win32com.client - need some help

[zippy1984 at my-deja.com]

>
> Pretty unusual VB usage, but, yes, it does happen.  It's unclear
> to me whether the single argument of method getDictionary is
> [out] or [in,out] -- presumably just [out]...?  VB is often
> not crystal-clear about such things (which yet ARE crucial --
> resource leaks are possible if one gets confused) and looking
> at the IDL for the type library in question is quite a good idea
> (VB Professional, I think, comes with the "OLE Viewer" which,
> among many other precious uses, lets one look at the IDL of any
> type library; if it doesn't, then get the Platform SDK download,
> THAT one surely does come with oleview.exe and it's free, though
> rather big to get).

Here is a snip of the IDL file:

   HRESULT getDictionary([out] IDispatch** pDictionary);
   [id(0x12345678)]

>
> > Python:
> >    import win32com.client
> >    ob = win32com.client.Dispatch("some.object.1")  # ok
>
> Do make sure makepy.py HAS been run on the typelibrary whence
> some.object comes from, though.  To ensure that, you may use:

Here is a snip of the generated .py file:

   def getDictionary(self, pDictionary=defaultNamedNotOptArg):
      return self._ApplyTypes_(0x12345678, 1, (24, 0), ((16393, 2),), \
                     'getDictionary', None,pDictionary)

>
> Once makepy has operated on the type library, [out] arguments
> are transformed into return values, so:
>
>     dic = ob.getDictionary()
>

Yes, I am able to call this way using the generated classes, and also
without...  This is what happens:

>>> dic = ob.getDictionary()
>>> dic
<COMObject getDictionary>

I find this strange...getDictionary is just the method, in VB I here
get an instance of the IDictionary, which has the getValue method
I need (IDictionary is a subclass of IDispatch).  This is what
happens now:

>>> val = dic.getValue('Version')
Traceback (innermost last):
  File "<interactive input>", line 1, in ?
  File "C:\Python20\win32com\client\dynamic.py", line 435, in
__getattr__
    raise AttributeError, "%s.%s", % (self._username_, attr)
AttributeError: getDictionary.getValue
>>>

Not unexpected, as getDictionary does not have a getValue method....


So, what is going on here?  Any idea?

I have quite a bit of experience with Python, but very little with
Windows and COM in general (and therefore win32com), so any help
is appriciated.



Tom


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