Shantanu's Blog
Database ConsultantJune 04, 2025
Public Appeal to LibreOffice Source Code Contributors
LibreOffice is among the finest software applications I have ever used, and I deeply appreciate all the contributions that have made it so feature-rich and reliable. However, I have a humble request: please ensure that every contribution is thoroughly tested before it is merged into the codebase.
If anyone is still reading, I would like to share more information for your consideration.
I would like to see an improvement in the testing process for LibreOffice. When a change is made to the source code, it should ideally undergo review and testing by at least two independent testers, followed by approval from a senior developer.
1) Even seemingly minor or trivial changes in the source code can have significant and potentially disruptive effects on the user experience. For example, a shortcut key combination — Ctrl + Shift + C — was assigned to the "Track Changes" function:
https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/65041
This raised concerns: Who approved this change? Who tested and validated it before it was committed?
Many users, including myself, were confused as to why the "Track Changes" feature was suddenly being triggered unexpectedly. The impact of this change was discussed in the following bug reports:
https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=130847
https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=134151
2) Another example is the addition of the Alt + 5 shortcut key to activate the Sidebar pane:
https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=158112
3) PDF files are now exported to the most recently used directory, rather than the directory of the active document. This change in LibreOffice's behavior was unexpected and caused inconvenience.
https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=165917
4) Additionally, the removal of the "Add to Dictionary" option from the context menu caused inconvenience to many users:
https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=166689
Although this particular issue was quickly resolved within five days, it still raises a critical question: Who is responsible for testing and verifying such changes before they are merged? If the "Add to Dictionary" option is not available on right click, proof reading would have become impossible.
To ensure quality and minimize unintended consequences, I recommend establishing a more robust review and testing protocol for code changes.
Labels: libreoffice, usability
June 02, 2025
Manage AWS resources using command line
1) add access key and secret key of a read-only user
aws configure
2) I need to install amazon Q using the instructions found on this page...
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazonq/latest/qdeveloper-ug/command-line-installing-ssh-setup-autocomplete.html
3) I can now start the q service using the command...
./q/bin/q
Use natural language instructions like "list all dynamoDB tables" or "list all S3 buckets"
4) For advance users, I can create MCP server and save database credentials like username and password so that Q can query database and return results.
https://awslabs.github.io/mcp/servers/dynamodb-mcp-server/
February 19, 2025
Apply libreoffice styles using a Macro and create PDF
I have this dockerfile that is working as expected. I use it to convert a txt file to pdf after formatting it using a style created by macro.
_____
FROM ubuntu:latest
# Install LibreOffice and scripting dependencies
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y libreoffice libreoffice-script-provider-python libreoffice-script-provider-bsh libreoffice-script-provider-js
# Install required dependencies
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y wget unzip fonts-dejavu
# Download and install Shobhika font
RUN mkdir -p /usr/share/fonts/truetype/shobhika && wget -O /tmp/Shobhika.zip https://github.com/Sandhi-IITBombay/Shobhika/releases/download/v1.05/Shobhika-1.05.zip && unzip /tmp/Shobhika.zip -d /tmp/shobhika && mv /tmp/shobhika/Shobhika-1.05/*.otf /usr/share/fonts/truetype/shobhika/
# Create necessary directories with proper permissions
RUN mkdir -p /app/.config/libreoffice/4/user/basic/Standard
RUN chmod -R 777 /app/.config
# Set LibreOffice user profile path
ENV UserInstallation=file:///app/.config/libreoffice/4/user
WORKDIR /app
COPY StyleLibrary.oxt /app/
COPY marathi_spell_check.oxt /app/
COPY myfile.txt /app/
RUN unopkg add /app/StyleLibrary.oxt --shared
RUN unopkg add /app/marathi_spell_check.oxt --shared
# Run the LibreOffice macro
CMD soffice --headless --invisible --norestore "macro:///StyleLibrary.Module1.myStyleMacro2(\"/app/myfile.txt\")"
_____
# create an image:
docker build -t shantanuo/mylibre .
# Run the container:
docker run -v .:/app/ --rm shantanuo/mylibre
As you can see I have applied the styles from StyleLibrary to myfile and then created a pdf document successfully.
Labels: docker, libreoffice, usability
September 28, 2024
Firefox and Libreoffice in your browser
Kasm VNC is a modern open source VNC server.
