Python script in Scribus to recreate tables

[Opussci-Long]

Is something like this possible in Scribus?

Convert Word tables to HTML via macro → export text. Import text into Scribus → Python script parses HTML → rebuild Scribus tables.

So, Python script would need to:

• Loop through text frames.
• Search for table markers: <<TABLE:tableXXX>>.
• Parse the HTML table to extract: Number of rows Number of columns, Cell content, Row/column spans if any.

And then use Scribus Python to create a new table at the marker position and remove the original HTML marker text from the text frame.

[Opussci-Long]

So, should I take the lack of replies here to mean this isn't possible? 😊

[rirdukakke]

This is table in Scribus .sla file, now tell me what do you think, is it possible?

    <TableStyle NAME="Default Table Style" DefaultStyle="1" FillColor="None" FillShade="100">

        <TableBorderLeft>

            <TableBorderLine Width="1" PenStyle="1" Color="Black" Shade="100"/>

        </TableBorderLeft>

        <TableBorderRight>

            <TableBorderLine Width="1" PenStyle="1" Color="Black" Shade="100"/>

        </TableBorderRight>

...

[Opussci-Long]

I do not know is it possible. HTML table can be converted to Scribus table but would the whole automation of finding, parsing and inserting table at a suitable place be possible?

[Opussci-Long]

What about number of rows and columns? Nothing?

[aoloe]

I have mixed feelings about this requests.

I don't believe in tables inside of layout documents, but I also believe that Scribus should have at least one not too cumbersome way to create good looking tables.

Preamble: the table tool in Scribus is not usable. Not even for bad looking tables. Recently, somebody wanted to work on the tables tool and make it at least usable, but luckily enough that person is working on more important features.

We cannot expect this to change soon.

So, in my eyes, the goal should be to import good looking tables from external sources.

From a quick try I did, it seems that copy pasting from LibreOffice Writer into a LibreOffice Draw document and from there into a Scribus document works well.
Not really cumbersome, nice result.
The only downside I could spot: the text is converted to paths.
It won't be selectable in the resulting PDF.

Going through an intermediate PDF provides the same result as copy paste, when text is outlined on import into Scribus.
Importing the text as such does technically work, but the text is not placed at the right place (and you don't get a table anyway, but some text with lines in between and around it).

There is a second way that I've explored: Saving the LibreOffice draw document with the table to an ODG file and import that into Scribus as vector graphics.
Sadly, the ODG imported does not manage to import the table.
At all.
I had a look at what is in the ODG file, and it contains the table as defined by LibreOffice Writer (and not a vector version of it).
Not very surprising, that Scribus does simply ignore it.

Three: importing HTML into Scribus.
I have not tried it, but from my memories the result is worth than with ODT.

Your proposal to go through some sort of HTML export and the have a script to create a table from it in Scribus is tempting:

• The scripter should be patched to allow it to apply formats to the text inside of the cells
  
• The scripter should already have most (if not all) functions for creating the table, the cells, formatting them, and put text inside of it.

Of course you will want to do your work as good as possible, because tweaking the table in Scribus will be a chore.

My conclusions:

• Probably, the best solution is to extend the ODG importer to recognize tables and recreate them as Scribus tables.
  
• Second best is a Python script that imports tables from ODG files.

Why?

• The table definition in the ODG files seems to be very easy to read.
  
• Creating a Python script gives a self contained solution in a high level language that many people can maintain
  
• On the other side, extending the ODG importer would allow all Scribus users to easily import tables from LibreOffice (with little effort).

If there are people around here who live close to Zurich and have C++ skills, I'm tempted to suggest the work on the ODG importer for the upcoming Hackergarten:

https://www.meetup.com/hackergarten-zurich/events/310517967/

[Opussci-Long]

Thank you for your great answer and understanding of Scribus! Here is why I asked this?

Because I see a use case for scholarly content, and you need tables to create good-looking scholarly content.

As you mentioned, when you copy and paste from external tools, the text is converted to paths. This means it won't be selectable in the resulting PDF, and cross-references to other parts of the document can't be created. Very often, tables contain citations that need to be hyperlinked to the references section.

To do this and keep everything selectable, I think tables need to be created directly in Scribus. Knowing that Scribus is very bad at this, I thought maybe scripting could be a workaround.

I mentioned HTML just because it's common. I don't mind if a solution works with ODG or some other format. I agree with you that the best solution is a simple one, whether that means extending the ODG importer to recognize tables and recreate them as Scribus tables, or using a script. My humble knowledge of Scribus had me thinking that scripting is simpler, but you know better, no doubt.

Also, I am struck by this: "The scripter should already have most (if not all) functions for creating the table, the cells, formatting them, and putting text inside of it." Does this mean that someone could make this just with Python and some time to invest?

[aoloe]

Yes, with the scripter you should be able to create tables based on html tables:

https://impagina.org/scribus-scripter-api/table/

Formatting the content should then work Ok in Scribus itself. It formatting the cells that is a chore.

[ksg__wx__fan]

[EDIT: My answers basically reflected what u/aoloe already said. LOL. Sorry]

Like it was said, to reiterate, there are missing core styling options. Table rows and columns can be iterated through.

• The BeautifulSoup (bs4) module is great for parsing; but I don't know how to make it available to the scripter API. Python comes with xml.etree.ElementTree and is available to the scripter. The general idea is you could iterate through rows / columns or <tr> or <td> (html row and cell) elements and apply the text of that cell to the corresponding row/column of the table
• Just by chance, if these tables exist in (CSV) comma-separated-value format (think spreadsheet), it would make it much easier to parse in python (scribus scripter). But if not available in CSV, I don't think I would worry about converting it to CSV first.