Dear community, as announced during LibOCon, and subsequently discussed in the ESC, here's the formal adoption proposal for the "WollMux" template / form letter / mail merge engine / Java extension, from the City of Munich. For reference, I attach the full proposal (so the initial version gets archived). For interacting with it, please use this direct edit link on Nextcloud though: https://nextcloud.documentfoundation.org/s/ftrSdx3A5dgmNR8 Reply-To: board-discuss please, unless there's technical questions to discuss (for those, I copy the developer list). Plan is to give this 1-2 weeks for discussion. Depending on the feedback, the hope is, the proposal can then be referred to the board for a final decision. Looking forward to your feedback, all the best, -- Thorsten
# WollMux adoption proposal for The Document Foundation ## Summary The [city of Munich](https://muenchen.digital/it-at-m/) (with the help of [allotropia software GmbH](https://allotropia.de/)) offers TDF to adopt the WollMux template and mail merge system, in production use at the city and elsewhere since 2007. The project has been migrated from OpenOffice to LibreOffice alongside the city-wide adoption of LibreOffice in 2013. It provides professional, battle-tested functionality for complex template, form letter and mail merge needs, as one frequently finds in public sector and corporate office workflows. ## History - 2004: Munich announces LiMux, based on OpenOffice - 2005: work on WollMux development starts - 2012: Major upgrade & rework, migration to LibreOffice (from OOo) - 2013: Completion of MailMerge work for LibreOffice - since Release 13.10 (target was LibreOffice 3.6) - 2014: work on update to LibreOffice 4.1 - since release 14.04 - 2016: work on update to LibreOffice 5.2 - since release 16.10 - 2017: Munich announces plan to return to Microsoft - 2019: work on update to LibreOffice 6.1 - supported since release 18.1 - move from ant to maven in the build system - 2020/21: Update to LibreOffice 6.4 (since Release 18.2) - migration from Java Swing to native LibreOffice GUI - support for sidebar added - 2023: scheduled end of migration to Microsoft ## Architecture - written in Java, and deployed as a single, full-featured LibreOffice extension - using LibreOffice's Java UNO API - and much of Writer's advanced features, like RDF annotations, bookmarks, and text visibility - the WollMux gui was reworked, and now resides in dedicated sidebar decks, using native LibreOffice gui elements - core code uses UNOHelper classes - UNOHelper is a wrapper for frequently used API calls - to make Java programmer's life easier & code more readable - UNOHelper is available as a separate git project, and likely a useful productivity boost for all LibreOffice java integrators - this could be the next ScriptForge-alike project, but for Java - configuration - contains template fragments, datasources, and more … - as well as a plugin system - can be maintained locally, or remote (nice for large-scale deployments) ## Key project features - project mission: have a single, integrated application for letterheads, form templates, and mail merge, deeply intergrated with LibreOffice - there were only disjoint, proprietary solutions before - in 2004 - no software available that met all requirements - extends LibreOffice mail merge for business needs - 1000s of recipients possible, in decent time (1-2 mins for 1000 copies) - integrates deeply with LibreOffice, and nicely embeds within its GUI - OpenSource – licensed under European Union Public License (EUPL) ## Key benefits for TDF - this is a show-case extension project - for putting on display what is possible with LibreOffice - professionally developed since 2008 - a success story & a production-ready, powerful template management & programming environment - commitment to further cleanup, improve & maintain - existing user base, thus adopting it serves TDF's mission of providing FLOSS office productivity for everyone - and in addition, it's an excellent QA project tool, for integration-testing Java and UNO API functions - aka "if WollMux works, every Writer java extension will work" ## Adoption proposal - the ESC has looked at the project, discussed the matter, and [approves of the migration](https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/libreoffice-qa/2022-October/011302.html) - after discussion & acceptance, the following steps would be taken: - move the existing, public git repositories into the libreoffice organisation at github: - <https://github.com/orgs/WollMux/repositories> - don't migrate the 'public archive' ones (or move them straight into the TDF attic, if the project sees value in retaining them on our infra) - the code is available under the EUPL-1.1 (weak copyleft), documentation is under CC-BY-SA-4.0 - as such, this appears compatible with project norms - two developers from two different organisations are currently working actively on the code. Both are in favour of this proposal. - benefits and responsibilities - Benefits: - large, well-tested, developed professionally since 2007 - top show case for powerful Writer and UNO api programmability - commitment from allotropia and LHM to continue maintenance - excellent test case for QA community, to check release builds against (if wollmux works, pretty much every complex writer uno api implementation downstream will work) - Responsibilities: - TDF to host it in their TDF or libreoffice github repo - TDF to provide CI capacity at Jenkins - allotropia and LHM to continue maintenance (necessary changes to keep up with UNO api modifications, security fixes) - TDF to host wollmux translations, and encourage its native lang communities to work on it - Impacts: - renewed interest in LibreOffice as a platform - digital sovereignity tail winds - this software is perfect for the floss gov office - further diversification of TDF, away from 'just desktop libreoffice' - no known negative impacts are known - there's a number of existing business and institutional users of wollmux, as such continued interest in the project is likely ### Technical project info - currently six active [git repos](https://github.com/orgs/WollMux/repositories) - around 80 kLOC in 3 main repos, plus config, setup and documentation repos, in git - professionally developed since 2007, unique UNO API integration test case - current plans and ongoing work: - [x] get WollMux master branch into shape for LibreOffice 7.4 and 7.5 - [x] remove remaining internal LHM ties & artifact repos - [ ] get Jenkins build job going on TDF infra - [x] start with code & comment translation DE->EN - [ ] add project to weblate, for gui and documentation translation ## Additional resources * current [project homepage](https://wollmux.org/) * LibOCon talk [on WollMux](https://events.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice-conference-2022/talk/CRBZLL/)
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