strings")
MsgBox Strings.replace("123123123", "3", "abc")

Installation

Download the latest release or compile the extension (see Compilation below).

In LibreOffice: first, save any opened document. Then Tools > Extension Manager... and choose the MoreBasicFunctions extension. Accept the license and close the extension manager. Be sure to restart LibreOffice.

Compilation

The preparation step requires the LibreOffice SDK and the procyon decompiler. On Ubuntu

$ sudo apt-get install libreoffice-dev
$ sudo apt-get install procyon-decompiler

Now run:

$ python3 mbfs.py

If something goes wrong, you should check the configuration: https://api.libreoffice.org/docs/install.html.

Usage

At this time, this is only a proof of concept. You can install the add-on with the extension manager. Then try in the LibreOffice macro console:

strings = createUNOService("com.github.jferard.mbfs.Strings")
MsgBox strings.reversed("MoreBasicFunctions")

Target

MoreBasicFunctions is meant to provide several services.

See the doc directory for detailed information.

`Tests`

Some Junit like functions: assertTrue, assertFalse, assertEquals, assertNotEquals, assertArrayEquals, assertArrayNotEquals.

`Strings`

For string manipulation: reversed, split, join, lower/upper case, indexOf, substring...

TODO: maybe diff, encodings...

`Characters`

For character manipulation Ord/Chr and identification: isLetter, isDigit...

`Regexes`

For regex usage: match, findAll/findFirst, replaceAll/replaceFirst.

`Collections`

For collections manipulation: sort, shuffle, min, max, avg, concat, flatten, times, chunks, randomElement, contains.

`Dates`

For date and time manipulation: now, strptime/strftime...

TODO: Add one day, one month...

`Paths`

For path manipulation: list, recursiveList, split/join, parent, withExtension...

`Math`

TODO.

About Basic-Java mappings

The Developer's guide give an overview of the mappings between UNO, Java, C++ and Basic (p. 72). But this table does not show how Basic values will be typed in Java.

The table aims to be more complete:

Basic Value	Java Type
`Boolean`	`java.lang.Boolean`
`Single`	`java.lang.Float`
`Double`	`java.lang.Double`
`Integer`	`java.lang.Short`
`Long`	`java.lang.Integer`
literal boolean (`True`)	`java.lang.Boolean`
literal floating point value (`3.14`)	`java.lang.Double`
literal number -128 <= x < 128	`java.lang.Byte`
literal number -32768 <= x < -128 or 128 <= x < 32768	`java.lang.Short`
literal number -2147483648 <= x < -32768 or 32768 < x < -2147483648	`java.lang.Integer`
larger literal number	`java.lang.Double`

Arrays are either mapped to primitive arrays (if the values are consistent) or to object arrays.

Basic Value	Java Type
array of `Boolean`s or boolean values	`boolean[]`
array of `Single`s or float values	`float[]`
array of `Double`s or double values	`double[]`
array of `Integer`s or integer values	`short[]`
array of `Long`s or long values	`integer[]`
array of mixed types	`Object[]`

In the case of a mixed array, the object are typed according to the first table.