Gallery theme - creating

To add image files to your theme:

Use the Insert > Image > From file option on the main LibreOffice menu to add your images to a blank Draw document. Then, from the Draw document place the mouse pointer over the image until the pointer changes to a "hand" image, hold down the left mouse button for a second or two until the "hand" changes to a arrow/box image. Continue to hold down the mouse button as you drag and drop the image onto your new theme.

You may now right-click on the image in your theme and select the Title option to give your image a name. This is not required, but may be useful in some cases.

To add vector images to your theme:

In a Draw document, create the shapes you want to place in your Gallery theme. In general, if a shape is made up of multiple components, you will want to "Group" the components to create a single entity. Once a shape has been created, select the shape with the mouse pointer (if the shape has not been "grouped", be sure to select all of the related components). Then, hold down the left mouse button for a second or two until the "hand" changes to a arrow/box image. Continue to hold down the mouse button as you drag and drop the shape onto your new theme.

You may now right-click on the image in your theme and select the Title option to give your shape a name. This is not required, but may be useful in some cases.

Step 4 - Copy Theme Files

First, locate the files related to your theme by looking at the file location found in Step 3 (you can always get this information by opening the Gallery in LibreOffice, right-clicking on your theme name, and selecting "Properties.") You should find three files following this general naming pattern:

• xxxxxx.sdg
• xxxxxx.sdv
• xxxxxx.thm

Where xxxxxx is a system created name (in my case it followed the pattern "new theme.sdg"). If necessay, check the file modification date to make sure you have the right set of files. Copy the three files into the gallery sub-directory in the working directory created in Step 1, and delete the "place holder" files ( sample. sdg, sample.sdv, sample.thm). You may rename your three theme files if you wish, replacing the xxxxxxx portion with any name you desire.

Step 5 - the .str file

The .str file is a localization file with the name of your theme in as many different languages as you prefer. Optionally, you may just delete this file. In my case, I edited the file to replace all of the existing names with names created using Google translate for each of the relevant languages.

As a final step, rename sample.str to match the naming pattern you used in Step 4.

Step 6 - the icon image

The icon image is displayed when the extension is loaded. The icon image must be 42 x 42 pixels. Replace the icon.png file with the image file of your choice; you may give it any name you choose.

Step 7 - [optional] Change License File

The existing license file is for the GNU Lesser General Public License - Version 3. You may replace with any license you desire. However, note that if you plan to publish the extension, you must use one of the licenses approved for use as shown in the Publishing Extensions for LibreOffice reference given below. You may also have more than one license, subject to the previous note.

Step 8 - Edit pkg-desc Files

The pkg-description.txt file is a simple text file containing a description of your theme; this is also the default description that is used if there is not an alternate language file for your particular localization. In the example shown, there is a French description file included (the text for this particular file was created by using Google Translate to translate the English description to French). You may include description files for as many different languages as you wish.

Edit the pkg-description.txt file with a description of your theme.

Delete or edit the pkg-description.fr file with a description of your theme in the relevant language. Add description files for as many other languages as you wish.

Step 9 - Edit description.xml File

References

The following references were consulted in developing this procedure:

• Checklist for Writing Extensions
  • https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/DevGuide/Extensions/Checklist_for_Writing_Extensions
• Development/Extension Development
  • Clarifications and additions relevant to LibreOffice (ass opposed to OpenOffice)
  • https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Development/Extension_Development
• Extensions development
  • References for general extensions development
  • https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/Extensions_development
• FR / Documentation / How Tos / Installation / CreerExtension (Google translation):
  • How to create an extension using the example of creating a theme for the Gallery.
  • http://www.google.com/translate?hl=en&ie=UTF8&sl=fr&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwiki.openoffice.org%2Fwiki%2FFR%2FDocumentation%2FHow_Tos%2FInstallation%2FCreerExtension
  • Original web page : https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/FR/Documentation/How_Tos/Installation/CreerExtension
• Language codes (for localization)
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_639-1_codes
  • Note that not all of the languages listed in this reference are necessarily supported by LibreOffice.
• LibreOffice Extension Center
  • http://extensions.libreoffice.org/extension-center
• MediaWiki:Collections/Developer's Guide - Extensions
  • https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Collections/Developer%27s_Guide_-_Extensions
• Publishing Extensions for LibreOffice
  • https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/images/1/14/Publishing_extensions.pdf
  • Be sure to read this first if you plan to publish your extension on the LibreOffice Extensions site.
• Translations
  • https://translate.google.com/
  • All language translations for the purposes of localization were done using Google Translate.