[python-win32] com, CreateObject, and py2exe

[Mark Hammond]

On 24/02/2011 11:25 AM, Bill Purcell wrote:
...

> I then have a function in VBA inside excel which accesses this server
> with Obj = CreateObject("Nevco.Modules").  I would like to share this
> code with a couple coworkers who are not interested in learning
> python, so I would like to create an executable to start the server
> for them.

I think there might be a misconception here - the if name=='__main__' 
block is *only* doing registration and unregistration - the COM object 
is not running in that process.  Excel will be loading the COM object 
in-process and manage its lifetime itself.  There really isn't a need to 
have your main block like that - you can just register it once and leave 
it registered until explicitly unregistered.

> setup(
>      name="Nevco Excel",
>      version="0.1",
>      description='Functions to use inside excel.',
>      author='Bill Purcell',
>      author_email='bpurcell at nevco.com',
>      com_server=["win32com.servers.interp"],
>      options = {'py2exe': {'includes': 'numpy'}},

You want the com_server element to refer to your COM module - as 
specified, your object will expose the 'python.interpreter' sample 
object for use.

What should happen is that py2exe will create a DLL (and possibly a 
.exe) for you - but similarly to as mentioned above, this DLL is loaded 
by excel automatically - you just register it once (probably via 
regsvr32.exe) and Excel can then use it as necessary.  Note however that 
the registration will need to be done by an elevated administrator 
account on Windows 7 - but once registered a regular user can use it. 
The most common approach is to use an installer like Wise or nsis to 
perform the installation and registration after prompting for elevation.

> Also, I would like to eventually move towards maybe writing an
> Add-in.  Does anyone have any "Hello World" excell Add-in tutorials
> for Python?

Check out the win32com\Demos directory - but AFAIK, the excel samples 
there haven't been tested with recent versions of excel.

HTH,

Mark