Interfacing with Python code via file read/write? - python

Working with a Windows program that has it's own language with minimal interfacing options with external code, but it can read & write to files. I am looking for a method to send a set of configuration values to Python 3 code like "12,43,47,62" to query data in Pandas and return the associated results.
Someone mentioned this could possibly be done through a file interface where inputs were written to a file from the originating program and values were read back from an alternate file. I have a couple of questions regarding this concept hopefully someone could clarify for me.
How well does this method handle simultaneous access where multiple calls are being made for different queries?
What is the correct terminology for this type of task?
Is there a way to do it so the Python code senses the change as opposed to repeatedly checking for changes?

1) Poorly. You should put each query in its own file, responses in their own files, and encode request ID's or other information in the file names.
2) I'm not sure there is one. "File Based Communication" maybe.
3) Yes, Python watchdog.

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Automate a manual task using Python

I have a question and hope someone can direct me in the right direction; Basically every week I have to run a query (SSMS) to get a table containing some information (date, clientnumber, clientID, orderid etc) and then I copy all the information and that table and past it in a folder as a CSV file. it takes me about 15 min to do all this but I am just thinking can I automate this, if yes how can I do that and also can I schedule it so it can run by itself every week. I believe we live in a technological era and this should be done without human input; so I hope I can find someone here willing to show me how to do it using Python.
Many thanks for considering my request.
This should be pretty simple to automate:
Use some database adapter which can work with your database, for MSSQL the one delivered by pyodbc will be fine,
Within the script, connect to the database, perform the query, parse an output,
Save parsed output to a .csv file (you can use csv Python module),
Run the script as the periodic task using cron/schtask if you work on Linux/Windows respectively.
Please note that your question is too broad, and shows no research effort.
You will find that Python can do the tasks you desire.
There are many different ways to interact with SQL servers, depending on your implementation. I suggest you learn Python+SQL using the built-in sqlite3 library. You will want to save your query as a string, and pass it into an SQL connection manager of your choice; this depends on your server setup, there are many different SQL packages for Python.
You can use pandas for parsing the data, and saving it to a ~.csv file (literally called to_csv).
Python does have many libraries for scheduling tasks, but I suggest you hold off for a while. Develop your code in a way that it can be run manually, which will still be much faster/easier than without Python. Once you know your code works, you can easily implement a scheduler. The downside is that your program will always need to be running, and you will need to keep checking to see if it is running. Personally, I would keep it restricted to manually running the script; you could compile to an ~.exe and bind to a hotkey if you need the accessibility.

Storing data for applications

I have been studying programming for a few years and I am now working on my first desktop application. I am making a simple program that is able to keep track of information pertaining to a DND (Dungeons and Dragons) character/s. I want to find a way to store information about these characters so they next time the applications is launched, the characters will be saved. How do things like spotify save information about each user? First, I will give some info about the program itself. I have written it in python and it is organized as follows:
I have a file, which serves as the brain of the application (app.py).
A file which defines a class representing a character
A file defining a class that is used to find information about the characters
Other files defining classes used the build the UI
So far in my studies, I have only gathered inputted information from txt files, input functions and APIs via requests. I have worked with JSON before and am thinking this may be an option, but I am not sure how this would work in this case. I also had the idea of storing data in txt files, but want to learn the way it is done in the real world in order to make the best use of my time.
TLDR: I am making a desktop application using python and want an effective and common way people store information they want to access the next time the program is ran. I am looking for a local way to save the data that is also SAFE. If you have a recommendation that is server/cloud based, I would still like to hear how it may be done that as I am sure the knowledge will still be beneficial. I am looking for a way to SAFELY store information that will be saved even after the application is terminated. Any advice or anything you have personally used is appreciated.

Maya Python creating a script with a script

I've got a kind of weird question--but would be immensely useful if it is possible--in Maya using Python, can I take in several points of user input and have Python create a separate script for me? In this instance, I want to take in controller and locator names and have Python spit out a complete IKFK match script also in Python (it's really just a lot of getAttr and setAttr commands, although with 6 if statements per limb for PV matching.) The only other wrinkle there is that it has to be able to prefix hierarchy names in the script if necessary if the rig is imported into a new scene rather than just opened. There's an expression component to my switches that it would be nice if Python could make for me, too.
Is this possible or am I crazy?
That's no problem. Just write a textfile with a .py extension into a path where maya can find it. Then you have to import it somewhere. Creating expressions is not a problem either.
Maybe it could make sense to think about the approach you choose. Imagine you have written a dozen of these new python files and you discover a problem in the script, you will have to redo it. I'd try to collect all data and only write the required informations into a textfile e.g. in json format. Then you can read the data and rebuild your skeletons.

Access to LibreOffice's Compare Documents using python

I have two .csv files that I want to use LibreOffice's compare documents tool (Edit>Compare Document) with.
These csv files are made after the run of a long and involved script, and it would be nice to be able to have the compare process to be automatic as well, with the result being a window of LibreOffice open with the changes as if I selected compare manually. I want the specific LibreOffice gui (which I believe does a great job highlighting differences) not just a diff.
Looking online, it seems like there is nice but limited set of python wrappers for libre office (pyoo).
However, despite related questions, I couldn't see any way of gaining access to the compare functionality through this or any other library. Is the Compare Documents functionality available at the python level, the UNO API level, or simply not available at all?
Use the dispatcher:
Dispatcher.executeDispatch(
(XDispatchProvider)Frame, ".uno:CompareDocuments", "", 0, propertyValueFile);
A complete Java example is at https://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=2795.

Back end process in windows

I need to run the python program in the backend. To the script I have given one input file and the code is processing that file and creating new output file. Now if I change the input file content I don't want to run the code again. It should run in the back end continously and generate the output file. Please if someone knows the answer for this let me know.
thank you
Basically, you have to set up a so-called FileWatcher, i.e. some mechanism which looks out for changes in a file.
There are several techniques for watching file/directory changes in python. Have a look at this question: Monitoring contents of files/directories?. Another link is here, this is about directory changes but file changes are handled in a similar way. You could also google for "watch file changes python" in order to get a lot of answers :)
Note: If you're programming in windows, you should probably implement your program as windows service, look here for how to do that.

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