ezxl 1.2.0

Windows Excel automation and file conversion library via COM, openpyxl, and polars.

EzXl

EzXl is a lightweight Python library for Excel automation via COM (win32com) on Windows — open workbooks, manipulate sheets, interact with the ribbon, and convert between formats, all from a clean Python API.

📦 Installation

Standard

# Create and activate a virtual environment
python -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\activate

# Install in development mode
pip install -e ".[dev]"

pywin32 post-install step (mandatory)

Warning: pywin32 requires a post-install script to register COM components. This step is mandatory and must be run once after installation. Skipping it will cause COM dispatch to fail.

python .venv/Scripts/pywin32_postinstall.py -install

Corporate offline environment

In restricted environments without PyPI access, install from local wheel files only. No network requests are made during installation. Configure your pip to point to a local wheel directory:

pip install --no-index --find-links=\\share\wheels -e ".[dev]"

Optional pywinauto backend

To enable the pywinauto GUI automation backend (UIA-based, locale-independent):

pip install -e ".[pywinauto]"

Note: Ensure your Python interpreter bitness (32-bit or 64-bit) matches the installed Excel. COM dispatch will fail on a mismatch. Verify with:

python -c "import struct; print(struct.calcsize('P') * 8)"

🚀 Quick Start

from ezxl import ExcelApp

# Open a workbook and read from a sheet
with ExcelApp(mode="dispatch", visible=True) as xl:
    wb = xl.open("C:/reports/budget.xlsx")
    sheet = wb.sheet("Summary")
    value = sheet.cell("B2").value
    print(value)
    wb.save()

# Attach to a running Excel instance
with ExcelApp(mode="attach") as xl:
    xl.gui.ribbon.execute("FileSave")

🎯 Key Features

• ✅ COM Automation: open, attach, navigate Excel via win32com
• ✅ GUI Interaction: ribbon, menus, dialogs, and SendKeys via win32com
• ✅ Swappable GUI Backends: COM or pywinauto, injected via protocol ABCs
• ✅ File I/O: xlsx↔csv conversion via polars+fastexcel (no Excel required)
• ✅ Closed-file Formatting: colors, fonts, and borders via openpyxl
• ✅ Thread Safety: COM STA model enforced, thread identity checked at construction
• ✅ Full Type Hints: complete typing for IDEs and linters
• ✅ Corporate Ready: offline wheel install, proxy support

📚 Documentation

Full documentation is available online: neuraaak.github.io/ezxl

• 📖 Getting Started – Installation, first steps, and environment setup
• 🎯 API Reference – Complete class and function reference (auto-generated)
• 🏗️ Architecture – Design decisions and component overview
• 💡 Examples – Usage examples for common scenarios
• 🔧 Development – Environment setup and contribution guide
• 🧪 Testing – Test suite documentation (coming in next sprint)

🧪 Testing

# Install dev dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run unit tests (no Excel required)
pytest tests/ -m "not excel"

# Run integration tests (requires local Excel)
pytest tests/ -m excel

Note: Integration tests marked with @pytest.mark.excel require a locally installed Excel instance. They are excluded from CI/CD pipelines and are intended for local verification only.

🛠️ Development Setup

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/neuraaak/ezxl.git
cd ezxl

# Create and activate a virtual environment
python -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\activate

# Install in development mode with all dev dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Mandatory: register pywin32 COM components
python .venv/Scripts/pywin32_postinstall.py -install

# Set up git hooks
git config core.hooksPath .hooks

See the Development Guide for detailed setup instructions.

🔌 API Overview

🖥️ COM Automation (5)

Symbol	Description
ExcelApp	COM session — dispatch or attach, context manager
WorkbookProxy	Workbook open/save/close, sheet access
SheetProxy	Sheet navigation, cell access
CellProxy	Single cell read/write
RangeProxy	Range selection and bulk operations

🎛️ GUI Interaction (4)

Symbol	Description
GUIProxy	Unified GUI facade with swappable backends
RibbonProxy	Ribbon execution and state via COM
MenuProxy	Legacy CommandBar traversal via COM
DialogProxy	File pickers and alerts via COM

🔌 GUI Backends — pywinauto (4)

Symbol	Description
PywinautoRibbonBackend	Ribbon via keyboard shortcuts (locale-independent)
PywinautoMenuBackend	Menu traversal via UIA
PywinautoDialogBackend	File pickers via UIA + Win32
PywinautoKeysBackend	Keystroke injection via pywinauto

📂 File I/O (5)

Symbol	Description
read_excel	Read xlsx into a polars DataFrame
read_csv	Read csv into a polars DataFrame
xlsx_to_csv	Convert xlsx to csv (no Excel required)
csv_to_xlsx	Convert csv to xlsx (no Excel required)
ExcelFormatter	Closed-file formatting (colors, fonts, borders)

📦 Dependencies

• pywin32>=306 — COM driver (win32com.client), Windows-only
• polars>=1.0.0 — DataFrame I/O engine
• fastexcel>=0.11.0 — Fast xlsx reader (Rust binding)
• xlsxwriter>=3.0.0 — xlsx write backend for polars
• openpyxl>=3.1.0 — Closed-file formatting
• ezplog>=2.0.0 — Structured logging

Optional:

• pywinauto>=0.6.8 — UI Automation backend (locale-independent GUI interaction)

📄 License

MIT License – See LICENSE file for details.

🔗 Links

• Repository: https://github.com/neuraaak/ezxl
• Issues: GitHub Issues
• Documentation: neuraaak.github.io/ezxl
• Changelog: docs/changelog.md

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ezxl — Excel automation made simple, reliable, and Pythonic. 🐍