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How to create and use objects from the Inventor COM API in python (pywin32)

I'm attempting to use Autodesk Inventor's COM API to create a python script that will generate PDFs of a selection on Inventor Drawings, these PDFs will then be processed in particular ways that aren't important to my question. I'm using pywin32 to access the COM API, but I'm not particularly familiar with how COM APIs are used, and the pywin32 module.
This is the extent of the documentation for Inventor's API that I have been able to find (diagram of API Object Model Reference Document), and I have not been able to find documentation for the individual objects listed. As such, I'm basing my understanding of the use of these objects on what I can find from examples online (all in VB or iLogic - Inventor's own simple built-in language).
A big issue I'm coming up against is in creating the objects I'd like to use. Simplified example below:
from win32com.client import *
# user chooses file paths for open and save here...
drawing_filepath = ""
# Open Inventor application, and set visible (so I can tell it's opened for now)
app = Dispatch('Inventor.Application')
app.Visible = True
# Open the file to be saved as a pdf (returns a Document object)
app.Documents.Open(drawing_filepath)
# Cast the opened Document object to a DrawingDocument object (it is guaranteed to be a drawing)
drawing = CastTo(app.ActiveDocument, "DrawingDocument")
# Create and setup a print manager (so can use "Adobe PDF" printer to convert the drawings to PDF)
print_manager = ??? # How can I create this object
# I've tried:
# print_manager = Dispatch("Inventor.Application.Documents.DrawingDocument.DrawingPrintManager") #"Invalid class string"
# print_manager = drawing.DrawingPrintManager() #"object has no attribute 'DrawingPrintManger'
# print_manager = drawing.DrawingPrintManager # same as above
# print_manager = drawing.PrintManger # worked in the end
print_manager.Printer = "Adobe PDF"
print_manager.NumberOfCopies = 1
print_manager.ScaleMode = print_manager.PrintScaleModeEnum.kPrintFullScale
print_manager.PaperSize = print_manager.PrintSizeEnum.kPaperSizeA3
# Print PDF
print_manager.SubmitPrint()
So I can't figure out how to create a DrawingPrintManager to use! You can see I've avoided this issue when creating my DrawingDocument object, as I just happened to know that there is an ActiveDocument attribute that I can get from the application itself.
I also:
don't know what the full list of attributes and methods for DrawingPrintManager are, so I don't know how to set a save location
don't know for sure that the two Enums I'm trying to use are actually defined within DrawingPrintManager, but I can figure that out once I actually have a DrawingPrintManager to work with
If anyone with more experience in using COM APIs or pywin32 can help me out, I'd be really appreciative. And the same if anyone can point me towards any actual documentation of Inventor's API Objects, which would make things a lot easier.
Thanks
Edit: After posting I've almost immediately found that I can get a PrintManager (can't tell if a PrintManager or DrawingPrintManager) by accessing drawing.PrintManager rather than drawing.DrawingPrintManager.
This is a workaround however as it doesn't answer my question of how to create objects within pywin32.
My problem moving forward is finding where I can access the PrintScaleModeEnum and PrintSizeEnum objects, and finding how to set the save location of the printed PDF (which I think will be a a separate question, as it's probably unrelated to the COM API).

I'm not familiar with python and pywin32, but I try to answer your questions.
Documentation of Inventor API is available in local installation "C:\Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\Inventor 2020\Local Help" or online https://help.autodesk.com/view/INVNTOR/2020/ENU/
Generaly you are not able to create new instances of Inventor API objects. You must obtain them as a result of appropriate method or property value.
For example:
You CAN'T do this
doc = new Inventor.Document()
You MUST do this
doc = app.Documents.Add(...)
With print manager is this
print_manager = drawing.PrintManger
# this returns object of type Inventor.DrawingPrintManager
# when drawing is of type Inventor.DrawingDocument
See this for more details

Can you use mock_open to simulate serial connections?

