[python-win32] FireEvent : comtypes work but win32com fails, why?

Wed Jun 25 07:34:32 CEST 2008

2008/6/25 June Kim <juneaftn at gmail.com>:
> IE's FireEvent works with a single argument, for example,
> FireEvent("onKeyUp"). However, it doesn't work with two arguments :
> FireEvent("onKeyUp",event).
>
> But It works without a problem with comtypes.
>
> See the following example to reproduce and compare:
>
>
> file: c:/temp/javascripttest/onkeyup.html
>
> <html>
> <head>
> <title>onkeyup</title>
> <script language="javascript">
> function showmeevent() {
>  document.getElementById("here").innerHTML+="[+] "+event.keyCode +"<br/>";
>  document.lastKeyCode=event.keyCode;
> }
> </script>
> </head>
> </html>
> <input id="inp" onkeyup="showmeevent()"/>
> <div id="here"></div>
> </body>
> <body>
>
>
> Python 2.5.2 (r252:60911, Feb 21 2008, 13:11:45) [MSC v.1310 32 bit (Intel)] on
> win32
> Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>> from win32com.client import DispatchEx
>>>> ie=DispatchEx('InternetExplorer.Application')
>>>> ie.Visible=True
>>>> ie.Visible=False
>>>> ie.Navigate('c:/temp/javascripttest/onkeyup.html')
>>>> ie.Visible=True
>>>> e=ie.Document.CreateEventObject()
>>>> e.keyCode=65
>>>> ie.Document.all.inp.FireEvent("onkeyup",e)
> True
>>>> ie.Document.lastKeyCode
> 0
>
> On the html document displayed on the browser I see "0" is appended.
> The event object that I created with new keyCode didn't get passed.
>
> Now with comtypes:
>
>>>> from comtypes.client import CreateObject
>>>> ie2=CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
>>>> ie2.Visible=True
>>>> ie2.Navigate('c:/temp/javascripttest/onkeyup.html')
> 0
>>>> e2=ie2.Document.CreateEventObject()
>>>> e2.keyCode=65
>>>> ie2.Document.all.inp.FireEvent("onkeyup",e2)
> True
>>>> ie2.Document.lastKeyCode
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
>  File "C:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\comtypes\__init__.py", line 216, in __geta
> ttr__
>    raise AttributeError(name)
> AttributeError: lastKeyCode
>
> Accessing lastKeyCode from ie2.Document wasn't possible but the event
> obejct is passed successfully -- I see 65 appended to the document.
>
>
> In summary, there are one big problem and one minor problem. The first
> is about pywin32's inability to pass FireEvent's second argument. The
> second is about comtypes inability to access Document's attributes.
>

The minor problem is solvable with:

comtypes.client.dynamic.Dispatch(ie2.Document).lastKeyCode

even though I am not sure if this is the right way.