Tender to clean up and further improve ODF conformance (#202202-01)

The Document Foundation (TDF) is the charitable entity behind the world’s leading free/libre open source (FLOSS) office suite LibreOffice.

We are looking for an individual or company to clean up and further improve ODF conformance.

The default file format of LibreOffice is ODF, the Open Document Format. We have successfully tendered two projects on the current version 1.3 recently:

• The initial implementation of ODF 1.3 conformance
  Details: https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2019/11/05/tender-odf-1-3-conformance/
• Various bits to finish the transition to ODF 1.3
  Details: https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2020/10/20/tender-to-finish-transition-of-libreoffice-to-odf-1-3-odf-1-3-delta-202010-01/

The scope of this tender is to further improve the ODF conformance in LibreOffice. Note however that the majority of the items mentioned below are unrelated to ODF version 1.3, and have existed before support of this version was introduced in LibreOffice.

Deliverables

1. Get ODFAutoTests (https://gitlab.com/odfplugfest/odfautotests) to run again. Note: This item does not ask to setup a publicly available website.
2. Address one or more of the following high priority issues:
   1. “svg gradient” – Bugs 48392, 76682. Bug 48392 is prerequisite for Bug 76682.
   2. “list indent” – Bugs 78510, 92762, 114287, 83532, 82179, 145318
   3. “Math inline in text box” – Bug 129061. From user point of view it has highest priority.
   4. “numbered paragraph” – Bug 62032, 108868. The internal work is done. But a UI is missing. The expected UI needs to be specified.
   5. “ODF conformance part 1” – These are those errors, which are in most cases not visible for users, and therefore likely never included in a customer contract. Bug 53992, 101758, 103602.

   Please propose a subset and prioritization of these bugs, that do not exceed the person days factored in for this tender, see below.

3. Address one or more of the following lower priority issues:
   1. “ODF conformance part 2” Bug 106934, Bug 91472, 97706, 107253, 108536, 113404, 113554, 116321, 131148
   2. “Trailing space in cell text not encoded as <text:s/>” – Bug 113726
   3. “FILEOPEN PPTX: equation not displayed because Impress doesn’t support inline formulas”, in particular the as-char embedded object – Bug 129061
   4. “ODF database mime-type confusion” – Bug 45854
   5. “table: evaluates <text:variable-set> in body of float and void cells, but not of string cells” – Bug 68024
   6. “Implement ODF attribute fo:hyphenate to exclude a portion of text from hyphenation” – Bug 106733
   7. “FILESAVE: Form: incorrect ‘time’ type” – Bug 131127
   8. “FILESAVE: Date form: unexpected attribute ‘form:input-required’ – Bug 131148, cf. also https://issues.oasis-open.org/browse/OFFICE-4121

   Please propose a subset and prioritization of these bugs, that do not exceed the person days factored in for this tender, see below.

The work has to be developed on LibreOffice master, so that it will be released in the next major version.

A key item of the deliverables for this tender is extensive documentation, about the approach chosen to implement the above items. We expect bidders to provide documentation on both the code and the non-code parts of this tender, e.g. methodology, structure and technical aspects. The Document Foundation will publish this under a free and open source license and make it available to the general public.

Required skills

• Extensive knowledge of C++
• Experience working on the LibreOffice source code

Other skills

• English (conversationally fluent in order to coordinate and plan with members of TDF)

We use free, libre and open source (FLOSS) software for development wherever possible, and the resulting work must be licensed under the Mozilla Public License v2.0.

TDF welcomes applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of their race, sex, disability, religion/belief, sexual orientation or age.

Bidders will get a preference for including a partner or independent developer who has not been involved in a successful tender before.

As always, TDF will give some preference to individuals who have previously shown a commitment to TDF, including but not limited to certified developers and/or members of TDF. Not being a member, or never having contributed before, does not exclude any applicants from consideration.

The task offered is a project-based one-off, with no immediate plans to a mid- or long-term contractual relationship. It is offered on a freelance, project basis. Individuals and companies applying can be located anywhere in the world.

When budgeting, we anticipated that this project (all items combined) to take in the region of 40 days of work. Should bidders’ assessment result in a significantly different number, please reach out to us before sending your bid, so we can clarify upfront.

TDF is looking forward to receiving your applications for one or more of the aforementioned tasks, your financial expectations and the earliest date of your availability, via e-mail to a committee at tender20220201@documentfoundation.org no later than March 31, 2022.

Applicants who have not received feedback by April 29, 2022 should consider that their application, after careful review, was not accepted.

All bidders are invited to ask their questions on this tender until March 24, 2022. Questions and answers will be made public in a collected and anonymized form.