Morning folks,
I'm trying to get a few unit tests going in Python to confirm my code is working, but I'm having a real hard time getting a Mock anything to fit into my test cases. I'm new to Python unit testing, so this has been a trying week thus far.
The summary of the program is I'm attempting to do serial control of a commercial monitor I got my hands on and I thought I'd use it as a chance to finally use Python for something rather than just falling back on one of the other languages I know. I've got pyserial going, but before I start shoving a ton of commands out to the TV I'd like to learn the unittest part so I can write for my expected outputs and inputs.
I've tried using a library called dummyserial, but it didn't seem to be recognising the output I was sending. I thought I'd give mock_open a try as I've seen it works like a standard IO as well, but it just isn't picking up on the calls either. Samples of the code involved:
def testSendCmd(self):
powerCheck = '{0}{1:>4}\r'.format(SharpCodes['POWER'], SharpCodes['CHECK']).encode('utf-8')
read_text = 'Stuff\r'
mo = mock_open(read_data=read_text)
mo.in_waiting = len(read_text)
with patch('__main__.open', mo):
with open('./serial', 'a+b') as com:
tv = SharpTV(com=com, TVID=999, tvInput = 'DVI')
tv.sendCmd(SharpCodes['POWER'], SharpCodes['CHECK'])
com.write(b'some junk')
print(mo.mock_calls)
mo().write.assert_called_with('{0}{1:>4}\r'.format(SharpCodes['POWER'], SharpCodes['CHECK']).encode('utf-8'))
And in the SharpTV class, the function in question:
def sendCmd(self, type, msg):
sent = self.com.write('{0}{1:>4}\r'.format(type,msg).encode('utf-8'))
print('{0}{1:>4}\r'.format(type,msg).encode('utf-8'))
Obviously, I'm attempting to control a Sharp TV. I know the commands are correct, that isn't the issue. The issue is just the testing. According to documentation on the mock_open page, calling mo.mock_calls should return some data that a call was made, but I'm getting just an empty set of []'s even in spite of the blatantly wrong com.write(b'some junk'), and mo().write.assert_called_with(...) is returning with an assert error because it isn't detecting the write from within sendCmd. What's really bothering me is I can do the examples from the mock_open section in interactive mode and it works as expected.
I'm missing something, I just don't know what. I'd like help getting either dummyserial working, or mock_open.

To answer one part of my question, I figured out the functionality of dummyserial. The following works now:
def testSendCmd(self):
powerCheck = '{0}{1:>4}\r'.format(SharpCodes['POWER'], SharpCodes['CHECK'])
com = dummyserial.Serial(
port='COM1',
baudrate=9600,
ds_responses={powerCheck : powerCheck}
)
tv = SharpTV(com=com, TVID=999, tvInput = 'DVI')
tv.sendCmd(SharpCodes['POWER'], SharpCodes['CHECK'])
self.assertEqual(tv.recv(), powerCheck)
Previously I was encoding the dictionary values as utf-8. The dummyserial library decodes whatever you write(...) to it so it's a straight string vs. string comparison. It also encodes whatever you're read()ing as latin1 on the way back out.

Sending a message in Messages with PyObjC and ScriptingBridge in Python

this is probably a simple question but I am a bit confused as I haven't found many examples online.
I've been able to send messages through Messages in Mac OS using Javascript (Using this tutorial) but I can't figure out how to do it using Python and PyObjC.
Using Javascript I'd do something like this:
var messages = Application('Messages');
var buddy = messages.services["E:%REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_IMESSAGE_EMAIL%"].buddies["%REPLACE_WITH_BUDDYS_EMAIL%"];
messages.send("JavaScript sent this message!", {to: buddy});
I can't figure out how to set the buddy variable to the relevant object with Python. The following works fine to access Messages
from Foundation import *
from ScriptingBridge import *
Messages = SBApplication.applicationWithBundleIdentifier_("com.apple.iChat")
Then in Python I'm able do something like this.
In [182]: s = Messages.services()
In [183]: [x.name() for x in s]
Out[183]: ['E:foo#icloud.com', 'Bonjour', 'SMS']
But I'm not sure how to make the leap from this to actually getting it to send a message using Messages.send_to_ after I create the Messages object.
Your help would be greatly appreciated, thank you very much!

