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Last imported file overwrites statements from previous files. Better ways of specifying imported variables?

Hey stackoverflow community,
i’m new to this forum and to python developing in general and have a problem with Alexa/ Python overriding the similar named variable from different files.
In my language learning skill I want Alexa to specifically link a “start specific practice” intent from the user to a specific practice file and from this file to import an intro, keyword and answer to give back to the user.
My problem with the importing, is that Python takes the last imported file and overrides the statements of the previous files.
I know I could probably change the variable names according to the practices but then wouldn't I have have to create a lot of individual handler functions which link the user intent to a specific file/function and basically look and act all the same?
Is there a better way more efficient of doing the specifying of those variables when importing or inside the functions?
import files and variables
from übung_1 import intro_1, keywords_1, real_1
from übung_2 import intro_1, keywords_1, real_1
working with the variables
def get_practice_response(practice_number):
print("get_practice_response")
session_attributes = {}
card_title = "Übung"
number = randint(0, len(keywords_1))
print(intro_1 + keywords_1[number])
speech_output = intro_1 + keywords_1[number]
session_attributes["answer"] = real_1[number]
session_attributes["practice_number"] = practice_number
session_attributes["keyword"] = keywords_1[number]
reprompt_text = "test"
should_end_session = False
return build_response(session_attributes, build_speechlet_response(
card_title, speech_output, reprompt_text, should_end_session))
I expected giving out the content of the specifically asked file and not variable content from the most recent files.
Sadly I haven't found a solution for this specific problem and hope someone could help me pointing me in the right direction.
Thank you very much in advance.

Might be easiest to import the modules like so:
import übung_1
import übung_2
The refer to the contents as übung_1.intro_1, übung_2.intro_1, übung_1.keywords_1 and so on.

As you point out, these two lines
from übung_1 import intro_1, keywords_1, real_1
from übung_2 import intro_1, keywords_1, real_1
don't work the way you want because the second import overrides the first. This has to happen because you can't have two different variables in the same namespace called intro_1.
You can get around this by doing
import übung_1
import übung_2
and then in your code you explicitly state the namespace you want:
print(übung_1.intro_1 + übung_1.keywords_1[number])

How to create a class in Python to work with an external API (SAP2000)

I´m quite new in programming and even more when it comes to Object Oriented programming. I’m trying to connect through Python to an external software (SAP2000, an structural engineering software). This program comes with an API to connect and there is an example in the help (http://docs.csiamerica.com/help-files/common-api(from-sap-and-csibridge)/Example_Code/Example_7_(Python).htm).
This works pretty well but I would like to divide the code so that I can create one function for opening the program, several functions to work with it and another one to close. This would provide me flexibility to make different calculations as desired and close it afterwards.
Here is the code I have so far where enableloadcases() is a function that operates once the instance is created.
import os
import sys
import comtypes.client
import pandas as pd
def openSAP2000(path,filename):
ProgramPath = "C:\Program Files (x86)\Computers and Structures\SAP2000 20\SAP2000.exe"
APIPath = path
ModelPath = APIPath + os.sep + filename
mySapObject = comtypes.client.GetActiveObject("CSI.SAP2000.API.SapObject")
#start SAP2000 application
mySapObject.ApplicationStart()
#create SapModel object
SapModel = mySapObject.SapModel
#initialize model
SapModel.InitializeNewModel()
ret = SapModel.File.OpenFile(ModelPath)
#run model (this will create the analysis model)
ret = SapModel.Analyze.RunAnalysis()
def closeSAP2000():
#ret = mySapObject.ApplicationExit(False)
SapModel = None
mySapObject = None
def enableloadcases(case_id):
'''
The function activates LoadCases for output
'''
ret = SapModel.Results.Setup.SetCaseSelectedForOutput(case_id)
From another module, I call the function openSAP2000() and it works fine but when I call the function enableloadcases() an error says AttributeError: type object ‘SapModel’ has no attribute ‘Results’.
I believe this must be done by creating a class and after calling the functions inside but I honestly don´t know how to do it.
Could you please help me?
Thank you very much.

Thank you very much for the help. I managed to solve the problem. It was as simple and stupid as marking SapModel variable as global.
Now it works fine.
Thank you anyway.

Get full computer name from a network drive letter in python

I am using python to populate a table with the file pathways of a number of stored files. However the pathway needs to have the full network drive computer name not just the drive letter, ie
//ComputerName/folder/subfolder/file
not
P:/folder/subfolder/file
I have investigated using the win32api, win32file, and os.path modules but nothing is looking like its able to do it. I need something like win32api.GetComputerName() but with the ability to drop in a known drive letter as an argument and it return the computer name that is mapped to the letter.
So is there anyway in python to look up a drive letter and get back the computer name?

