Open CSV File And Go Straight To Spreadsheet

Question

Part of my software issues various commands to open and view different file types. For instance I use atril for PDFs and eom for PNGs.
However I have a slight problem with CSV files. I can open them with soffice –calc <filepath> but each time it goes through the Import stage.
Is there a way I can avoid this, to avoid the risk of users creating issues, as the format is consistent and the only separator I need to include is the comma ,?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

A method to skip importing would be to convert the file to a format that can be read without importing - so for instance:

soffice --headless --convert-to ods --outdir /tmp tblIssues.csv
soffice --view /tmp/tblIssues.ods
rm /tmp/tblIssues.ods

This converts the file tblIssues.csv to a ODS spreadsheet, saves it to /tmp and opens it in Libreoffice. Once it has finished it removes the converted file (optional).

The --view option opens the file as read-only, and also hides the GUI elements needed for editing, making LibreOffice more practical as a viewer.

You could also use other formats, such as PDF (--convert-to pdf) and then you can use another viewer like atril.

Note with I think the libreoffice convert command may use the settings used by the user last in the Importer, so if it is set to use a delimiter other than , it may not work.

Also, you can modify the commands to...

• hide output:

  COMMAND > /dev/null 2>&1
  

• separate from the terminal:

  COMMAND & disown
  

Answer 2

1. Install unoconv (just once)

   • On Ubuntu run sudo apt-get install unoconv
   • On RHL/CentOS run sudo yum install unoconv

2. To convert on command-line or batch-mode (non-interactively)

   • unoconv -f pdf /pathto/file.csv /pathto/file.pdf 2>/dev/null

THAT'S IT!

Notes:

I pipe standard error to /dev/null because I get an error that 'looks' like the conversion failed, but it actually succeeds. When I run unoconv -f csv /tmp/this.csv /tmp/this.pdf an error outputs:

unoconv: UnoException during export phase: Unable to store document to file:///tmp/this.pdf (ErrCode 19468)

But the file is indeed created at /tmp/this.pdf and I've confirmed via pdf viewer the file is perfect.

I am not sure why, but I am guessing the error is because I am not running a listener. Perhaps someone else here will trouble-shoot that ;-)

Anyway, if you need to return an exit 0 from the conversion (e.g. puppet or chef may need that) , then run the convert like this:

unoconv -f pdf /pathto/file.csv /pathto/file.pdf 2>/dev/null || /bin/true

Lastly, unoconv csv conversion defaults to 'comma delimited', which fortunately works out for you. Read the man page to see the import filter options if you want to use different and/or more than one delimiter.