You can do it like this:
from ScriptingBridge import SBApplication
Messages = SBApplication.applicationWithBundleIdentifier_("com.apple.iChat")
# get the first budddy who's name is Chris Cummings
buddy_to_message = [b for b in Messages.buddies() if b.fullName() == "Chris Cummings"][0]
# send text to buddy
Messages.send_to_("sending this from python test", buddy_to_message)
Something I've found really useful when trying to use the largely undocumented ScriptingBridge module from pyobjc is to search for methods that are available on the class that I'm trying to get access to in the repl
>>>[method for method in dir(Messages) if "bud" in method.lower()]
["buddies", "buddies"] # found the buddies method
>>>[method for method in dir(Meessages.buddies()[0]) if "name" in method.lower()]
[ ... 'accessibilityParameterizedAttributeNames', 'className',
'elementWithCode_named_', 'entityName', 'firstName', 'fullName',
'fullName', 'lastName', 'name', 'name', 'scriptAccountLegacyName',
'valueWithName_inPropertyWithKey_']
# ... this one had a bunch of other junk but hopefully this illustrates the idea
An additional note on dir:
Of course dir() can take arguments as well and you can get a list of methods that are defined on the object that match a string with dir('name') but the ObjectiveC classnames are almost never capitalized as I'd expect, so I think it's useful to search for them all lowercase.

Using libsecret I can't get to the label of an unlocked item

I'm working on a little program that uses libsecret. This program should be able to create a Secret.Service...
from gi.repository import Secret
service = Secret.Service.get_sync(Secret.ServiceFlags.LOAD_COLLECTIONS)
... get a specific Collection from that Service...
# 2 is the index of a custom collection I created, not the default one.
collection = service.get_collections()[2]
... and then list all the Items inside that Collection, this by just printing their labels.
# I'm just printing a single label here for testing, I'd need all of course.
print(collection.get_items()[0].get_label())
An important detail is that the Collecction may initially be locked, and so I need to include code that checks for that possibility, and tries to unlock the Collection.
# The unlock method returns a tuple (number_of_objs_unlocked, [list_of_objs])
collection = service.unlock_sync([collection])[1][0]
This is important because the code I currently have can do all I need when the Collection is initially unlocked. However if the Collection is initially locked, even after I unlock it, I can't get the labels from the Items inside. What I can do is disconnect() the Service, recreate the Service again, get the now unlocked Collection, and this way I am able to read the label on each Item. Another interesting detail is that, after the labels are read once, I no longer required the Service reconnection to access them. This seems quite inelegant, so I started looking for a different solution.
I realized that the Collection inherited from Gio.DBusProxy and this class caches the data from the object it accesses. So I'm assuming that is the problem for me, I'm not updating the cache. This is strange though because the documentation states that Gio.DBusProxy should be able to detect changes on the original object, but that's not happening.