Quickly connect to your Linux server's desktop from any web browser.No client software install required.
1) Firefox using VNC
docker run -d \
--name=firefox \
-e PUID=1000 \
-e PGID=1000 \
-e TZ=Etc/UTC \
-p 3000:3000 \
-p 3001:3001 \
-v /path/to/config2:/config \
--shm-size="1gb" \
--restart unless-stopped \
lscr.io/linuxserver/firefox:latest
2) Libreoffice using VNC
docker run -d \
--name=libreoffice \
--security-opt seccomp=unconfined `#optional` \
-e PUID=1000 \
-e PGID=1000 \
-e TZ=Etc/UTC \
-p 3000:3000 \
-p 3001:3001 \
-v /path/to/config:/config \
--restart unless-stopped \
lscr.io/linuxserver/libreoffice:latest
Labels: aws, docker, firefox, libreoffice, linux tips, usability
May 18, 2024
Make Ubuntu great again!
when you click above or below the slider on a scrollbar, instead of scrolling up or down by a "page", like they have done for many years, instead you now jump to wherever you click.
If you need to change, edit (or create) the file:
~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini
And add the following:
[Settings]
gtk-primary-button-warps-slider = false
do not forget to restart.
May 01, 2024
Remote Desktop to Ubuntu Server
Ubuntu Desktop requires downloading about 500 MB of packages and an additional 2 GB of disk space. If that's too much, you can install a more lightweight desktop environment called Xfce. It's just 45 MB of packages that use an extra 175 MB of space. Install it like this:
sudo apt-get install -y tightvncserver xrdp ubuntu-desktop m17n-db ibus-m17n
_____
1) You may need to change the ubuntu password if using ec2 instance.
echo 'ubuntu:india' | sudo chpasswd
2) The second step is to change PasswordAuthentication to "yes" in the file /etc/ssh/sshd_config
3) avoid security error
sudo adduser xrdp ssl-cert
4) disable screen lock and suspend
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.session idle-delay 0
systemctl mask suspend.target
July 21, 2023
langchain for pandas
langchain is a module to query pandas dataframe using Natural Language. It uses chatGPT to build pandas commands!
!pip install langchain
import os
os.environ["OPENAI_API_KEY"] = "XXXX"
from langchain.agents import create_pandas_dataframe_agent
from langchain.llms import OpenAI
import pandas as pd
pd_agent = create_pandas_dataframe_agent(OpenAI(temperature=0), df, verbose=True)
pd_agent.run("Find the total sales for each product line in the year 2003")
_____
Something similar...
# https://github.com/gventuri/pandas-ai
!pip install pandasai
from pandasai import SmartDataframe, SmartDatalake
from pandasai.llm import OpenAI
llm = OpenAI(api_token="YOUR TOKEN")
sdf = SmartDataframe(df, config={"llm": llm})
sdf.chat("Return the top 5 countries by GDP")
sdf.chat("Plot a chart of the gdp by country")
print(sdf.last_code_generated)
If you have more than one dataframe, then use SmartDatalake method and supply a list of dataframes. For e.g.
sdf = SmartDatalake([df, df2, df3], config={"llm": llm})
Labels: machine_learning, openai, pandas, usability
March 16, 2022
Interactive pandas dataframe
iTables is an important utility for pandas dataframe. It will make the df or series interactive.
https://github.com/mwouts/itables
Install the package with:
pip install itables
Activate the interactive mode:
from itables import init_notebook_mode
init_notebook_mode(all_interactive=True)
or use itables.show to show just one Series or DataFrame as an interactive table.
_____
1) At the moment itables does not have an offline mode. While the table data is embedded in the notebook, the jquery and datatables.net are loaded from a CDN.
2) When the data in a table is larger than maxBytes, which is equal to 64KB by default, itables will display only a subset of the table. To show the table in full, modify the value of maxBytes either locally:
show(df, maxBytes=0)
or globally:
import itables.options as opt
opt.maxBytes = 2 ** 20
Labels: pandas, python, usability
September 18, 2021
wikipedia search
Google search works very well but it is not useful for certain "tasks". For e.g. when I am searching for heritage sites, I google...
unesco world heritage sites in india
Usually the first site is the official and the best one to start with...
https://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/in
The problem with this site is that there is no way to "download" the list in excel. I can visit the relevant wikipedia page and download the table found on that page. But there is a better way to search and download results.
