Calligra/Table Feature Plan

Feature Plan for Tables in Text Documents

This is a feature plan for tables in text documents in KOffice 2.1.

Done	The feature is done
N/A	Is not applicable to text tables or this particular property.
Ignore	Obscure feature, let's not focus on them.
[X] h	Number of hours required to complete the feature.
"[X] h"	Same as above, but not high priority.
?	We have no idea.

Table Style

Property	Loading	Layout	Drawing	Saving	Layout Tests	Loading Tests
background-color	Done	N/A	Done	Done	Ignore	0.5 h
background-image	3 h	N/A	1 h	3 h	"8 h"	0.5 h
break-after	Done	3 h	?	0.5 h	3 h	0.5 h
break-before	Done	3 h	?	0.5 h	3 h	0.5 h
keep-with-next	Done	3 h	?	0.5 h	3 h	0.5 h
margin	Done	Done	Done	Done	Done	0.5 h
margin-left	Done	Done	Done	Done	0.1 h	Done
margin-top	Done	Done	Done	Done	0.1 h	Done
margin-right	Done	Done	Done	Done	0.1 h	Done
margin-bottom	Done	Done	Done	Done	0.1 h	Done
may-break-between-rows	Done	16 h	| ?	0.5 h	5 h	0.5 h
page-number	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	0.5 h
rel-width	Done	Done	Done	0.5 h	Done	Done
shadow	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	0.5 h
width	Done	Done	Done	0.5 h	Done	Done
writing-mode	0.5 h	1 h	N/A	0.5 h	2 h	0.5 h
align	Done	Done	Done	0.5 h	Done	0.5 h
border-model	Done	Ignore	Done	Done	"1 h"	0.5 h
display	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	0.5 h

Column Style

Property	Loading	Layout	Drawing	Saving	Layout Tests	Loading Tests
"figure out loading"	Done	N/A	N/A	N/A
break-after	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	0.5 h
break-before	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	0.5 h
column-width	Done	Done	Done	?	Done	0.5 h
rel-column-width	Done	Done	Done	?	Done	0.5 h
use-optimal-column-width	2 h	16 h	Done	?	3 h	0.5 h

Row Style

Property	Loading	Layout	Drawing	Saving	Layout Tests	Loading Tests
"figure out loading"	Done	N/A	N/A	N/A
background-color	Done	N/A	0.5 h	0.5 h	2 h	0.5 h
break-after	Done	5 h	8 h	0.5 h	4 h	0.5 h
break-before	Done	5 h	8 h	0.5 h	4 h	0.5 h
keep-together	Done	5 h	N/A	0.5 h	5 h	0.5 h
minimum-row-height	Done	Done	Done	0.5 h	Done	0.5 h
row-height	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	0.5 h
use-optimal-row-height	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	0.5 h

Cell Style

Property	Loading	Layout	Drawing	Saving	Layout Tests	Loading Tests	Comments
background-color	Done	N/A	Done	0.5 h	Ignore	0.5 h
border	Done	Done	Done	0.5 h	Done	0.5 h
border-top	Done	Done	Done	0.5 h	0.5 h	0.5 h
border-right	Done	Done	Done	0.5 h	0.5 h	0.5 h
border-bottom	Done	Done	Done	0.5 h	0.5 h	0.5 h
border-left	Done	Done	Done	0.5 h	0.5 h	0.5 h
padding	Done	Done	Done	0.5 h	Done	0.5 h
padding-top	Done	Done	Done	0.5 h	0.5 h	0.5 h
padding-right	Done	Done	Done	0.5 h	0.5 h	0.5 h
padding-bottom	Done	Done	Done	0.5 h	0.5 h	0.5 h
padding-left	Done	Done	Done	0.5 h	0.5 h	0.5 h
wrap-option	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	0.5 h	Ignore
border-line-width	Done	Done	Done	0.5 h	Done	0.5 h
border-line-width-left	Done	Done	Done	0.5 h	0.5 h	0.5 h
border-line-width-right	Done	Done	Done	0.5 h	0.5 h	0.5 h
border-line-width-bottom	Done	Done	Done	0.5 h	0.5 h	0.5 h
border-line-width-top	Done	Done	Done	0.5 h	0.5 h	0.5 h
cell-protect	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	0.5 h
decimal-places	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	0.5 h
diagonal-bl-*	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	0.5 h
direction	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	0.5 h
glyph-orientation-vertical	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	0.5 h	would probably require a big (1-year?) rewrite of kotext
rotation-angle	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	0.5 h	afaict spreadsheet only
print-content	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	0.5 h	afaict spreadsheet only
repeat-content	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	0.5 h	afaict spreadsheet only
rotation-align	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	0.5 h	afaict spreadsheet only
shadow	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	0.5 h
shrink-to-fit	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	Ignore	0.5 h	afaict spreadsheet only
text-align-source	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	0.5 h	afaict spreadsheet only
vertical-align	0.5 h	3 h	Done	0.5 h	6 h	0.5 h
writing-mode	0.5 h	1 h	N/A	0.5 h	5 h	0.5 h
background-image	0.5 h	N/A	1 h	2 h	5 h	0.5 h

Table, Column, Row and Cell Content

Feature	Loading	Layout	Drawing	Saving	Layout Tests	Loading Tests
header-rows	8 h	24 h	8 h	4 h	12 h	0.5 h
column-spanning	Done	Done	Done	Done	Done	0.5 h
row-spanning	Done	Done	Done	Done	Done	0.5 h

Implementation Issues

Empty Blocks around Tables

Qt Scribe requires a block between every frame. This causes a problem since we want to be able to insert a table at the very beginning of the document, or have a table follow another without any space in between. We want the same behavior that Qt Scribe has in its own layout engine, at least for the case where there's an empty block before the table; the user should be able to position the cursor to the left of the table, and when the user starts typing at this location, the table will be moved down:

Nested Tables

Currently the TableLayout gets passed a pointer to the "parent" Layout object, which it will use to get a hold of the current shape in order to correctly determine the table width. Now enter nested tables; for nested tables the table layout will have to somehow get a hold of the cell geometry into which the table is laid out instead. Right now, the table layout would have to call setTable(parentTable) followed by cellContentRect() on itself, to temporarily "switch" itself over to the parent table (which should already have gone through an initial layout), in order to get this information. This is kludgy at best, and could be dangerous. It's a hack. The problem is not the same anymore after Camilla's refactor, but the solution below still needs to be done, so keeping this here.

Possible Solution

Probably the best thing to do is to have the width that is available to the table, be it the the shape width or the width of a containing cell, passed into TableLayout from Layout itself instead. That is, Layout would be the one making the decision on whether the table layout will have the full shape width at its disposal, or just the width of a containing cell. But I'd have to experiment a bit to be certain.