[IronPython] Please help me out its very urgent

[John Machin]

Dino Viehland wrote:
> Can you try using the library just from the command line and see what 
> the result is?  You might want to try running w/ -X:ExceptionDetail to 
> see where the exception is actually coming from.
> 
>  
> 
> I tried and was able to open a XLS saved in Office 2003 and earlier 
> format w/o any problems using this library so it’s hard to know what’s 
> blowing up in all the code below.

Hi Dino,

I'm the author of xlrd, the library that Praveen is trying to use. I 
suspect that the root cause of Praveen's problem is related to this 
IronPython bug that I reported ages ago:

http://www.codeplex.com/IronPython/WorkItem/View.aspx?WorkItemId=3094

This now says status == closed, and release == 2.0 Alpha 5; however it 
appears to be fixed in Iron Python 1.1.1. Like you, I have been able to 
use xlrd OK from the 1.1.1 ipy interactive prompt. Praveen says he can 
do that too. Praveen is however using "IronPython for ASP.NET" which was 
evidently released on 11/3/2006 [11 March or 3 November?]. He is *not* 
using the "ASP.NET Futures" released in May 2007.

Caveat: ASP, ASP.NET and "IronPython for ASP.NET" are diminishingly 
scarce in my knowledge-base :-)

Am I correct in guessing that the IronPython bug is not fixed in the 
2006 version of "IronPython for ASP.NET"?

I have suggested the following to Praveen:
"""
Please try this simple test:

1. set up a test module called test1.py, containing:
import sys
print >> sys.stderr, "test 1: being imported"

2. remove all references to xlrd from your aspx.py. Instead, put in:
import test1
print >> sys.stderr, "aspx: module imported OK"

3. run that and see if it prints as expected. If print >> sys.stderr 
doesn't work in IP for asp.net, find some other way of doing debug 
displays. Do whatever is necessary to get test1 demonstrably importable.

4. copy the final working test1.py to test2.py, and insert a new line at 
the top:
# coding: cp1252

5. change your aspx.py to import test2 instead of test1.

If that fails with "Value cannot be null. Parameter name: encoding", 
then my guess that my reported bug is not fixed in IP for ASP.NET would 
seem to be correct.
We can work around that.
"""

Unfortunately this was abandoned at step 3, because the aspx.py was 
missing a line containing "import sys", this caused an error message 
"name 'sys' not defined", and the suggested remedy caused some further 
problem of an unspecified nature.

> *From:* users-bounces at lists.ironpython.com 
> [mailto:users-bounces at lists.ironpython.com] *On Behalf Of *Praveen Kumar
> *Sent:* Monday, February 11, 2008 9:31 PM
> *To:* users at lists.ironpython.com
> *Subject:* [IronPython] Please help me out its very urgent
> 
>  
> 
> I am new for Ironpython for ASP.net, earlier i was using only Visual 
> studio 2005 and struggling with to read excel file without M$ Excel 
> object, bt i could nt get any other object which could read excel sheet. 
> But suddenly i got one
> Lingfo – Python "xlrd" package for extracting data from Excel files – 
> 0.6.1 final
> which can read successfully excel sheet as i desired.but the problem is 
> i dont knw hw can i use with IronPython Asp.net(Microsoft IronPython for 
> ASP.NET <http://ASP.NET>). i have seperately installed Python2.4..
> i tried with python2.4 its working failrly.while installing xlrd it 
> automatically search D:\Python24\, there were no option to configure it 
> nad installed  in D:\Python24\Lib\site-packages\.
> 
> Then i copy the XLRD package and paste C:\Program Files\Microsoft 
> IronPython for ASP.NET\Lib\site-packages\

Not at my suggestion :-)

> 
> and wrote the python script ExcelModule.py

Actually it's a kludged version of a recipe from the ASPN Python 
Cookbook ...

> 
> class readexcel(object):
>     def __init__(self,filename):
>         """ Returns a readexcel object of the specified filename - this 
> may take a little while because the file must be parsed into memory """
>         import sys
>         sys.path.append('D:\Python24\Lib')
>         sys.path.append('D:\Python24\Lib\site-packages')
>         from xlrd import *
>         print dir(xlrd)

This won't work because "xlrd" is not defined

>         return printed

and this won't work because "printed" is not defined

[big snip]

> 
> and in default.aspx.py <http://default.aspx.py>
> 
> import System
> import clr
> from System.Data import *
> from System.Web import *
> from System.Web.UI import *
> #from IronPython.Hosting import PythonEngine
> from clr import *
> import SampleModule
> import sys
> #import SampleModule2
> #import ExcelModule
> #from ExcelModule import readexcel
> from SampleModule import SampleClass
> from SampleModule import readexcel
> if sys.version.startswith("IronPython"):

No longer true:

IronPython 1.1.1 (1.1.1) on .NET 2.0.50727.832
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
 >>> import sys; sys.version
'2.4.0 (IronPython 1.1.1 (1.1.1) on .NET 2.0.50727.832)'
 >>>


>     # print >> sys.stderr, "...importing encodings"
>     import encodings
> sys.path.append([r'd:\Python24\Lib',r'd:\Python24\Lib\site-packages\xlrd',])

Should be extend, not append ...

> #sys.path.extend([r,'C:\Program Files\Microsoft IronPython for ASP.NET 

Presumably didn't (definitely won't) work because of the comma ...

> <http://ASP.NET>',r'C:\Program Files\Micrsoft IronPython for 
> ASP.NET\Lib',r'C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft IronPython 
> forASP.NET\\lib\\site-packages',r'D:\\python24\\lib',])
> import xlrd as ebook
> book = ebook.open_workbook('D:\my.xls', encoding_override="none")
[snip]
> book = xlrd.open_workbook('D:\my.xls', encoding_override="cp1252")

WARNING to casual readers: Praveen's problem relates to the use of 
encoding directives (e.g. #coding: cp1252) at the top of Python source 
files. The encoding_override argument above has nothing at all to do 
with this problem. As documented, it is for use in the following corner 
case:
(1) the data file ("my.xls") is in pre-Excel97 format
(2) its CODEPAGE record is missing or wrong -- i.e. written by some 
careless nth-party software developer ... contrary to Darwin's theory, 
this is not an endangered species :-)

Cheers,
John