Network drives are mapped using the Windows Networking API that's exported by mpr.dll (multiple provider router). You can create a network drive via WNetAddConnection2. To get the remote path that's associated with a local device, call WNetGetConnection. You can do this using ctypes as follows:
import ctypes
from ctypes import wintypes
mpr = ctypes.WinDLL('mpr')
ERROR_SUCCESS = 0x0000
ERROR_MORE_DATA = 0x00EA
wintypes.LPDWORD = ctypes.POINTER(wintypes.DWORD)
mpr.WNetGetConnectionW.restype = wintypes.DWORD
mpr.WNetGetConnectionW.argtypes = (wintypes.LPCWSTR,
wintypes.LPWSTR,
wintypes.LPDWORD)
def get_connection(local_name):
length = (wintypes.DWORD * 1)()
result = mpr.WNetGetConnectionW(local_name, None, length)
if result != ERROR_MORE_DATA:
raise ctypes.WinError(result)
remote_name = (wintypes.WCHAR * length[0])()
result = mpr.WNetGetConnectionW(local_name, remote_name, length)
if result != ERROR_SUCCESS:
raise ctypes.WinError(result)
return remote_name.value
For example:
>>> subprocess.call(r'net use Y: \\live.sysinternals.com\tools')
The command completed successfully.
0
>>> print(get_connection('Y:'))
\\live.sysinternals.com\tools

I think you just need to look at more of pywin32... As you can see here, there is already an API that converts local drive names to full UNC paths.
For completeness, here is some code that works for me.
import win32wnet
import sys
print(win32wnet.WNetGetUniversalName(sys.argv[1], 1))
And this gives me something like this when I run it:
C:\test>python get_unc.py i:\some\path
\\machine\test_share\some\path

you could run net use and parse the output.
i am posting this from my mobile but i am going to improve this answer when i am in front of a real computer.
here are some links, that can help in the meantime:
https://docs.python.org/2/library/subprocess.html#module-subprocess.
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg651155.aspx.

My answer to a similar question:
Here's how to do it in python ≥ 3.4, with no dependencies!*
from pathlib import Path
def unc_drive(file_path):
return str(Path(file_path).resolve())
*Note: I just found a situation in which this method fails. One of my company's network shares has permissions setup such that this method raises a PermissionError. In this case, win32wnet.WNetGetUniversalName is a suitable fallback.

If you just need the hostname, you can use the socket module:
socket.gethostname()
or you may want to use the os module:
os.uname()[1]
os.uname() returns a 5 tuple that contains (sysname, nodename, release, version, machine)

Python: Converting COM PyIUnknown to known data type

I am currently trying to make a python app do the same thing as a VB app.
The app retrieves an image from an external device over the COM API. I've used win32com and managed to use the Dispatch mechanism to talk with the COM API.
In the VB app, the image is stored like this
pictureData = objResult.Properties('ResultImage')
myImage = AxHost.GetPictureFromIPicture(pictureData)
In my Python app, however on the picture data member, I get PyIUnknown object type. How do I get the image data out of this 'unknown' object?
Let me add that for other 'basic' data like strings, I can see them fine over the Python app.

I found a method that works, maybe not perfect, but if someone Google's this question, I hope it helps.
from win32com.client import Dispatch
import pythoncom
imagedata = data.Properties.Item('ResultImage') #this is samas the VB line in the question , except I have to add 'Item' here
#win32com does not define IPicture type (http://timgolden.me.uk/pywin32-docs/com_objects.html)
ipicture = Dispatch(imagedata.QueryInterface(pythoncom.IID_IDispatch))
import win32ui
import win32gui
#creates a PyCBitMap object
imagebitmap = win32ui.CreateBitmapFromHandle(ipicture.Handle)
#we need a DC handle to save the bitmap file for some reason...
dc_handler = win32ui.CreateDCFromHandle(win32gui.GetDC(0))
#this overwrites any older file without asking
imagebitmap.SaveBitmapFile(dc_handler,'last_pic.bmp')
Questions I still have in my mind are:
are we only forced to interact with IPicture or any non-defined COM (by win32com) in a dynamic way? Is there an elegant way to extend the definitions of interfaces etc.?
I tried using QueryInterface(pythontypes.IID('{7BF80980-BF32-101A-8BBB-00AA00300CAB}'). I got this IID from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms680761(v=vs.85).aspx however I got an error within Python that this interface cannot be handled.
Not sure why I cannot use the methods defined for IPicture, but I could access the attributes?
I tried simply to use ipicture.get_Handle() or ipicture.SaveAsFile() but these didn't work.

