Problems inserting a blank new Row into a table in OpenOffice Writer

Posted on 2010-05-05 01:58:40.012325-07 by bene

I've browsed all entries of this forum but haven't found any hint to save my problem: My OO-Writer document has a two-column table, which creates of log, the first column is a date and the second column consists of entries made by users in native OO. I use the following code to insert an new table row at the top of the table:

# Insert a new table Row $doc->insertRow($Tablename, 0) ; # the new row is inserted, but it isn't blank, it is a copy of the next row, # so update the first cell with actual date: $doc->cellValue($Tablename, 0, 0, $DateTimeString) ; # and blank the second cell: $doc->cellValue($Tablename,0,1,"") ;

Here is my problem:

If the second column of the old first Row, which is Cell (0,1) consists of a multiline entry, for example:

Line1

Line2

Line3

this entry is duplicated by insertRow, but when I try to blank the new Cell with

$doc->cellValue($Tablename,0,1,"") ;

only the first line of the Cell is blanked, so I get as new entry:

(blank line)

Line2

Line3

How can I blank the whole new cell?

Have I missed something?

Siegfried

Direct Responses: 12680 | Write a response

Posted on 2010-05-05 03:04:55.398989-07 by jmgdoc in response to 12679

Re: Problems inserting a blank new Row into a table in OpenOffice Writer

The insertRow method creates a row that replicates an existing row; it's a design choice, in order to avoid requiring a lot of parameters specifying the configuration of the new row.

The text content of a cell is hosted in one or more paragraphs. The cellValue (or setText, when applied to a table cell) method updates the first paragraph of the target cell. The subsequent paragraphs, if any, remain unchanged. Note that this feature allows the user to individually select/update/delete a particular paragraph in a cell.

As a consequence, all the embedded paragraphs must be explicitly removed in order to clear a cell as soon as it's suspected to be a multi-paragraph one.

We can use getCellParagraphs in order to get the list, then delete each paragraph using removeElement. Example:

$doc->removeElement($_) for $doc->getCellParagraphs($table, $row, $position);

Alternatively, we can use cut_children from the cell element. This method is not documented with OpenOffice::OODoc, but it's inherited from XML::Twig. It deletes all the elements contained in the calling element; so when used from a cell element it removes everything in the cell. Example:

$doc->getCell($table, $row, $position)->cut_children;

Direct Responses: 12681 | Write a response

Posted on 2010-05-05 04:28:40.303192-07 by bene in response to 12680

Re: Problems inserting a blank new Row into a table in OpenOffice Writer

Thanks for the explanation.

Since my first post, I found out that

my $_cell = $doc->getCell($Tablename, 0, 1); $doc->removeParagraph($_cell);

works as well.

Siegfried

Direct Responses: 12682 | Write a response

Posted on 2010-05-05 06:01:48.506766-07 by jmgdoc in response to 12681

Re: Problems inserting a blank new Row into a table in OpenOffice Writer

Be careful, removeParagraph may work is some situations but it doesn't produce exactly the same effect as an explicit removal of the paragraphs under the cell...

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