Using a virtualenv in Drawbot

Maarten Idema

I often set up a different virtual environment for different Python-based scripting ideas that I run in the terminal. I will do this using virtualenv and pip install the needed modules.

So my question is can I select a Python virtualenv from within the Drawbot app or a script that I'm running in Drawbot?

I have tried adding a shebang at the top of the script pointing to the virtualenv's python. I have also tried something like this:

activate_this_file = "/Users/maartenidema/Desktop/t_venv/bin/activate_this.py"
execfile(activate_this_file, dict(__file__=activate_this_file))

I feel like I am really overlooking something quite simple.

justvanrossum

@maarten-idema I'm fairly sure you're the first to try such a thing... It may be difficult or impossible, because by the time DrawBot is running, Python is running, and you can't really change the environment much anymore. That said, I know very little about how virtual environments work, so take this with a grain of salt.

Maarten Idema

Thanks for that @justvanrossum. I am using the Python modules todoist, requests, and urllib3 to visualise my todo list in Drawbot.

After reading this I kind of resolved to manually downloading each module and have them sit in the same folder as my Drawbot script. This is so tedious especially for updating modules.

But then I realised that I could still set up my virtualenv, pip install my modules, their dependencies and then in my Drawbot script include the path to the site-packages.

import sys
sys.path.insert(0, "/Users/maartenidema/t_venv/lib/python3.6/site-packages")

On a quick initial test, this seems to work. I wonder if there will be module conflicts with Python versions going forward.

frederik

This will not work from within the app itself.

But you can always install drawBot as module and go from there, you can even pop up a drawBot window within the controlled env as drawBot is just plain vanilla.

Maarten Idema

It does actually work fine from within DrawBot itself. I have been using this since the end of Jan and haven't had an issue.

dyb

@frederik You mentioned opening a drawBot window when used as a module.
How to do that?

frederik

this should show a small preview with the same views as what drawBot is using

import vanilla
import drawBot
from drawBot.ui.drawView import DrawView


class PreviewController(object):
    
    def __init__(self):
        self.w = vanilla.Window((400, 400))
        self.w.view = DrawView((0, 0, 0, 0))
        
        self.drawSomeThing()
        
        self.w.open()

    def drawSomeThing(self):
        # draw something
        drawBot.newDrawing()
        drawBot.newPage(300, 300)
        drawBot.fill(1, 0, 0)
        drawBot.rect(20, 20, 200, 200)
        # get the pdf document
        pdfDocument = drawBot.pdfImage()
        drawBot.endDrawing()        
        # set the pdf document in the view
        self.w.view.setPDFDocument(pdfDocument)


from vanilla.test.testTools import executeVanillaTest
executeVanillaTest(PreviewController)

dyb

@frederik thanks! the technique is now clear to me;
but where do i get the vanilla.test module from?

from vanilla.test.testTools import executeVanillaTest
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'vanilla.test'

frederik

you need to have vanilla installed to build an ui in a pythonic way.

see https://github.com/typesupply/vanilla/tree/master/Lib/vanilla

dyb

@frederik of course i do. but my installation didn't have the vanilla/test folder apparently. perhaps the setup doesn't include this?

anyways, i manually copied the files to an appropriate location and now it's working.

justvanrossum

Oh, that's a clever idea, thanks for sharing.

... said in Using a virtualenv in Drawbot:

import sys
sys.path.insert(0, "/Users/maartenidema/t_venv/lib/python3.6/site-packages")

You should be able to make that happen automatically. Please try the following:

Create a folder called /Library/Python/3.6/site-packages if it doesn't already exists
place a file in there with a .pth extension, say my_venv.pth
write the line /Users/maartenidema/t_venv/lib/python3.6/site-packages into that file
Restart DrawBot and see if you can now import from your venv.

Sorry, I didn't test this. Please let us know if it works.

justvanrossum

Oh, I've been trapped by a bot it seems Still, my answer may be useful