Is there a way to set a python script as program to open a type of file? - python-3.x

The problem:
I'm currently working on a programming language, which uses a simple python interpreter. The interpreter loops over every line with a bunch of if-statements.
The file extension I'd like to use is .ccp.
So far my progress. I want the computer to recognise .ccp files as a CalcScript file, and open it with the script.
I don't want to have a default filename which I can open using text = open("filename.idk","r").read(), I want to open a file like a 'normal' file. You double-click on the file in explorer, and it opens it in the python script. Regardless of the filename.
What I've tried:
Tinkering with the default applications in settings
Tinkering in regedit
Converting my .py file to .exe
Scouering the internet
My code:
https://github.com/AnonymousPixel/CalcScript
Sorry for bad English if there was any.

Summarizing my comments on the question, you can follow the steps below to achieve what you are asking:
Use sys.argv to access the command line arguments. For example the following script will just print all the arguments given to it:
import sys
print("Given arguments: ", str(sys.argv))
Let's name it myprogram.py.
You can then call it (I think) with: python myprogram.py arg1 arg2 arg3 and it will run and print the command line arguments.
Notice that the first argument (sys.argv[0]) is the script's path. So arg1 would be sys.argv[1], arg2 would be sys.argv[2] and so on.
I am saying to use sys.argv because as far as I remember double clicking a file with an extension which has a default opening program, will open that program with the file path as an argument.
Next step is to package your python script to an executable. This has been already asked and answered for example here (which is a duplicate, where you can follow the question which came before it to see even more examples). I used PyInstaller to test it (and on Windows OS). My command was like:
pyinstaller myprogram.py
... and it generated some folders and files. Specifically the folder dist\myprogram contained the executable along with its dependencies. You can then run your program by double clicking on it in the dist\myprogram folder. It should pop a CLI window, printing the arguments (ie only the program's path, since we called it without any other) and immediately exit. Or you can open a CLI window and run it with a command like:
myprogram argument1 argument2 argumentN
(supposing your current working directory is dist\myprogram) and it will indeed print the arguments.
Finally you have to set it up as the program which by default opens files with .ccp extension. On Windows 10, you can do this via:
Open up File Explorer.
Find a file with .ccp extension (or create one).
Right click on it.
Click on Properties on the dialog that pops up.
Go to General tab (if you are not already there) on the dialog that pops up.
On the Open with: section there is a button which reads Change. Click it.
Select More apps at the bottom of the dialog.
Make sure you have the Always use this app to open .ccp files checkbox selected.
Scroll to the bottom of the dialog and click on the blue text which prompts for manually selecting the default app, which in turn pops up a file chooser. I am not running on English language so it is a bit difficult to translate it exactly (I followed some online pages to actually see the default translation for the previous steps).
Select your executable as the default.
Confirm your choices by selecting Ok, Apply or anything else required.
Then you will also be able I think to change this extention later via:
Settings --> Apps --> Default Apps --> Choose default apps by file type.
Some references:
PyInstaller website and introductory manual.
Official page for step 3.
Unofficial page for step 3, a lot more detailed.

Related

Opening a random file only knowing the extension name anywhere on the computer in python [duplicate]

I want to do the following:
Save numeric data in a CSV-like formatting, with a ".foo" extension;
Associate the ".foo" file extension with some python script, which in turns opens the .foo file, reads its content, and plots something with a plotting library (matplotlib most probably).
The use-case would be: double-click the file, and its respective plot pops up right away.
I wonder how I should write a python script in order to do that.
Besides, the windows "open with" dialog only allows me to choose executables (*.exe). If I choose "fooOpener.py", it doesn't work.
This isn't really a programming question, but what you need to do is to figure out how to get the Python executable into the registry key that opens your data file.
For example, I created a little Python script called opener.py that looks like this:
import sys
print(sys.argv)
input()
Then I created a testfile.foo and used the "change" button in that file's property dialog to choose opener.py. (You can do this if you click Browse and change the Open With dialog's file filter to "All Files".)
Of course this didn't work (as you noticed). So I opened regedit and searched for opener.py and found it at the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Applications\opener.py\shell\open\command
The default value of this key was "C:\opener.py" %1. I changed it to python "C:\opener.py" %1. It worked!
Long story short, to do this properly you need to custom-edit the registry. Actually setting up the file association is more complex than just editing that one key (you have to also indicate that .foo is associated with opener.py).
An alternative approach would be to turn your Python script into a standalone executable using one of the several tools available for that purpose, or write a small executable in C that launches the script.
press the windows key
type cmd
right click the result and choose "run as administrator"
assoc .foo=foofile
ftype foofile="C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\PYTHON~1\python.exe" "C:\<whatever>\fooOpener.py" "%1" %*
Use pythonw.exe if it's a .pyw file (to prevent a cmd window from spawning).
If you want to use an existing file type, you can find its alias by not assigning anything. For example, assoc .txt returns .txt=txtfile.
instead of editing registry, you can create batch file
opener.cmd
with content
python "C:\<whatever>\fooOpener.py" %1
and associate extension with this file.
It works!