This is visual query builder for wikipedia. Every entity as been given an ID and we can use SQL query like interface to get the "data" in tabular format. Once I download the csv file, I can open it in libre office and convert the image links to actual images using an excellent add-on that can be installed from...
https://extensions.libreoffice.org/en/extensions/show/links-to-images
Labels: google, open office, usability, wikipedia
May 28, 2021
Athena and Unicode text
Athena supports unicode characters very well. For e.g. if the datafile looks like this...
"Root_word";"Word";"Primary";"Type";"Code";"Position";"Rule"
"अँटिबायोटिक","अँटिबायोटिक","अँटिबायोटिक","Primary","","",""
"अँटिबायोटिक","अँटिबायोटिकअंती","अँटिबायोटिक","Suffix","A","7293","001: 0 अंती ."
"अँटिबायोटिक","अँटिबायोटिकअर्थी","अँटिबायोटिक","Suffix","A","7293","002: 0 अर्थी ."
"अँटिबायोटिक","अँटिबायोटिकआतून","अँटिबायोटिक","Suffix","A","7293","003: 0 आतून ."
"अँटिबायोटिक","अँटिबायोटिकआतूनचा","अँटिबायोटिक","Suffix","A","7293","004: 0 आतूनचा ."
"अँटिबायोटिक","अँटिबायोटिकआतूनची","अँटिबायोटिक","Suffix","A","7293","005: 0 आतूनची ."
"अँटिबायोटिक","अँटिबायोटिकआतूनचे","अँटिबायोटिक","Suffix","A","7293","006: 0 आतूनचे ."
"अँटिबायोटिक","अँटिबायोटिकआतूनच्या","अँटिबायोटिक","Suffix","A","7293","007: 0 आतूनच्या ."
"अँटिबायोटिक","अँटिबायोटिकआतूनला","अँटिबायोटिक","Suffix","A","7293","008: 0 आतूनला ."
This create table statement is all I need...
create external table myptg (
root_word varchar(255),
derived_word varchar(255),
stemmed_word varchar(255),
type varchar(255),
code varchar(255),
position varchar(255),
rule varchar(255)
)
ROW FORMAT SERDE 'org.apache.hadoop.hive.serde2.OpenCSVSerde'
WITH SERDEPROPERTIES (
'separatorChar' = '\;',
'quoteChar' = '\"',
'escapeChar' = '\\'
)
LOCATION 's3://ptg1/mc/'
TBLPROPERTIES ("skip.header.line.count"="1");
I can create a supporting table like this...
create external table gamabhana (derived_word varchar(255))
LOCATION 's3://ptg1/mc2/'
TBLPROPERTIES ("skip.header.line.count"="1");
A new table can be created using the syntax something like this...
create external table anoop (
serial_number int,
root_word varchar(255),
stem1_word varchar(255),
stem2_word varchar(255),
stem3_word varchar(255),
stem4_word varchar(255),
stem5_word varchar(255),
stem6_word varchar(255),
stem7_word varchar(255)
)
ROW FORMAT SERDE 'org.apache.hadoop.hive.serde2.lazy.LazySimpleSerDe'
WITH SERDEPROPERTIES (
'field.delim' = ',',
'escape.delim' = '\\',
'line.delim' = '\n'
)
LOCATION 's3://ptg1/mc3/'
TBLPROPERTIES ("skip.header.line.count"="1");
And then run a join statement like this...
create table gamabhana_match as
select a.derived_word, b.root_word, b.stemmed_word, b.type, b.code, b.position, b.rule, c.stem1_word, c.stem2_word, c.stem3_word, c.stem4_word, c.stem5_word, c.stem6_word, c.stem7_word
from gamabhana as a left join myptg as b
on b.derived_word = a.derived_word
left join anoop as c
on c.derived_word = a.derived_word
It will scan around 2 GB data (in this case) and the cost will be around 1 cent per query. This can also be done in MySQL. But importing data and building indexes is not easy. Unlike Athena, MySQL allows unlimited queries for free!
Athena is good for data that is important and accessed rarely.
Labels: athena, aws, usability
April 29, 2021
Manage your csv using clever csv
Command to analyze the csv file and let us know about delimiter/ escaping.
