How can I open LibreOffice Calc and close it in headless mode

Question

I have .iqy file which is Internet query file for Excel. If I open that file with LibreOffice Calc I can get the sheet correctly populated with the data and I can save it as I please with GUI.

My question is how to open that file in headless mode in a way that I can save the populated file as .xls file? Preferred solutions would be either bash scripting or Python because I could easily implement them in my current project.

The steps I want to do in headless mode are as following:

1. Open .iqy file with LibreOffice Calc
2. Wait for spreadsheet to populate from data
3. Save As .xls

I can make them easily with GUI, but on server I am working I should be able to do these things without GUI via scripting.

EDIT: It seems that there is no other way than try to do it via LibreOffice API. I post update here if I manage to find workaround.

Answer 1

I managed to make this work with python and uno. Below is my code

import uno
from com.sun.star.beans import PropertyValue

def convert_iqy_excel(xls_path, socket="socket", host="localhost", port="2002"):
    # get the uno component context from the PyUNO runtime
    localContext = uno.getComponentContext()

    # create the UnoUrlResolver
    resolver = localContext.ServiceManager.createInstanceWithContext(
                            "com.sun.star.bridge.UnoUrlResolver", localContext )

    # connect to the running office
    ctx = resolver.resolve("uno:{},host={},port={};urp;StarOffice.ComponentContext".format(socket,host,port))
    smgr = ctx.ServiceManager

    # get the central desktop object
    desktop = smgr.createInstanceWithContext( "com.sun.star.frame.Desktop",ctx)

    # access the current calc document
    doc = desktop.getCurrentComponent()

    # save as f_name
    f_name = "file://{}".format(xls_path)

    args = (PropertyValue('FilterName', 0, 'MS Excel 97', 0),)

    doc.storeToURL(f_name, args)

    # Do a nasty thing before exiting the python process. In case the
    # last call is a oneway call (e.g. see idl-spec of insertString),
    # it must be forced out of the remote-bridge caches before python
    # exits the process. Otherwise, the oneway call may or may not reach
    # the target object.
    # I do this here by calling a cheap synchronous call (getPropertyValue).
    ctx.ServiceManager
    doc.dispose()

I have LibreOffice 6.0.7.3 and Python 3.6.7