new_contents: # Copyright 2011 Marco Conti
  
  # Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  # you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
  # You may obtain a copy of the License at
  
  #     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
  
  # Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
  # distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
  # WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
  # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
  # limitations under the License.
  
  # Thanks to grt for the fixes
  # https://github.com/marcoconti83/read-ods-with-odfpy
  
  import odf.opendocument
  from odf.table import Table, TableRow, TableCell
  from odf.text import P
  
  
  # http://stackoverflow.com/a/4544699/1846474
  class GrowingList(list):
      def __setitem__(self, index, value):
          if index >= len(self):
              self.extend([None]*(index + 1 - len(self)))
          list.__setitem__(self, index, value)
  
  
  class ODSReader:
  
      # loads the file
      def __init__(self, file, clonespannedcolumns=None):
          self.clonespannedcolumns = clonespannedcolumns
          self.doc = odf.opendocument.load(file)
          self.SHEETS = {}
          for sheet in self.doc.spreadsheet.getElementsByType(Table):
              self.readSheet(sheet)
  
      # reads a sheet in the sheet dictionary, storing each sheet as an
      # array (rows) of arrays (columns)
      def readSheet(self, sheet):
          name = sheet.getAttribute("name")
          rows = sheet.getElementsByType(TableRow)
          arrRows = []
  
          # for each row
          for row in rows:
              row_comment = ""
              arrCells = GrowingList()
              cells = row.getElementsByType(TableCell)
  
              # for each cell
              count = 0
              for cell in cells:
                  # repeated value?
                  repeat = cell.getAttribute("numbercolumnsrepeated")
                  if(not repeat):
                      repeat = 1
                      spanned = int(cell.getAttribute('numbercolumnsspanned') or 0)
                      # clone spanned cells
                      if self.clonespannedcolumns is not None and spanned > 1:
                          repeat = spanned
  
                  ps = cell.getElementsByType(P)
                  textContent = ""
  
                  # for each text/text:span node
                  for p in ps:
                      for n in p.childNodes:
                          if (n.nodeType == 1 and n.tagName == "text:span"):
                              for c in n.childNodes:
                                  if (c.nodeType == 3):
                                      textContent = u'{}{}'.format(textContent, n.data)
  
                          if (n.nodeType == 3):
                              textContent = u'{}{}'.format(textContent, n.data)
  
                  if(textContent):
                      if(textContent[0] != "#"):  # ignore comments cells
                          for rr in range(int(repeat)):  # repeated?
                              arrCells[count] = textContent
                              count += 1
                      else:
                          row_comment = row_comment + textContent + " "
                  else:
                      for rr in range(int(repeat)):
                          count += 1
  
              # if row contained something
              if(len(arrCells)):
                  arrRows.append(arrCells)
  
              # else:
              #    print ("Empty or commented row (", row_comment, ")")
  
          self.SHEETS[name] = arrRows
  
      # returns a sheet as an array (rows) of arrays (columns)
      def getSheet(self, name):
          return self.SHEETS[name]
  
subject: Add ODSReader util class for reading Open Document Spreadsheets