Win32, COM and the Installer

Gordon McMillan gmcm at hypernet.com
Wed Sep 20 21:27:06 EDT 2000


Greg Landrum wrote:

>[I realize that this is somewhat of a FAQ, but I have not been able
>to make the previously posted solutions work at all.  I would like
>to get a single answer posted that other people could track down.]

It's a FAQ without a simple answer...

>I'd like to construct a standalone windows program using Gordon
>McMillan's installer which uses the wonderful win32com stuff.  I'm
>running Win2K, Python 1.5.2, PythonWin build 132 and Installer 0.3f.
>
>Here's a very simple script I want to build an installer for, note
>that it imports win32com, but does not actually use it (to simplify
>the script):
>
>#--------------------
>import win32api
>import sys,imp
># pythoncom and pywintypes are special, and require these hacks when
># built into a .EXE
>def magic_import(modulename, filename):
>  # win32 can find the DLL name.
>  h = win32api.LoadLibrary(filename)
>  found = win32api.GetModuleFileName(h)
>  # Python can load the module
>  mod = imp.load_module(modulename, None, found, ('.dll', 'rb',
>                                                  imp.C_EXTENSION))
>  # inject it into the global module list.
>  sys.modules[modulename] = mod
>  # And finally inject it into the namespace.
>  globals()[modulename] = mod
>  win32api.FreeLibrary(h)
>
>try:
>  import pywintypes
>except ImportError:
>  magic_import("pywintypes", "pywintypes15.dll")
>try:
>  import pythoncom
>except ImportError:
>  magic_import("pythoncom", "pythoncom15.dll")
>
>from win32com.client import gencache
>
>print 'hello world'
>#--------------------
>
>The magic_import() bits here are from an earlier post by Mark Hammond.
>
>When I run the installer (Simple.py) against this, I get the familiar
>error:
>
>IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'c:\\windows\\system32
>\\pywintypes.dll'

Simple, by default, will exclude pywintypes. Take that out (it's excluded 
because os.path.abspath will use the Win32 extensions if they're around, 
but has a sensible fallback if they're not).

Forget using gencache. You don't have to look far to see why - it's based 
on the assumption that win32com.client package is a bunch of .py files on 
your hardisk.

Mark tells me that you should be able to explicitly import the module that 
gencache would find for you, and Installer shouldn't have a problem with 
it. I've never tried that. I have gotten client.dynamic to work with the 
above tweaks.

>If someone can provide me with a .cfg file which works to create an
>installer/standalone for this script, I will be eternally grateful
>and will put together a HowTo in an effort to help fend off future
>frustration.

You write the HOWTO and I'll add it to Installer.

BTW, there's an installer_3g.zip in mcmillan-inc.com/dnld which has some 
fixes, but no (new) docs. One of these days I'll unbury myself sufficiently 
to make a proper distribution.

- Gordon



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