Now I don't know how to update the cache on that class. I've taken a look at some seahorse(another application that uses libsecret) vala code, which I wasn't able to completely decipher, I can't code vala, but that mentioned the Object.emit() method, I'm still not sure how I could use that method to achieve my goal. From the documentation(https://lazka.github.io/pgi-docs/Secret-1/#) I found another promising method, Object.notify(), which seems to be able to send notifications of changes that would enable cache updates, but I also haven't been able to properly use it yet.
I also posted on the gnome-keyring mailing list about this...
https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-keyring-list/2015-November/msg00000.html
... with no answer so far, and found a bugzilla report on gnome.org that mentions this issue...
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=747359
... with no solution so far(7 months) either.
So if someone could shine some light on this problem that would be great. Otherwise some inelegant code will unfortunately find it's way into my little program.
Edit-0:
Here is some code to replicate the issue in Python3.
This snippet creates a collection 'test_col', with one item 'test_item', and locks the collection. Note libsecret will prompt you for the password you want for this new collection:
#!/usr/bin/env python3
from gi import require_version
require_version('Secret', '1')
from gi.repository import Secret
# Create schema
args = ['com.idlecore.test.schema']
args += [Secret.SchemaFlags.NONE]
args += [{'service': Secret.SchemaAttributeType.STRING,
'username': Secret.SchemaAttributeType.STRING}]
schema = Secret.Schema.new(*args)
# Create 'test_col' collection
flags = Secret.CollectionCreateFlags.COLLECTION_CREATE_NONE
collection = Secret.Collection.create_sync(None, 'test_col', None, flags, None)
# Create item 'test_item' inside collection 'test_col'
attributes = {'service': 'stackoverflow', 'username': 'xor'}
password = 'password123'
value = Secret.Value(password, len(password), 'text/plain')
flags = Secret.ItemCreateFlags.NONE
Secret.Item.create_sync(collection, schema, attributes,
'test_item', value, flags, None)
# Lock collection
service = collection.get_service()
service.lock_sync([collection])
Then we need to restart the gnome-keyring-daemon, you can just logout and back in or use the command line:
gnome-keyrin-daemon --replace
This will setup your keyring so we can try opening a collection that is initially locked. We can do that with this code snippet. Note that you will be prompted once again for the password you set previously:
#!/usr/bin/env python3
from gi import require_version
require_version('Secret', '1')
from gi.repository import Secret
# Get the service
service = Secret.Service.get_sync(Secret.ServiceFlags.LOAD_COLLECTIONS)
# Find the correct collection
for c in service.get_collections():
if c.get_label() == 'test_col':
collection = c
break
# Unlock the collection and show the item label, note that it's empty.
collection = service.unlock_sync([collection])[1][0]
print('Item Label:', collection.get_items()[0].get_label())
# Do the same thing again, and it works.
# It's necessary to disconnect the service to clear the cache,
# Otherwise we keep getting the same empty label.
service.disconnect()
# Get the service
service = Secret.Service.get_sync(Secret.ServiceFlags.LOAD_COLLECTIONS)
# Find the correct collection
for c in service.get_collections():
if c.get_label() == 'test_col':
collection = c
break
# No need to unlock again, just show the item label
print('Item Label:', collection.get_items()[0].get_label())
This code attempts to read the item label twice. One the normal way, which fails, you should see an empty string, and then using a workaround, that disconnects the service and reconnects again.

