SharpCap Forums

Posted: **Mon Aug 23, 2021 2:50 am**

Hi,

I'm trying to use Metaguide from within Sharpcap using a series of small scripts which will be called from inside the SC sequencer using the "Run python script" command. The commands etc are from Metaguide documentation and developer. Sample is below:

===============
import win32api
import win32con
import win32com.client
import sys

idguide = win32api.RegisterWindowMessage("MG_RemoteGuide")
win32api.PostMessage(win32con.HWND_BROADCAST, idguide, 0, 0)
sys.exit("Started guiding")
=======================

The script I've written works fine in Python 3.9.6 shell/IDE, but when running from SC it gives the error "no module named win32api".

Right now I've worked around by converting the scripts into exe and then calling from the sharpcap sequencer, but its painful.

Presumably the SC python lib doesn't include pywin32? If so, can it be included?

Thanks

Posted: **Mon Aug 23, 2021 1:49 pm**

Hi,

I think that the Win32api python library is likely to include C/C++ code, which means it cannot be loaded into the IronPython environment used inside SharpCap. For instance you can see here that there is C++ code - https://github.com/mhammond/pywin32/tre ... /win32/src

You need to use an alternative approach to call windows APIs from IronPython - essentially search for how to call them from the C# language and then base your approach on that. In a lot of cases you will need to use a 'Pinvoke' technique to define the functions to be called and where they can be found. Below is an example from the IronPyton unit test framework that shows how to do this for two simple functions.

cheers,

Robin

Code: Select all

    class NativeMethods(object):
        # Note that you could also the "ctypes" modules instead of pinvoke declarations
        __metaclass__ = clrtype.ClrClass

        from System.Runtime.InteropServices import DllImportAttribute, PreserveSigAttribute
        DllImport = clrtype.attribute(DllImportAttribute)
        PreserveSig = clrtype.attribute(PreserveSigAttribute)

        @staticmethod
        @DllImport("user32.dll")
        @PreserveSig()
        @clrtype.accepts(System.Char)
        @clrtype.returns(System.Boolean)
        def IsCharAlpha(c): raise RuntimeError("this should not get called")

        @staticmethod
        @DllImport("user32.dll")
        @PreserveSig()
        @clrtype.accepts(System.IntPtr, System.String, System.String, System.UInt32)
        @clrtype.returns(System.Int32)
        def MessageBox(hwnd, text, caption, type): raise RuntimeError("this should not get called")

Posted: **Mon Aug 23, 2021 2:58 pm**

Thanks.

I think I'll just stick to making exes for now

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Win32api in Sharpcap python lib

Win32api in Sharpcap python lib

Re: Win32api in Sharpcap python lib

Re: Win32api in Sharpcap python lib