Port Calligra Gemini to SailfishOS as native office suite

Question

218

Port Calligra Gemini to SailfishOS as native office suite

asked 2014-11-22 15:28:14 +0200

hook

3092 ●16 ●28 ●24

http://matija.suklje.name...

updated 2015-10-30 20:01:42 +0200

Calligra is a great Free Softwire KDE/Qt-based office suite. In fact it was the base for the Documents app in the Nokia N9 (and Jolla I imagine).

The recent news item (including awesome videos!) reveals that Calligra Gemini is now part of the official Calligra suite – this goes perfectly with the recently announced Jolla Tablet, since the whole point of Calligra Gemini is that the office suite has a responsive UI – that means that on the fly it changes e.g.:

into the full desktop create mode, if it detects the screen is big enough and there is a keyboard (& mouse) present;
into the touch-optimised edit mode, if it detects it the device offers only a touch-screen;
into the full-screen no-nonsense view mode, if asked so.

Having such a thing on the Jolla Tablet would be a brilliant thing and the code is already there (although for now still Qt4-based) – please make this happen.

This could (i.e. would eventually) solve a previous question about having a native spreadsheet app. ⇐ update: fixed wording

https://www.calligra.org/news/calligra-2-9-released/

Calligra Gemini

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Comments

16

I'd give this several arrows up if I could. This could actually also be useful on the Jolla phone, not just the tablet

Tanghus ( 2014-11-22 16:40:03 +0200 )edit

4

Agreed, but the tablet is such a perfect example (although the phone + TOHKBD is a great one as well)

hook ( 2014-11-22 17:08:28 +0200 )edit

6

Definitely the tablet needs a powerful office suite! Sounds like the perfect solution whilst still I would prefer a true mobile solution based on libre...

ramoth ( 2014-11-22 17:33:32 +0200 )edit

4

Agreed, but the tablet is such a perfect example

Yeah, but I've realized I have no use case for a tablet. Got my PC/work station for working at home, my laptop for when being out of town, and my Jolla for all in between. Had a tablet for 3 years (died the other day), but only used it for looking up TV-programmes. €400 out the window :P

Tanghus ( 2014-11-22 17:47:56 +0200 )edit

1

I'd like to hear some sailor/developer talking about this topic :yes:

Someoneortwo ( 2014-12-02 02:50:35 +0200 )edit

I'd give this several arrows up if I could. This could actually also be useful on the Jolla phone, not just the tablet
Tanghus ( 2014-11-22 16:40:03 +0200 )edit
Agreed, but the tablet is such a perfect example (although the phone + TOHKBD is a great one as well)
hook ( 2014-11-22 17:08:28 +0200 )edit
Definitely the tablet needs a powerful office suite! Sounds like the perfect solution whilst still I would prefer a true mobile solution based on libre...
ramoth ( 2014-11-22 17:33:32 +0200 )edit
Agreed, but the tablet is such a perfect example
Yeah, but I've realized I have no use case for a tablet. Got my PC/work station for working at home, my laptop for when being out of town, and my Jolla for all in between. Had a tablet for 3 years (died the other day), but only used it for looking up TV-programmes. €400 out the window :P
Tanghus ( 2014-11-22 17:47:56 +0200 )edit
I'd like to hear some sailor/developer talking about this topic :yes:
Someoneortwo ( 2014-12-02 02:50:35 +0200 )edit

Answer 1

26

answered 2018-09-07 11:26:59 +0200

Damien Caliste
6535 ●105 ●139 ●161

https://github.com/dcalis...

updated 2018-09-26 10:25:03 +0200

Edit 2018-09-26: packages updated in OBS with a fix for the performance regression issue. Well, it's not really a fix: the page cache was not enabled by default and I didn't notice that @leinir enabled it in the first port.