$ clevercsv detect ./imdb.csv
Detected: SimpleDialect(',', '', '\\')
We can import the csv in pandas dataframe without using read_csv method!
$ clevercsv explore -p imdb.csv
>>> df
The code to create pandas dataframe using clever csv
$ clevercsv code -p ./imdb.csv
import clevercsv
df = clevercsv.read_dataframe("./imdb.csv", delimiter=",", quotechar="", escapechar="\\")
If you are using Jupyter Notebook, use this code...
import clevercsv
rows = clevercsv.read_table('./imdb.csv')
df = clevercsv.read_dataframe('./imdb.csv')
January 07, 2021
SQL and PPL support by AWS elasticsearch (Open distro for ES)
AWS elasticsearch now supports standard SQL syntax. For the system admins, it also supports PPL (Pipe Processing Language). Here is an example of both:
select userAgent, eventID from newcwl where requestParameters.bucketName.keyword like 'web%' and (eventName.keyword like 'PutObject%' OR eventName.keyword like 'UploadPartCopy%' OR eventName.keyword like 'UploadPart%') ;
And this is PPL syntax:
search source=newcwl eventSource.keyword='s3.amazonaws.com' | where eventName.keyword like 'PutObject%' or eventName.keyword like 'UploadPart%' or eventName.keyword like 'UploadPartCopy%' | where requestParameters.bucketName.keyword like "web%" | fields userAgent, eventID
This is really a great feature. I was looking for something like this for years!
December 27, 2020
spell checker using Machine Learning
JamSpell is a ML based spell checker that will use pre-trained models from:
https://github.com/bakwc/JamSpell-models/
The python code looks very clear and concise.
import jamspell
jsp = jamspell.TSpellCorrector()
assert jsp.LoadLangModel('en.bin')
jsp.FixFragment("I am the begt spell cherken")
The above code will return:
I am the best spell checker
This is really an accurate, fast and multi-language spell checker.
https://github.com/bakwc/JamSpell
Labels: machine_learning, usability
July 13, 2020
Understanding your data
# Download the csv file from kaggle:
https://www.kaggle.com/dorbicycle/world-foodfeed-production
import pandas as pd
food_df = pd.read_csv('FAO.csv' , encoding='latin1')
food_df = food_df.drop(columns=food_df.columns[10:])
I will now import auto normalize class from featuretools. This will detect the internal relationships between columns and show us a nice graph.
from featuretools.autonormalize import autonormalize as an
entityset = an.auto_entityset(food_df)
entityset.plot()
Entities:
Element Code_Item Code_Area Code [Rows: 21477, Columns: 4]
Element Code [Rows: 2, Columns: 2]
Item Code [Rows: 117, Columns: 2]
Area Code [Rows: 174, Columns: 5]
Area Abbreviation [Rows: 169, Columns: 2]
Relationships:
Element Code_Item Code_Area Code.Area Code -> Area Code.Area Code
Element Code_Item Code_Area Code.Item Code -> Item Code.Item Code
Element Code_Item Code_Area Code.Element Code -> Element Code.Element Code
Area Code.Area Abbreviation -> Area Abbreviation.Area Abbreviation
Do not forget to check featuretools module as well. This will add new columns to your dataframe those can be useful in building machine learning module.
import featuretools as ft
fm, features = ft.dfs(entityset=entityset, target_entity='Element Code_Item Code_Area Code')
print (fm)
Labels: machine_learning, pandas, usability
May 07, 2020
Chrome Extensions
1) HTML5 Outliner: Generates a navigable page outline with heading and sectioning elements
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/html5-outliner/afoibpobokebhgfnknfndkgemglggomo
2) Page load time: Displays page load time in the toolbar
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/page-load-time/fploionmjgeclbkemipmkogoaohcdbig
3) Open Multiple URLs: Extract and open a list of URLs
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/open-multiple-urls/oifijhaokejakekmnjmphonojcfkpbbh
4) Former2 Helper: Helps avoid CORS issues with former2.com while calling the AWS service API endpoints
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/former2-helper/fhejmeojlbhfhjndnkkleooeejklmigi
5) Chrome Remote Desktop
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-remote-desktop/inomeogfingihgjfjlpeplalcfajhgai
6) Open in Colab: Open a Github-hosted notebook in Google Colab
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/open-in-colab/iogfkhleblhcpcekbiedikdehleodpjo
Labels: usability
April 16, 2020
Download and unzip any file using python
! wget https://github.com/d6t/d6tstack/raw/master/test-data.zip
! unzip -o test-data.zip
But it can also be done using python code as shown below!
