OpenERP Arabic Report Support:

This is an Openerp patch to fix issues occured when dealing with Arabic and other RTL languages (Arabic, Hebrew, Ordo, Farsi, etc).

Installation on Windows:

1. copy file arabic_reshaper.py into: <INSTALL_DIR>\Openerp Server 6.1\Server\server, where <INSTALL_DIR> is the location where you installed Openerp Server (e.g. C:\Program Files).
2. copy folder bidi into the same Location you put arabic_reshaper.py to it: <INSTALL_DIR>\Openerp Server 6.1\Server\server
3. copy file textobject.py into: <INSTALL_DIR>\Openerp Server 6.1\Server\server\reportlab\pdfgen, you may want to backup the old textobject.py before replace it with this version.

Creating Custom Fonts Hosting Directory:

1. create a new directory name "fonts" inside: <INSTALL_DIR>\Openerp Server 6.1\Server\server\

2. open a file called openerp-server.conf with your preferred text editor (e.g. notepad), the openerp-server.conf live in: <INSTALL_DIR>\Openerp Server 6.1\Server\server\openerp-server.conf

3. at the end of the file, add the following line:
   fonts_search_path = <INSTALL_DIR>\Openerp Server 6.1\Server\server\fonts

   NOTE: Dont forget to replace <INSTALL_DIR> with the absolute path of OpenERP server installation (e.g. C:\Program Files).

4. go to DjaVu Fonts Site http://dejavu-fonts.org/wiki/Download and download a file called dejavu-fonts-ttf-2.33.tar.bz2, here is another mirror for it.

5. extract dejavu-fonts-ttf-2.33.tar.bz2 and copy the contents of "ttf" folder into your fonts directory: <INSTALL_DIR>\Openerp Server 6.1\Server\server\fonts

6. Now, restart openerp server:

    	-  Control Panel => Administrative Tools => Services
    	-  find a service called openerp server
    	-  restart it.
   

7. try to print some reports that contains arabic characters. enjoy :)

more information can be found on our blog: http://goure-it.blogspot.com.

Installation on Linux:

Because There are several ways to install OpenERP on Linux, Files Locations are not unique. so, this instructions assume that you install OpenERP using the popular method, Through `apt-get` on ubuntu platform.

1. Copy the file "textobject.py" into: /usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/reportlab/pdfgen/textobject.py make sure you backup old "textobject.py" before you replace it.

2. Check to ensure if the link file: /usr/share/pyshared/reportlab/pdfgen/textobject.py pointing correctly to the new "textobject.py" file.

3. Copy "arabic_reshaper.py" file, and "bidi" directory into: /usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/

4. Create a folder called "fonts" in a location that is accessable by openerp server. (e.g. /usr/share/pyshared/fonts).

5. go to DejaVu Fonts Site and download a file called dejavu-fonts-ttf-2.33.tar.bz2 [here] [id] is another mirror for it: [id]: http://ie.archive.ubuntu.com/ftp.frugalware.org/pub/frugalware/frugalware-current/source/x11/dejavu-ttf/dejavu-fonts-ttf-2.33.tar.bz2 "Ubuntu Mirror"

6. extract dejavu-fonts-ttf-2.33.tar.bz2 copy the contents of a folder called ttf and paste them into "fonts" directory you created on step 4.

7. use linux searching tool, search for a file called openerp-server.conf, open it with a text editor (e.g. gedit), at the end of it, paste the following line:

   **fonts_search_path = /usr/share/pyshared/fonts**
   

where /usr/share/pyshared/fonts is your new fonts directory you created on step 4.

8. restart openerp server, sudo service openerp restart go and try printing some reports with arabic characters.

Using Fancy Fonts for your reports:

as you might noticed, using dejavu fonts are so uguly on arabic characters. there is a set of awesome arabic fonts (open source) created by arabeyes: Khotot go and download them.

Changing Report Fonts Strategy:

Keep in mind that openerp report engine depends on 4 standard PDF fonts:

1. Helvetica
2. Times
3. Times-Roman
4. Courier

all 4 fonts unable to render most languages correctly. as a result, openerp report enginge will automagically pickup DjaVu Fonts Set, when you point to them.

That's why you set fonts_search_path = /your/custom/fonts option in openerp-server.conf file before. here is the mapping that openerp report engine does:

Font Name	Font Type	DjaVu Equivelant
Helvetica	normal	DejaVuSans.ttf
Helvetica	bold	DejaVuSans-Bold.ttf
Helvetica	italic	DejaVuSans-Oblique.ttf
Helvetica	bolditalic	DejaVuSans-BoldOblique.ttf
----	----	----
Times	normal	LiberationSerif-Regular.ttf
Times	bold	LiberationSerif-Bold.ttf
Times	italic	LiberationSerif-Italic.ttf
Times	bolditalic	LiberationSerif-BoldItalic.ttf
----	----	----
Times-Roman	normal	LiberationSerif-Regular.ttf
Times-Roman	bold	LiberationSerif-Bold.ttf
Times-Roman	italic	LiberationSerif-Italic.ttf
Times-Roman	bolditalic	LiberationSerif-BoldItalic.ttf
----	----	----
Courier	normal	FreeMono.ttf
Courier	bold	FreeMonoBold.ttf
Courier	italic	FreeMonoOblique.ttf
Courier	bolditalic	FreeMonoBoldOblique.ttf
----	----	----

So, for example. if you want to replace Helvetica with something else, (e.g. ae_AlMohanad.ttf from arab eyes package), you can do it by renaming your font DejaVuSans.ttf and put it into your custom fonts directory.

For More Information, go to our blog

Copyrights © Mohammed Barsi (dantario AT gmail DOT com).

Credits:

Many Thanks go to Meir Kriheli and Abd Allah Diab for their unicode bidirection packages:

• python-bidi package created by Meir Kriheli http://github.com/mksoft/python-bidi "GNU Library or Lesser General Public License (LGPL)"
• arabic_reshaper.py created by Abd Allah Diab https://github.com/mpcabd/python-arabic-reshaper "GNU General Public License v3."