Bootstrap Uno API LibreOffice exception

Question

With the following code:

static void Main()
{
    try
    {
        var context = uno.util.Bootstrap.bootstrap();
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
       Console.WriteLine(ex.toString());
    }
}

I can start Writer of LibreOffice. This works fine with Version 4.4.4 but after installing version 5.0.0 and with new SDK Bootstrap.bootstrap() throws the exception:

"External component has thrown an exception"

Has anyone faced the same problem or some solution? (.NET 4.0, Windows 7 64-bit, LibreOffice 5.0 Lite)

Answer 1

I have managed to solve the problem by setting the UNO_PATH environment variable before starting the soffice.exe server:

using static System.Environment;

var unoPath = @"C:\Program Files\LibreOffice 5\program"
// when running 32-bit LibreOffice on a 64-bit system, the path will be in Program Files (x86)
// var unoPath = @"C:\Program Files (x86)\LibreOffice 5\program"

SetEnvironmentVariable("UNO_PATH", unoPath, EnvironmentVariableTarget.Process);
SetEnvironmentVariable("PATH", GetEnvironmentVariable("PATH") + @";" + unoPath, EnvironmentVariableTarget.Process);

This was required because LibreOffice 5's program directory does not have "URE" subdirectory anymore (previous versions did) which is required for UNO layer.

Answer 2

To get the path to the LibreOffice installation you can ask e.g. the Windows registry. In C# this is smoething like that:

    String unoPath = "";
    // access 32bit registry entry for latest LibreOffice for Current User
    Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey hkcuView32 = Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey.OpenBaseKey(Microsoft.Win32.RegistryHive.CurrentUser, Microsoft.Win32.RegistryView.Registry32);
    Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey hkcuUnoInstallPathKey = hkcuView32.OpenSubKey(@"SOFTWARE\LibreOffice\UNO\InstallPath", false);
    if (hkcuUnoInstallPathKey != null && hkcuUnoInstallPathKey.ValueCount > 0)
    {
        unoPath = (string)hkcuUnoInstallPathKey.GetValue(hkcuUnoInstallPathKey.GetValueNames()[hkcuUnoInstallPathKey.ValueCount - 1]);
    }
    else
    {
        // access 32bit registry entry for latest LibreOffice for Local Machine (All Users)
        Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey hklmView32 = Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey.OpenBaseKey(Microsoft.Win32.RegistryHive.LocalMachine, Microsoft.Win32.RegistryView.Registry32);
        Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey hklmUnoInstallPathKey = hklmView32.OpenSubKey(@"SOFTWARE\LibreOffice\UNO\InstallPath", false);
        if (hklmUnoInstallPathKey != null && hklmUnoInstallPathKey.ValueCount > 0)
        {
            unoPath = (string)hklmUnoInstallPathKey.GetValue(hklmUnoInstallPathKey.GetValueNames()[hklmUnoInstallPathKey.ValueCount - 1]);
        }
    }

Then you can use the answer of Funbit [ https://stackoverflow.com/a/31937114/2936206 ]