Tables of contents

A table of contents (TOC) is represented by an odf_toc object, which is created using the odf_create_toc() constructor.

TOC creation

A table of contents is created as a free element using the odf_create_toc() constructor, with a mandatory unique name as its first argument, and the following parameters:

• title: an optional title (to be displayed at the TOC head), whose default value is the given name;
• style: the name of a section style applying to the TOC;
• protected: a boolean flag that tells the editing applications if the section is write-protected (default=``true``);
• outline level: specifies the last outline level to be used used when generating the TOC from headings; if this parameter is omitted, all the outline levels are used by default;
• use outline: a boolean flag that specifies if the TOC must be generated from headings (default=``true``);
• use index marks: a boolean flag that specifies if the TOC must be generated from index marks (default=``false).

A table of contents object, after creation, may be put somewhere in a document using a generic method such as insert_element().

TOC retrieval

An existing table of contents may be retrieved by name using the context method get_toc().

It’s possible to retrieve the full list of the TOCs in a context through get_tocs(), without argument.

TOC methods

The odf_toc elements provide the following methods:

• get_name() and set_name() to get or set the internal unique name;
• get_title() and set_title() to get or change the display TOC title;
• get_outline_level() and set_outline_level() to get or change the current outline level property;
• get_use_outline() and set_use_outline() to get or set the use outline flag;
• get_use_index_marks() and set_use_index_marks() to get or set the use index marks flag;
• get_formatted_text(): returns the plain text content of the TOC, with some formatting features;
• fill: builds the body of the TOC according to the content of a given document and the TOC parameters.

The fill method does an effective generation of the TOC content according to the current content of a document. Beware, this method is far less rich than the TOC generation feature of a typical interactive text processor, so it should be use if an automatic TOC generation is required only.

As long as the odf_toc object is not attached to a odf_document, the fill method requires an ODF document as argument. If the object belongs to a document and if the argument is omitted, the content of the TOC is generated from the content of the host document. However, it’s possible to insert a TOC in a document then fill it using the content of another document: the fill method generates a content according to the document provided as argument, if any.

The TOC is populated by fill using the outline (i.e. the hierarchical headings of the document), the TOC index marks, or both, according to the corresponding flags. Note that fill can’t generate any content if both use outline and use index marks are false.