Marshaling COM objects between Python processes using pythoncom

I'm hoping someone can help me with being able to make a marshaled cross-process call into Excel from Python.
I have an Excel session initiated via Python that I know will be up and running when it needs to be accessed from a separate Python process. I have got everything working as desired using marshaling with CoMarshalInterfaceInStream() and CoGetInterfaceAndReleaseStream() calls from the pythoncom module, but I need repeat access to the stream (which I can only set up once in my case), and CoGetInterfaceAndReleaseStream() allows once-only access to the interface.
I believe that what I would like to achieve can be done with CreateStreamOnHGlobal(), CoMarshalInterface() and CoUnmarshalInterface() but am unable to get it working, almost certainly because I am not passing in the correct parameters.
Rather than describe in detail my main scenario, I have set up a simple example program as follows - obviously this takes place in the same process but one step at a time! The following snippet works fine:
import win32com.client
import pythoncom
excelApp = win32com.client.DispatchEx("Excel.Application")
marshalledExcelApp = pythoncom.CoMarshalInterThreadInterfaceInStream(pythoncom.IID_IDispatch, excelApp)
xlApp = win32com.client.Dispatch(
pythoncom.CoGetInterfaceAndReleaseStream(marshalledExcelApp, pythoncom.IID_IDispatch))
xlWb = xlApp.Workbooks.Add()
xlWs = xlWb.Worksheets.Add()
xlWs.Range("A1").Value = "AAA"
However, when I try the following:
import win32com.client
import pythoncom
excelApp = win32com.client.DispatchEx("Excel.Application")
myStream = pythoncom.CreateStreamOnHGlobal()
pythoncom.CoMarshalInterface(myStream,
pythoncom.IID_IDispatch,
excelApp,
pythoncom.MSHCTX_LOCAL,
pythoncom.MSHLFLAGS_TABLESTRONG)
myUnmarshaledInterface = pythoncom.CoUnmarshalInterface(myStream, pythoncom.IID_IDispatch)
I get this error (which I imagine is related to the 3rd parameter) when making the call to pythoncom.CoMarshalInterface():
"ValueError: argument is not a COM object (got type=instance)"
Does anyone know how I can get this simple example working?
Thanks in advance

After much angst, I have managed to resolve the issue I was facing, and indeed subsequent ones which I will also describe.
First, I was correct in guessing that my initial problem was with the 3rd parameter in the call to pythoncom.CoMarshalInterface(). In fact, I should have been making a reference to the oleobj property of my excelApp variable:
pythoncom.CoMarshalInterface(myStream,
pythoncom.IID_IDispatch,
excelApp._oleobj_,
pythoncom.MSHCTX_LOCAL,
pythoncom.MSHLFLAGS_TABLESTRONG)
However, I then faced a different error message, this time in the call to pythoncom.CoUnmarshalInterface():
com_error: (-2147287010, 'A disk error occurred during a read operation.', None, None)
It turned out that this was due to the fact that the stream pointer needs to be reset prior to use, with the Seek() method:
myStream.Seek(0,0)
Finally, although most aspects were working correctly, I found that despite using Quit() on the marshalled Excel object and explicitly setting all variables to None prior to the end of the code, I was left with a zombie Excel process. This was despite the fact that pythoncom._GetInterfaceCount() was returning 0.
It turns out that I had to explicitly empty the stream I had created with a call to CoReleaseMarshalData() (having first reset the stream pointer again). So, the example code snippet in its entirety looks like this:
import win32com.client
import pythoncom
pythoncom.CoInitialize()
excelApp = win32com.client.DispatchEx("Excel.Application")
myStream = pythoncom.CreateStreamOnHGlobal()
pythoncom.CoMarshalInterface(myStream,
pythoncom.IID_IDispatch,
excelApp._oleobj_,
pythoncom.MSHCTX_LOCAL,
pythoncom.MSHLFLAGS_TABLESTRONG)
excelApp = None
myStream.Seek(0,0)
myUnmarshaledInterface = pythoncom.CoUnmarshalInterface(myStream, pythoncom.IID_IDispatch)
unmarshalledExcelApp = win32com.client.Dispatch(myUnmarshaledInterface)
# Do some stuff in Excel in order to prove that marshalling has worked.
unmarshalledExcelApp.Visible = True
xlWbs = unmarshalledExcelApp.Workbooks
xlWb = xlWbs.Add()
xlWss = xlWb.Worksheets
xlWs = xlWss.Add()
xlRange = xlWs.Range("A1")
xlRange.Value = "AAA"
unmarshalledExcelApp.Quit()
# Clear the stream now that we have finished
myStream.Seek(0,0)
pythoncom.CoReleaseMarshalData(myStream)
xlRange = None
xlWs = None
xlWss = None
xlWb = None
xlWbs = None
myUnmarshaledInterface = None
unmarshalledExcelApp = None
myStream = None
pythoncom.CoUninitialize()
I hope that this helps someone else out there to overcome the obstacles I faced!