accessing an OLE Automation (IDispatch) server from python which requires the use of "out params"
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coder1024 at gmail.com
Mon Dec 10 14:13:51 EST 2012
I have an existing Windows application which provides an OLE Automation (IDispatch) interface. I'm not able to change that interface. I'd like to call it from a scripting language. I figure this would provide a nice quick way to invoke on the app.
I initially tried this with Windows Powershell but ran into the following problem. I was able to create the object and invoke simple methods on it. However the interface for this app has methods which take out params. i.e. you pass in a reference to a variable and the server fills in the value. I couldn't get that to work. I finally gave up and decided it was just a limitation of Powershell, not being able to work with those out params.
My next thought was to do it in python. I've been reading up on python and I've found a decent amount of into out there on doing OLE and I'm optimistic. But, I thought that I'd ask the question before digging too much farther into it...
When calling an OLE Automation (IDispatch) server from python can I make use of "out params" defined by the interface?
To get more specific, here's an example from the server's IDL for one of its methods.
[id(15), helpstring("method GetSettingValue")] VARIANT_BOOL GetSettingValue(BSTR settingName, BSTR* settingValue);
As you can see, you have to pass in an out param for settingValue. The server fills this in for you. And this is what I couldn't get to work in Powershell.
Anyone know whether or not OLE from python will allow passing in out params? Do you think this will work?
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