So I am creating a program that takes input, processes the data, then puts it in Excel. In order to do this, I am using the "xlwt" package (and possibly xlrd). How do I then give this program to other people without making them download python and the packages associated with my program? I considered utilizing an online python interpreter and giving the username/password to my coworkers, but xlwt isn't on any of the ones I've tried, and they don't offer a way (that I can see) to download new packages.
You would have to compile the code into an exe file. The py2exe library can help you out with this
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I know similar questions have been popular in the past, but none refers to my problem. I'm looking for a way to read data from Excel file in Python, but I'm strongly against using non-builtin modules.
The reason why is that in my case Python is a component of another software, so incorporating additional module would require from every user knowledge about how to use pip, which Python installation on your pc should one install module into, etc. The solution must not require any additional actions from user.
I can read CSV files with Python builtin easily, so that could work, but how can I convert Excel to CSV in the first place? Or is there a way to read Excel directly?
Edit: It is Python 2, that is used in this software.
Edit2:
Anyone minds explaining the downvote? I think this isn't a question about a ready solution or module, but rather a method and is well detailed. It is not always possible to use external modules, so this is an actual problem. If it is not possible at all though, then I would simply expect an answer instead of -1.
Not really the prettiest solution, but you could download the complete code repository of one of the excel handling packages for python (openpyxl for example) and put these files in the same directory as the python script that you're going to run. Subsequently you can do an import of these local package files in your script.
Note: if the excel handling package has dependencies on other packages, then you'll need to download these as well.
I'm looking to be able to create an executable with py2exe or something similar that takes information from an excel sheet and returns a word file.
Since my coworkers are technically challenged, I need to create an executable that will take the work out of it for them.
Two questions here:
I have to be able to import something into the python script that represents DataNitro. What module represents DataNitro?
Is this legal? I won't be using a DataNitro license on every machine this exe will run on, besides my own, so if it's even possible, is this a bit shady?
Thank you.
P.S. If I'm not able to do this I will probably have to use xlrd,xlwt,etc.
The best way to give non-technical users access to DataNitro is to copy the VBA interface: hook the script up to an Excel button and have users press that button to run it. (There's no difference between running a Python script with DataNitro and running VBA code from the user's point of view.)
Each person using the script would need a DataNitro license.
There's no way to make DataNitro work with py2exe, unfortunately.
Source: I'm one of the DataNitro developers.
I have written a program. I don't know if it is important how it is written but you can find it here: http://pastebin.com/Z3ZvVPV8 Basically, it asks you to assign values to variables and will perform calculations depending on what variables you chose, and prints the answer.
I would like to know how I can make the program run in a window other than cmd (I am using Windows Vista 32bit). I don't need much at all in terms of GUI, just a window that is a bit more user friendly/easier to look at when they are using the program.
EDIT: To those suggesting using IDLE, while that would work for me, if others want to use the program they would have to download it, so I was hoping for a way for that not to happen.
Python comes with a sort of default GUI package TkInter you can use it.
Also there is a lot of other GUI packages available.
The Python standard library offers a lot of ways to implemt simple (but also rather complex) GUIs. I'd like to point you at the documentation of TK (tool kit for graphical interfaces) http://docs.python.org/library/tk.html where you will find also some useful example of use.
Py2Exe is a viable option if you really don't need a gui. This will make it run and look like a command prompt, but it will be an .exe file. Here is a quick quote from thier page: "py2exe is a Python Distutils extension which converts Python scripts into executable Windows programs, able to run without requiring a Python installation."
Another alternative is to get Portable Python. Here is a quote from thier webpage: "Portable Python is a Python® programming language preconfigured to run directly from any USB storage device, enabling you to have, at any time, a portable programming environment. Just download it, extract to your portable storage device or hard drive and in 10 minutes you are ready to create your next Python® application." After packaging the portable python and your .py or .pyc file then create a .bat file that runs the portable python "Python-Portable.exe" with the correct command line parameters for loading your script. Be sure to use relative paths in the batch file in case they are running it from a flash drive, or something other than the same location as you.
NOTE: This is really not a good way to do this as thier download page states: "Installed size: based on selected packages, between 49MB and 480MB". Also be sure to read the the current Python Software Foundation License, as that is what Portable Python is released under, and it may or may not be legal to package it in a closed source project. I haven't really looked at the license myself to be able to tell you. If you are releasing it as open source, then there would not be an issue though. As a quick side note, if you need that .bat file to be a .exe file then you can use a .bat to .exe converter battoexe.com is one. This is really going the long way about doing the whole thing, but it is an option.
Sources:
Working with Python on and off for 7 years now, a lot that using a portable version on a flash drive, and also dealing with Batch files much longer.
I'm not sure if I'm even asking this question correctly. I just built my first real program and I want to make it available to people in my office. I'm not sure if I will have access to the shared server, but I was hoping I could simply package the program (I hope I'm using this term correctly) and upload it to a website for my coworkers to download.
I know how to zip a file, but something tells me it's a little more complicated than that :) In fact, some of the people in my office who need the program installed do not have python on their computers already, and I would rather avoid asking everyone to install python before downloading my .py files from my hosting server.
So, is there an easy way to package my program, along with python and the other dependencies, for simple distribution from a website? I tried searching for the answer but I can't find exactly what I'm looking for. Oh, and since this is the first time I have done this- are there any precautions I need to take when sharing these files so that everything runs smoothly?
PyInstaller or py2exe can package your Python program.
Both are actively maintained. PyInstaller is actively maintained. py2exe has not been updated for at least a year. I've used each with success.
Also there is cx_Freeze which I have not used.
Take a look at http://www.py2exe.org/
I have a Windows program that I made with python and py2exe. I'd like to create an updating feature so that the software can be readily updated.
What are common ways of going about this?
If you think your code might benefit others, you could put it up on PyPI. Then having different versions is just updating your package, or telling your clients to use easy_install to get the latest version. This doesn't push updates, though.
You can try Esky, which is an auto-update framework for managing different versions, including fetching new versions and rolling back partial updates. It can be found on PyPI.
That said, I haven't used Esky. If you wish to roll your own auto-update feature, you might want to look at Boxed Dice to see how they got around to it.
When you package an app with py2exe, the result is usually a single executable (perhaps with some data files). This is simplest to update by just proposing the user to download and install a new version every once in a while (how you check with a server that such new version exists is a different question).
If you want to reduce the download size the user has to do, application commonly resort to breaking themselves up into multiple DLLs and updating only the relevant DLLs. When you have a Python application you don't have DLLs but you have an even easier option - you can just keep most of your app's logic outside the exe in .pyc files, and update just some of these .pyc files.
Now, mind you, .pyc files are easily "decompilable" into Python (a somewhat obfuscated version of your original code), but having an exe made with py2exe isn't much safer, because py2exe is open-source software and packs all the same files inside the exe anyway.
To conclude, my suggestion is don't bother. How large can your application be? With today's fast connections, it's easier to just make the user download a whole new version than to invest a lot of time into building partial-update functionality into your program.