Automate "Right-click + Print" on .xlsx files

I need to automate the act of printing .xlsx file.
I have already seen some answers to this task saying that it is possible by creating a VBA script, as well as some examples. That is not about what my question revolves around.
Thought, I know that it is also possible to right-click on a .xlsx file and click "Print", which does the exact task that I want. It opens Excel, prints the file to the default printer, then closes Excel. (Windows 7, by the way)
So I'm thinking that the work has already been done here.
What process is launched when clicking this "Print" option? Can it be launched via command line, or "clicked" by a python script or something? And if not, why? How can something so easy to click be impossible to automate? I assume a process of some sort must be launched in some way.
Found it!
This task can be easily launched using python.
import os
os.startfile('C:/path/to/the/file.xlsx','print')
This code will launch the same print task. From there, it is pretty trivial for a python developer to automate the task in his scripts.
However, if you do not know much about Python and do not want to learn it now, an easy (or lazy?) way to add it in any automation script would be to save the two lines of code above in a whatever.py file, and launch it via command line (with Python installed, of course).
The context menu print command for Office documents utilizes Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) and does not directly run a command that can be replicated from the command line.
You can view the content of the commands in the registry. Browse to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.xlsx and look at the (Default) data column. On my machine, "Excel.Sheet.12" is the type of a .xslx file. Then browse to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\ to see the commands registered for that file type. On my machine, the Print (Default) is "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16\EXCEL.EXE" /dde and the "command" is zn=BV5!!!!4!!!!MKKSkEXCELFiles>]-z5hw$l[8QeZZR4_X=$ /dde, none of which is directly useful or accessible for running from a command line.
It will require another program to allow you to access the interface, but there are programs that allow you to make use of DDE from the command line. I recommend Freddy Vulto's Class Exec. More information and a few other similar utilities can be found here.

I've downloaded an .exe file but it closes quickly as it opens

I am trying to open a downloaded .exe file but it closes as soon as it opens. Is there any possible way so that I can open it for a longer duration to read the content.
It's probably a console application rather than a GUI application. Use the command prompt to run the .exe.
Do the following...
Hold down your Windows key on your keyboard and then tap "R".
This will bring up the Run dialog. Type in "cmd" (without the quotes). Hit enter.
(this will work in all Windows versions - browsing the start menu/screen differs in each version)
If you saved the file to c:\downloads and it's called myFile.exe, type
C:
cd C:\Downloads
myFile.exe
Some of the steps are a bit redundant - if you know what you're doing in the command prompt then skip as needed (but then you probably wouldn't be posting this question). This will work even if you saved the file to D:\downloads.
Another example - if you saved the file to D:\folderA\Folder with a space\ and the file is called "my file with a space.exe" then type
D:
cd "D:\folderA\Folder with a space"
"my file with a space.exe"
If there is an issue (eg it's a 64-bit executable and you're on 32-bit Windows) then you may get a better error message at the command line.
There are so many reasons why the executable does not run. Here are some ways to check what is going wrong:
Is it your .exe? Do you known the "normal" behavior?
When you download it manually, it the result the same?
Do you download the .exe manually or via your application?
Do you see any problem in your Windows Event Viewer?
Is it the same result if you try to download the .exe via different browsers (IE, FF, ...)?
More details are welcome!
The nuget.exe file is not a console GUI application but rather a console package. Once you've downloaded it, you'll want to place it in a folder outside your Downloads folder. For example, C:\NuGet\nuget.exe - then set it as a PATH variable so that it's executable from anywhere.

