Quick solution
Perhaps the simplest way to achieve code completion in IPython (tested with 6.2.1, see the answer below for a snippet that works with 7.1) and Jupyter is to run the following snippet:
from IPython.utils.generics import complete_object
import win32com.client
@complete_object.when_type(win32com.client.DispatchBaseClass)
def complete_dispatch_base_class(obj, prev_completions):
try:
ole_props = set(obj._prop_map_get_).union(set(obj._prop_map_put_))
return list(ole_props) + prev_completions
except AttributeError:
pass
Short story long
With some more details being outlined in this guide, win32com
ships with a script, makepy.py
for generating Python types corresponding to the type library of a given COM object.
In the case of Word 2016, we would proceed as follows:
C:UsersusernameAppDataLocalContinuumAnaconda3pkgspywin32-221-py36h9c10281_0Libsite-packageswin32comclient>python makepy.py -i "Microsoft Word 16.0 Object Library"
Microsoft Word 16.0 Object Library
{00020905-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}, lcid=0, major=8, minor=7
>>> # Use these commands in Python code to auto generate .py support
>>> from win32com.client import gencache
>>> gencache.EnsureModule('{00020905-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}', 0, 8, 7)
The location of makepy.py
will of course depend on your Python distribution. The script combrowse.py
, available in the same directory, can be used to find the names of available type libraries.
With that in place, win32com.client
will automatically make use of the generated types, rather than the raw IPyDispatch
, and at this point, auto-completion is available in e.g. IPython or Jupyter, given that the COM object of interest actually publishes its available properties and methods (which is not a requirement).
Now, in your case, by invoking EnsureDispatch
instead of Dispatch
, the makepy
part of the process is performed automatically, so you really should be able to obtain code completion in IPython for the published methods:
Note, though, that while this does give code completion for methods, the same will not be true for properties. It is possible to inspect those using the _prop_map_get_
attribute. For example, wordapp.Selection.Range.Font._prop_map_get_
gives all properties available on fonts.
If using IPython is not a strong requirement, note also that the PythonWin shell (located around pkgspywin32Libsite-packagespythonwinPythonwin.exe
) has built-in code completion support for both properties and methods.
This, by itself, suggests that the same is achievable in IPython.
Concretely, the logic for auto-completion, which in turn relies on _prop_map_get_
, can be found in scintilla.view.CScintillaView._AutoComplete
. On the other hand, code completion in IPython 6.2.1 is handled by core.completer.IPCompleter
. The API for adding custom code completers is provided by IPython.utils.generics.complete_object
, as illustrated in the first solution above. One gotcha is that with complete_object
being based on simplegeneric
, only one completer may be provided for any given type. Luckily, all types generated by makepy
will inherit from win32com.client.DispatchBaseClass
.
If this turns out to ever be an issue, one can also circumvent complete_object
entirely and simply manually patch IPython by adding the following five lines to core.completer.Completion.attr_matches
:
try:
ole_props = set(obj._prop_map_get_).union(set(obj._prop_map_put_))
words += list(ole_props)
except AttributeError:
pass
Conversely, IPython bases its code-completion on __dir__
, so one could also patch gencache
, which is where the code generation ultimately happens, to include something to like
def __dir__(self):
return list(set(self._prop_map_get_).union(set(self._prop_map_put_)))
to each generated DispatchBaseClass
.