Created attachment 587990 [details] Attachment 1 [details]: documentfoundation.org/libreoffice Running Libreoffice Base, accessing the "Report" menu, within the "Tasks" pane, there is "Use Wizard to Create report..." but there is no "Create Report in Design View..." Both tasks are part of the Libreoffice Base Program: the report-builder was initially provided by Oracle as an extension to Base and was incorporated into Base in 2013. So, it should be part of Base today. As a matter of fact, it can be seen in the libreoffice.org offical distribution of Libreoffice: Attachement 1: 'documentfoundation.org/libreoffice" web site shows the Libreoffice_6.2.5 rpm.tar.gz (this site is also used by Gentoo for language translations "l10n" of Base) Attachment 2 [details]: List of files within the rpm.tar.xz shows "extension-report-builder" Attachement 3: List of files within "extension-report-builder" shows reportbuilder.jar This file is missing with Gentoo emerge of libreoffice. But it is included with Base running on Fedora. Attachment 4 [details] is the result of "emerge --info". I submitted a question about this issue to the Gentoo forums on 08/12/2019, under "Desktop Environments" and so far have had 139 views but no reply. There is also an interesting thread about this issue in a Debian bug: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=875688 filed in 2017 and solved in 2018.
Created attachment 587992 [details] Attachement 2: List of files within the rpm.tar.xz
Created attachment 587994 [details] Attachment 3 [details, diff]: List of files within "extension-report-builder" shows reportbuilder.jar
Created attachment 587996 [details] Attachment 4 [details]: emerge info
$ emerge -vp libreoffice
jplx-gntup ~ # emerge -vp libreoffice These are the packages that would be merged, in order: Calculating dependencies... done! [ebuild R ] app-office/libreoffice-6.2.5.2::gentoo USE="bluetooth branding cups dbus eds gstreamer gtk java ldap mariadb pdfimport -accessibility (-coinmp) -debug (-firebird) -googledrive -gtk2 -kde -odk -postgres -test -vlc" LIBREOFFICE_EXTENSIONS="-nlpsolver -scripting-beanshell -scripting-javascript -wiki-publisher" PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET="python3_6 -python2_7 -python3_5 (-python3_7)" PYTHON_TARGETS="python2_7 python3_6 -python3_5 (-python3_7)" 0 KiB Total: 1 package (1 reinstall), Size of downloads: 0 KiB * IMPORTANT: 5 news items need reading for repository 'sakaki-tools'. * IMPORTANT: 9 news items need reading for repository 'gentoo'. * Use eselect news read to view new items. jplx-gntup ~ #
I found out that it appears the report-builder has been disabled in the gentoo ebuild although it is part of the libreoffice genuine built-in code. Here are the relevant lines in the libreoffice-6.2.8.2.ebuild: 391 # --disable-report-builder: too much java packages pulled in without pkgs 395 local myeconfargs=( 420 --disable-report-builder There is currently another ebuild in the portage tree: libreoffice-6.3.4.2.ebuild but it has the report-builder disabled as well. This is an issue as the other major linux distributions (Debian, Fedora, OpenSUSE) have the report-builder available. The reason invoked for disabling it looks peculiar: too many java packages pulled in... I checked with the libreoffice web site about the needed packages and verified their availability in my 'systemd gnome' system. Most packages are available except: 1 - not found with "emerge -s" beanshell, bluez-libs, libgl, plasma-framework 2 - available but masked coinor-mp, serf 3 - available but not installed ant, doxygen, gtk3, junit The report-builder is an important feature of Base and is demonstrated, explained in detail in the Base5 latest manual. So, is there any plan and timeframe to make the report-builder available in gentoo?
Created attachment 601980 [details] Error Message when attenmpting to open report built with report-builder Here is some additional info: Base 5 Handbook appears to be the latest manual available at this time. It can be downloaded at: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/Publications#LibreOffice_Base_Handbook The handbook contains sample databases and some of them have reports: Example_Report_Bill, Example_Sport, Media_with_Macros, Media_without_Macros. Unfortunately, not a single of those reports would open successfully in Base running on Gentoo. The error message is always: "The report <report_name> requires the Report Builder feature." A screenshot of this message is included as pdf file. The same reports can be seen without any problem on Base running on Fedora. This means that if a report was created with the Report Builder, Base - running on Gentoo - won't be able to open it even if it is modified afterwards. This is a serious limitation because the report builder is the easiest way to start designing reports in order to display database data.
The required java packages in order to support report-builder are simply not available in gentoo.git and that is not going to change considering the sad state of Java in Gentoo but also for distro packaging in general. Using bundled libs is against Gentoo policy and exceptions are made only in rare circumstances. We can however look into making it optional via some USE=base, if testing is positive.
Thank you for the info. Now, there is a app-arch/dpkg-1.19.0.5:::gentoo package. Could it be used to install a libreoffice debian (.deb) package on Gentoo? If yes, I could download the debian libreoffice package from the libreoffice web site and install it: my problem would be solved. Would that work? I guess, if it does, I would have to unmerge my current gentoo version of libreoffice first? Again, thank you for your help.
Never mind. Using dpkg to install another libreoffice from a different distro would not work because of the same dependency problem on java packages not available in gentoo.git . However there is another way: running a libreoffice from a different distro with docker: I have been able to make alpine-libreoffice run fine with docker on gentoo and the report builder is available. So, my problem is solved. Now, it is unfortunate that Gentoo policy leads to disabling a feature that most - if not all - other distros do implement. It would be great if you could make the report builder optional with USE=base flag.
The bug has been referenced in the following commit(s): https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/gentoo.git/commit/?id=b48ea5c117149d8442f943e805b14a5436f73e3f commit b48ea5c117149d8442f943e805b14a5436f73e3f Author: Andreas Sturmlechner <asturm@gentoo.org> AuthorDate: 2020-06-16 09:36:19 +0000 Commit: Andreas Sturmlechner <asturm@gentoo.org> CommitDate: 2020-06-17 16:05:43 +0000 app-office/libreoffice: Add IUSE="base" Bug: https://bugs.gentoo.org/692842 Package-Manager: Portage-2.3.101, Repoman-2.3.22 Signed-off-by: Andreas Sturmlechner <asturm@gentoo.org> app-office/libreoffice/Manifest | 12 +++++++++ app-office/libreoffice/libreoffice-6.4.9999.ebuild | 30 +++++++++++++++++----- app-office/libreoffice/libreoffice-9999.ebuild | 30 +++++++++++++++++----- app-office/libreoffice/metadata.xml | 1 + 4 files changed, 59 insertions(+), 14 deletions(-)