How to set the working directory of WinGHCi

I just installed WinGHCi. When I try to load an .hs file with Ctrl+L, it opens the file browser in C:\Program Files (x86)\Haskell Platform\2012.2.0.0\winghci which is where I installed this. I don't want it to go there by default, I keep my code files in a different directory on a different drive and I don't want to have to navigate to D:\MyPath\Haskell every time I load a file.
I tried to set the "Start in" field of the shortcut I use to launch WinGHCi but it changed nothing.
How can I make WinGHCi look in my own directory by default?
It opens in the last directory you opened a .hs or .lhs from.
Try opening something from the folder you want, exit, restart.
Did it restart where you were?
Try working like that for a while, and if you like it (I do) then you're fine.
If you really do want to go to the same place every time, perhaps there's a way.
I can't find any setting to control this, but the information is stored in the registy.
Mine is at
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Haskell\WinGHCi 1.0.6]
"WorkingDir"="D:\\Files\\Andrew\\prog\\haskell"
You can save your version of that as resetghci.reg:
To make your own, open regedit and first try the same location. If not, search for WinGHCi.
You can export that subtree but you get the whole lot including recent expressions etc, which I don't think you should reset. Save that as ghcioriginal.reg just in case. Edit away all the lines except WorkingDir and save as resetghci.reg
When you double-click it it will ask you if you're sure you want to add that info to the registry. Yes you are.
Untested:
What follows works on older versions, but Microsoft seem to be going off .pif files and the start command, and I'm not able to test this in Windows 7.
Make a text file called ghci.bat in the same folder as the .reg you made. In it put
#echo off
regedit resetghci.reg
start WinGHCi
You might need to specify the full path to WinGHCi.
The start command is the windows equivalent of making a background process from a shell prompt, so this should terminate immediately.
Make a shortcut to ghci.bat (it will be called ghci.pif) and set it to open minimised and put a nice lambda icon on it (nick it from the winghci executable).
Pop that on your desktop, start menu or shortcut bar, and when you use it, you'll be popped back to your standard location.

Is it possible to call an application selection window (Right click->Open With->Other) from the linux console?

On Gnome/KDE you can select in which application you want to open file (Right click on file -> Open With -> Other). Is it possible open file that way, but from console?
For example: you print " file.ext" and instead of opening in concrete application, there are that application selection window forced and then users chooses - starts selected program.
I tried to figure out that myself, but not found anything like that.
"edit file.ext" doesn't fits my needs, because it starts preferred application and you cannot choose which. And also on my desktop it says:
"Error: no "edit" mailcap rules found for type "image/jpeg"
So, am I able to forse that "open with" window from console? If yes, can you say how?
Both on windows and mac you can do such things.
//edit at 2009-02-10 14:17
Thank you very much for answers. Command will be used in program code, so unfortunately probably I would not be able to make some extra bash scripts.
For GNOME:
gnome-open <file>
For KDE:
kfmclient exec <file>
These commands should open up the <file> in the preferred application in GNOME or KDE respectively, although I don't have an installation of either to test on.
Take a look at man run-mailcap, you can change or add selected applications for each mimetype modifying the /etc/mailcap, ~/.mailcap files and some others.
Traditionally, on Unix systens (and therefore Linux, too), you start applications from the console (and not from a UI). The command line (or console) expects you to enter the name of the application and then the filename (plus some options).
This allows to use applications (or commands) in shell scripts.
On Windows, there is no real console (the DOS box is just a reminiscence of the dark ages of MS DOS). So the MS developers came up with the idea to have the OS treat anything as a command. If it's not a real command or application, the OS will determine the file type (by extension on Windows and by some header information on Mac). For each file type, there will be an associated application in a look up table.
This is why on Windows, it appears that you can enter the name of a file on the console and you will get the application to edit that file.
If you want a quick way to fix this in the Unix console, create a script called "open" or "o" and use the file command with the option --mime to identify the file type. You can then use a case statement to launch your favorite editor.
As for the error about "mailcap rules": There is a file called "mailcap" on Unix where you can define abstract "commands" (open, edit, view, print) for file types. See the mailcap man page.

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