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OOo2 beta Presentation

Wed, 2005-08-03 21:29 — darren

 Hi guys! Here's the info from my presentation on the upcoming OpenOffice.org v2.

The presentation has been dumped as text at the end due to upload problems.
Installing the beta:

  • Get the latest beta snapshot from
    http://www.openoffice.org
  • Install using your system's
    package manager; as root:
    • Red Hat: rpm -Uhv *.rpm
    • Debian: alien -i *.rpm
  • Get a Java JRE, from eg
    http://java.sun.com, install it
    to your hard drive (perhaps to /usr/local/java). This step is needed for
    JDBC connection, among other things

The following steps are optional, and
only need to be done if you want to connect to a MySQL database:

  • Install MySQL using your system's
    package manager
  • Get the MySQL JDBC Connector:
    Connector/J from http://dev.mysql.com,
    extract it somewhere to your hard drive (perhaps
    /usr/local/jdbc/mysql)
  • Enable networking in
    /etc/mysql/my.cnf – find the line that says skip-networking and
    comment it out. On a Windows PC this can be done with MySQL
    Administrator
  • (re)Start MySQL

Setting up OpenOffice for database
connectivity:

  • Open a Writer session
  • Tools->Options->OpenOffice.org->Java
  • Choose “Add... “ to setup your
    Java environment, select the directory of your Java Runtime
    Environment and press “Select”
  • Choose “Class Path...” to
    setup your JDBC-MySQL connector, select the directory where you
    extracted the files

Guide to new features:

Text of presentation below:
OpenOffice.org v2.0 beta preview
Overview

  • New Features
  • Java Issues
  • An Open Standard
  • Base
  • XForms
  • Demonstration

New Features

  • New App - Base
  • Improved interoperability with MS Office
  • Overall UI improvements
  • Major new features: http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/features/2.0/index.html
  • Extensive new feature list: http://marketing.openoffice.org/2.0/featureguide.html

Java Issues

  • Preview releases depend on Sun's JRE
  • Restrictive license, non-Free
  • Consequences:
  • Cannot ship with many distros
  • Sun controls OOo development tools
  • GCC 4.0 released, includes GCJ, GIJ
  • Intention: OOo2 Release will support GCJ

An Open StandardOasis Open Document formatCurrently covers:

  • Text documents
  • Spreadsheets
  • Charts
  • Graphical documents
  • More coming in future revisions
  • KOffice supports the standard now
  • OOo and derivatives will real soon
  • Supported by EU over MS Office XML
  • See FAQ at: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/office/faq.php 

Base

  • New app in OOo
  • Most features present (but hidden) in 1.1.x
  • Direct competitor to MS Access
  • Supports XForms standard for form creation
  • New embedded DB engine, but still supports many external engines
  • Heavy use of JDBC (Java dependence) or ODBC 

XForms

  • Next generation of XHTML forms
  • Provides separation of data and presentation, as with XML
  • Powerful form creation tool
  • Supported in OOo

Demonstration

  • Whee! 

Conclusion

  • OpenOffice.org 2 Rocks!