Presented by:

Daniel Sikeler

from IT@M

I work for IT@M, the IT service provider of the administration of Munich. Munich still uses LibreOffice as its main office suite. We do some customization of LibreOffice and provide several extensions. Among those WollMux - a template, form and letterhead system - is by far the most important. I'm responsible for the development and operation of WollMux.

WollMux is a LibreOffice extension making the handling of templates, forms and letterheads much easier. The development started in 2005 as the need for a unified appearance in communication in the public administration of Munich arises. WollMux was a part of the LiMux Project which did the migration from Windows to a Linux based desktop.

Since then a lot of features have been added:

  • WollMux provides easy access to documents and forms, which are created by combining fragments to improve reusability.
  • User-specific information can automatically be retrieved from external sources like directory services (LDAP) and inserted into the documents. It is also possible to change the author and write letters for somebody else.
  • An extra view replaces the LibreOffice's own dialog for input fields and simplifies the completion of forms. It supports labels for input fields, reusability of fields, plausibility checks, gender function and much more. Parts of the document can be hidden based on the input.
  • Support for Content Based Directives, which is a paper based workflow in public administration. Several copies of a document are printed for sending, notifying, being filed or any other use case.
  • The LibreOffice mail merge is extended to work with WollMux forms and content based directives.

The extension is written in Java and uses the Java UNO API. A wrapper called UNOHelper for frequently used API calls like property access or casting has been developed.

There are extensive options to configure WollMux. Even a plugin system is provided to add new plausibility checks or print functionality. The configuration can either be placed on a server or stored locally.

In view of the migration back to Microsoft Office in the administration of Munich, it is planned to transfer the ownership to The Document Foundation as a sustainable new home.

Date:
2020 October 17 - 14:30
Duration:
30 min
Room:
Room 2
Language:
Track:
Development, APIs, Extensions, Future Technology
Difficulty:
Medium

Happening at the same time:

  1. LibreOffice Virtual Hackfest
  2. Start Time:
    2020 October 17 14:00

    Room:
    Workshop Room

  3. ScriptForge - a library of macro scripting resources
  4. Start Time:
    2020 October 17 14:30

    Room:
    Room 1