Edit 2018-09-21: I've updated the bundle for the application not to crash on presentation files. The sources have been updated also to HEAD version of Calligra so any modifications can easily be propose upstream and following development can also be straitworward. The performances issues have not been investigated yet. For testing purposes and report any crash or issue, packages can be downloaded from my OBS build repository. Every RPM should be install except for the -template ones.

Some news of on-going work on Calligra in SailfishOS from community.

I've finished upgrading Calligra to 3.1.0 for later adoption in mer as it has been discussed on IRC last month. It is compiling on OBS. Generated packages can be installed on device and tested.

The repository in Mer is simply a list of git submodules and a spec file. Required KF5 dependencies are compiled and installed in /usr/lib/calligra-kf5/ to avoid mess-up with system libraries. Calligra is using an rpath to find them.

On device, performances are currently poor though and pptx files makes the application crashes. So packages are not yet to be used in production. But it's a start and community can work on Calligra HEAD (well almost, it is made on 3.1.0) to improve and test.

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Answer 2

2

answered 2016-01-18 22:55:39 +0200

Nokia7710
166 ●1 ●7 ●10

Now, Calligra is evolving to 3.0 with an update to Qt 5.5.

In an extended answer to my comment, the developper details the processes to perform in order to port Calligra on Sailfish.

https://frinring.wordpress.com/2015/10/07/calligra-words-3-alpha-now-pure-qt5-kf5/

what answer could provide the community ?

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Comments

1

I'm afraid that his point 2., namely, upgrading SFOS Qt libs to at least 5.5, won't happen in a near future… This is the main blocker IMHO, and the community cannot really help for this. Then, since the document app is open source, it will be quite strait forward to upgrade to latest Calligra and hopefully design a specific UI for edition.

Maybe when the ramble from November 15 settles down a bit, one could add in the IRC community meetings the following question : « plan or roadmap for Qt 5.5 in SFOS, and how the community can help (tests, bug triage in Mer…) ? »

Damien Caliste ( 2016-01-19 14:06:55 +0200 )edit

A post by those who made the first Calligra port on Qt 5.1. Only a partial port as missionned by Jolla Oy in order to create the Sailfish office document viewer. http://www.valdyas.org/fading/index.cgi/2013/08/index.html

Nokia7710 ( 2016-01-23 11:07:08 +0200 )edit

1

Qt 5.6 is almost here. So will there be convergence?

pavi ( 2016-12-07 19:56:03 +0200 )edit

Answer 3

1

answered 2016-02-11 16:22:46 +0200

Nokia7710
166 ●1 ●7 ●10

updated 2016-02-11 17:58:59 +0200

As a Calligra mobile seems not to be possible for a while, could we get a port of ABIWORD to sailfisfhOS ? ABIWORD is a free word processor available for many Linux desktop distros. ABIWORD was already ported on the N900 and the N9. There is also an Android version.

Personnally I use consistently my phone for writing, and already on my 3.5 inch Nokia 7710 ou Iphone 4, thus the lack of native word processor oblige me to use android suite with some concern in data availability.

Concerning Abiword, as there is already a version available in Easy Deabian packages for Arm and Meego-Harmattan, it should be easy to port it on Sailfish ? https://packages.debian.org/search?suite=jessie&arch=arm&searchon=names&keywords=abiword

Stefano Mosconi told in 2013 that all Harmattan/meeGo Apps could their Harbour in Sailfish ... https://twitter.com/zzste/status/392718794126143488

Is there no developer interested ?

If yes, one could crowdfound the port in the same way that CODERUS proposed it on Indiego !!! https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/support-coderus-sailfishos-individual-developer#/

WANTED DEVELOPER !!!

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Comments

Why two ansvers ? Just because the comment on the comment in the first answer does not bring the question of Calligra at the top of TogetherJolla... I opt for this way and not for create a new Question in TogetherJolla. More than the Form (but, as you can see I delete the first answer ;-) ) my problem is to attract some developper to do the work ... It's desperately slow to process by votes and have to wait that the number of votes give some interest to your problem and so on.