import urllib.request
import zipfile
cfg_fname_sample = "test-data.zip"
urllib.request.urlretrieve(
"https://github.com/d6t/d6tstack/raw/master/" + cfg_fname_sample, cfg_fname_sample
)
zip_ref = zipfile.ZipFile(cfg_fname_sample, "r")
zip_ref.extractall(".")
zip_ref.close()
Labels: pandas, python, usability
April 12, 2020
Launch spot EC2 instances
!wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/shantanuo/easyboto/master/easyboto.py
import easyboto
dev=easyboto.connect('access_key', 'secret_key')
dev.placement='us-east-1a'
dev.myaddress='13.228.39.49'
dev.key='dec15abc'
dev.MAX_SPOT_BID= '2.9'
dev.startEc2Spot('ami-0323c3dd2da7fb37d', 'm3.medium')
This will return the instance id and the ssh command that you can use to connect to your instance. The output will look something like...
job instance id: i-029a926e68118d089
ssh -i dec15a.pem ec2-user@13.228.39.49
You can list all instances along with their details like launch time, image_id and save the results as pandas dataframe using showEc2 method like this...
df=dev.showEc2()
Now "df" is a pandas dataframe object. You can sort or groupby the instances just like an excel sheet.
You can delete the instance by providing the instance ID that was generated in the first step using deleteEc2 method.
dev.deleteEc2('i-029a926e68118d089')
_____
You can also use cloudformation template for this purpose. Visit the following link and look for "Linux EC2 Instance on SPOT" section.
https://github.com/shantanuo/cloudformation
Click on "Launch Stack" button. It is nothing but GUI for the python code mentioned above. You will simply have to submit a form for the methods like key and IP address.
Labels: aws, aws_cloudformation, boto, usability
April 07, 2020
emailThis service using serverless API
https://www.emailthis.me/
But I did not like the premium ads and partial content that the site sends. So I built my own serverless API to get exactly the same functionality using mailgun and Amazon Web Services.
https://www.mailgun.com/
Once you register with mailgun, you will get a URL and API-Key that you need to copy-paste to notepad. You will need to provide this information when you launch the cloudformation template by clicking on this link.
https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudformation/home?region=us-east-1#/stacks/new?stackName=emailThis&templateURL=https://datameetgeobk.s3.amazonaws.com/cftemplates/furl.yaml.txt
Once the resources are created, you can see a URL in output section something like this...
https://ie5n05bqo0.execute-api.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/mycall
Now building the javaScript bookmarklet is easy.
javascript:(function(){location.href='https://ie5n05bqo0.execute-api.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/mycall?email=shantanu.oak@gmail.com&title=emailThis&url='+encodeURIComponent(location.href);})();
Right click on any bookmark and then copy-paste the above link. Make sure that you have changed the URL and email address to your own. Now click on this bookmarklet while you are on an important web page that you need to send to your inbox. Enjoy!
Labels: api_gateway, aws, aws_lambda, usability
March 13, 2020
Visual pandas - bamboolib
1) Get your free 14 days trial key.
https://bamboolib.8080labs.com/
2) Install required python package:
pip install bamboolib
jupyter nbextension enable --py qgrid --sys-prefix
jupyter nbextension enable --py widgetsnbextension --sys-prefix
jupyter nbextension install --py bamboolib --sys-prefix
jupyter nbextension enable --py bamboolib --sys-prefix
3) Restart docker container:
4) Start exploring visual pandas!
import bamboolib as bam
import pandas as pd
df = pd.read_csv(bam.titanic_csv)
df
_____
import modules automatically when required!
pip install pyforest
conda install nodejs
python -m pyforest install_extensions
Restart docker container.
December 24, 2019
Console Recorder for AWS
https://github.com/iann0036/AWSConsoleRecorder
_____
Generate CloudFormation / Terraform / Troposphere templates from your existing AWS resources
https://former2.com
Source code:
https://github.com/iann0036/former2
Labels: aws, aws_cloudformation, usability
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