I came across this question while trying to update a script I use to retrieve passwords from my desktop on my laptop, and vice versa.
The clue was in the documentation for Secret.ServiceFlags—there are two:
OPEN_SESSION = 2
establish a session for transfer of secrets while initializing the Secret.Service
LOAD_COLLECTIONS = 4
load collections while initializing the Secret.Service
I think for a Service that both loads collections and allows transfer of secrets (including item labels) from those collections, we need to use both flags.
The following code (similar to your mailing list post, but without a temporary collection set up for debugging) seems to work. It gives me the label of an item:
from gi.repository import Secret
service = Secret.Service.get_sync(Secret.ServiceFlags.OPEN_SESSION |
Secret.ServiceFlags.LOAD_COLLECTIONS)
collections = service.get_collections()
unlocked_collection = service.unlock_sync([collections[0]], None)[1][0]
unlocked_collection.get_items()[0].get_label()

I have been doing this
print(collection.get_locked())
if collection.get_locked():
service.unlock_sync(collection)
Don't know if it is going to work though because I have never hit a case where I have something that is locked. If you have a piece of sample code where I can create a locked instance of a collection then maybe I can help

Python script to hide ploneformgen form after user has filled it out. (For Plone-4.3.2-64.)

After a user has filled out a (ploneformgen) form , I would like to use a custom script adapter to call a python script to change the user’s local role so that they can’t see the form anymore. In other words, I want to prevent the user from filling out (or viewing) the form twice.
I figured that one way to do this is to call the script permission_changer.py which is located in the form folder. The code I have in that script is this:
container.manage_delLocalRoles((‘bob',))
container.reindexObjectSecurity()
Where ‘bob’ is just an example user, who has only the global role FormFiller (which I created under the Security tab of the ZMI) and the local role “Reader” for the form folder.
When I fill out the form (which has a "private" state) as a system admin, the script is called successfully and bob loses his “Reader” local role (which is all he had to begin with), and he can’t see the form anymore. However, when bob fills out the form, a “You do not have sufficient privileges to view this page.” error is displayed, and bob’s local role is not removed. I can’t work out why –– and I’ve tried many different things:
I’ve changed the proxy for the permission_changer.py by clicking on “Proxy” tab for the script in ZMI. I changed it to “Manager”, "System Administrator”, and “Owner”, but that didn’t solve the problem (nor did any combination of those).
I tried changing the proxy by creating a file permission_changer.py.metdadata in the form folder and including this:
[default]
proxy = Manager
but that didn’t work either.
Strangely, when I change bob’s global role to Manager, or System Administrator, or even Viewer, or Editor, the problem goes away and the script runs just fine (I can also change the script so that it adds and removes arbitrary other local roles). (These options are not solutions for me because bob will still be able to see the form because of his global role.)
Also, I tried giving the role FormFiller role every possible permission under the Security tab, but didn’t work.
So, I’m guessing that the problem has to do with the proxy settings, but I can’t work out what I’m doing wrong. I've searched around a lot, and I can't find anyone discussing a similar problem.
Any help would be much appreciated!

Ugly ugly way to handle this may be to access to the data saver field's download method and parse its output to find data to check.
For example, if username is the second pfg field added into form, a custom script adapter that prevents furthers fillings by a user may be
alreadyInDB = False
savedData = ploneformgen.savefield.getSavedFormInputForEdit()
username = request.AUTHENTICATED_USER.getId()
usersInDB = [x.split(',')[1] for x in savedData.split('\r\n') if len(x)>0]
if username in usersInDB:
alreadyInDB = True
if alreadyInDB:
return {'username': 'No way man!'}

I worked out what was going on, but I'm not sure how to describe it precisely. Basically, I found that by calling the script as a Custom Success Action (form > edit > overrides), I don't get the problem. So I think that by calling the script as custom script adapter I was trying to change the user's permission while they were still engaged with the form and that is impossible, even with the Manager proxy role.
I hope that helps. And if anyone has a more precise description of the problem, that would be appreciated.

For granting and revoking the permissions to submit a form, you could:
Create a group (e.g. with the ID "Submitters") and assign the chosen users to it
Make sure the form-folder has the state 'private' and grant View-permissions via the sharing-tab of the form-folder to the group
Add a content-item of type 'Page' in the form-folder's parent (e.g. with the ID 'submitted') and set its state to 'public'
Add a content-item of type 'Custom Script Adapter', select 'Manager' in the field 'Proxy role', and insert the lines below into the field 'Script body':
# Remove current user of group and redirect to [FORM_PARENT_URL]/landing_page_id'.
# If user is not in group, fail silently and continue.
# Fail if landing_page_id does not exist in form-folder, or one of its parents.
#
# Assumes a page with the ID as declared in `landing_page_id` lives in the
# form-folder's parent (or one of its grand-parents, first found wins),
# and holds the state 'public', so users can view it regardless of their
# group-memberships.
#
# Ment to be used after submission of a PloneFormGen-form with private-state and
# a locally assigned Reader-role for the group, so only group-members can view and
# submit the form.
from Products.CMFCore.utils import getToolByName
group_id = 'Submitters' # change as needed
landing_page_id = 'submitted' # change as needed
portal_groups = getToolByName(ploneformgen, 'portal_groups')
user_id = ploneformgen.memberId()
parent_url = '/'.join(ploneformgen.absolute_url().split('/')[:-1])
redirect_to_url = parent_url + '/' + landing_page_id
# Revoke current user's group-membership:
portal_groups.removePrincipalFromGroup(user_id, group_id)
# Let user land in userland:
request.response.redirect(redirect_to_url)
Tested with Plone-4.3.11 and Products.PloneFormGen-1.7.25