Nokia7710 ( 2016-02-11 18:50:42 +0200 )edit

1

It seems to me that Abiword is based on Gtk, at least for its desktop version (see https://packages.debian.org/stretch/abiword and the dependency list). I would be surprised if they propose a Qt version with a touch oriented interface.

Based on this, Abiword is far less probable to arrive on SailfishOS than Calligra ! In my opinion, there are two directions to follow to see a document editor in SailfishOS:

Mer that upgrades to Qt5.5, so using Calligra almost out of the box. It will take a huge amount of time to switch to Qt5.5 but then it will be easy.
Keep looking at LibreOfficeKit. Requires to build LibreOffice on Mer which is doable now. Then one needs to develop from scratch the UI in SailfishOS and bind it to LibreOfficeKit. Very interesting but long way to go.

Damien Caliste ( 2016-02-12 10:29:32 +0200 )edit

But It seems, there is already a version of Abiword workable for Meego Harmattan with an UI for the N9 (even if it seems to work through a kind of virtual machine ?) : http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=85878 "What is Easy Debian Harmattan ? It is an easy way to run Debian (armel) inside MeeGo Harmattan (without rebooting and dual boot) by chrooting a Debian image file. Full desktop Debian softwares are available : LXDE (desktop environment), OpenOffice, GIMP (image editor), Java (J2SE), Abiword (text editor), Gnumeric (spreadsheet), Iceweasel / Firefox (with Java and Flash), Icedove / Thunderbird email client, TeXMaker / LaTeX, many programming languages (C/C++, Python, Fortran, Pascal, Ruby, etc), Octave, Scilab, Gnu R, etc. There are approx. 29,000 Debian packages, but not all work on ARM and Nokia N9/N950 (due to chrooting limitations, ARMEL type, etc). Search for Debian packages here."

Nokia7710 ( 2016-02-12 15:41:23 +0200 )edit

It's not a virtual machine, it's a chroot. It means that on a given running kernel + userland, the root directory is changed to something else for some processes, so they can rely on others libraries than the host system ones.

That said, a chroot on Fremantle or Harmattan provides a working environment for Debian, since the userland of Debian and these two systems are basically the same : X11 + window manager… On the contrary, there is no EasyDebian on SailfishOS (not that it's impossible to do), because the userland of SailfishOS differs much from the (current) userland of Debian which is still mainly based on X11.

When Wayland will be mature enough there will be room to have a usable Debian chroot.

Besides, Gtk is working on Wayland, so to have the desktop version of Abiword on the phone (which may not be that pleasant to use), it's currently a matter of compiling Gtk in the SDK (and then Abiword) which should be doable. Then debug of course…

Damien Caliste ( 2016-02-12 16:12:10 +0200 )edit

Answer 4

1

answered 2016-04-22 10:22:51 +0200

AnonUser4803
21 ●1 ●1 ●1

Now we have also have libreofficekit on which is based gnome documents app. We could use it as a base for jolla app, as libreoffice is certainly less buggy and more supported than Calligra.

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A recent release (3.1) of Calligra Gemini says : "Gemini:

Port to KDE Frameworks 5
Port the welcome screen to Kirigami
**Port to using the Qt Quick 2 based Calligra components (based on work done for Jolla Documents)**
Port to using libgit2 directly for git support (as the Qt support library has become unmaintained)
Fix template support"

https://www.calligra.org/news/calligra-3-1-0-released/

Could this means an easier way to port Calligra on SailfishOS ???

Nokia7710 ( 2018-02-01 21:08:58 +0200 )edit

Just out of curiousity, there's a hole heap of Calligra stuff installed in Sailfish X, including icons and such. What isn't installed is, apparently, Calligra itself. What's that about?

depscribe ( 2018-10-25 03:09:29 +0200 )edit

Port Calligra Gemini to SailfishOS as native office suite

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