New SVG export filter (Technology Preview)

Feedback to: Kai Ahrens

Introduction

Based on the fact that the current SVG export filter available in OpenOffice has some drawbacks and lacks a proper design internally, I created a new filter module from ground up, that should be able to fulfill the needs we have in this area. Needs in this area are extracted from community feedback, customer requests and issues we currently have with the 'old' SVG export filter implementation.

Important: The current release of the new filter module is just meant to be a 'Technology Preview', that offers only basic functionality. It is in no way a complete product and shouldn't be used for production purposes. Please use this release at your own risk.

Features

The goal for this first release was to offer at least the same functionality as we currently have with the old filter, but with support for the export of multiple pages within one SVG file. The whole code currently available was written from scratch and should give us a 'Proof Of Concept' with the current release. It will be the basis for future releases and will be improved constantly. A concrete release schedule is currently not available.

What works so far

What doesn't work so far

What is planned next

Installation

Usage

Using the filter from within the application (UI)

After successful installation you should have a new filter entry inside the 'File=>Export' dialog available. The new filter is called SVG – Scalable Vector Graphics (new). The old SVG filter is still available.

As stated above, there's no export dialog available at the moment, so that all pages get exported in every case. This will be changed as soon as a filter dialog will be available.

Using the filter via API

You can use the filter via API in a very easy way. The Java code gives you an example of how to do this.

The following properties are supported so far:

Source Code

The source code for the new SVG export filter can be found inside the Framework project filter module. Please checkout this module and change directory to filter/source/svg to find the related code. Revisions for the current release are tagged with OOO_SVG_FILTER_0_1_0 and can be checked out with standard CVS commands.