llusen for Python

Read and change the project open in llusen from Python: tables, formulas, filters, summary values, group tables, charts and notes; and export them as CSV, Excel or OpenDocument files.

import llusen

with llusen.connect() as project:
    orders = project.table("orders")
    orders.add_column("total", "price * qty")
    orders.set_format("total", 'currency("£", 2)')
    print(orders.summary())
    frame = orders.to_pandas()          # with pandas installed

Setting up

• Python 3.14 or later. The package uses only the standard library; pandas is optional, for to_pandas and for giving DataFrames.

• Install from PyPI: pip install llusen, or pip install "llusen[pandas]" with pandas. From this folder: pip install ..

• In llusen, choose Tools > API Enabled. llusen then listens on this machine only, and writes its port and a token to api.json in its state folder:

  • Linux: ~/.local/state/llusen (or $XDG_STATE_HOME/llusen);
  • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/llusen;
  • Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\llusen.

  llusen.connect() reads that file and gives the token. API Enabled is remembered, and the token is new each time it is turned on.

• Which llusen: each project opens in a llusen of its own, with its own API, turned on in its own window. connect() reaches the llusen used last (the one whose window last had the keyboard), as api.json names it. To reach the llusen that has a given project open, name the project's file:

  with llusen.connect(project="~/reports/sales.llu") as project:
      ...
  

  If no llusen has it open, or the one that has has its API off, NotRunning says which. llusen.find_project(path) gives that llusen's port and token without connecting. (Each llusen lists what it has open in instances in the state folder.)

How it works

• Changes go into the project as if made in llusen. Each is one step that Ctrl+Z takes back in that table, and the status bar says what the script did. A table a script makes opens in a tab.
• Rows are counted in the order they were loaded or added, from 0, whatever the user's sort and filters show. Reading gives every row.
• Reading waits until formulas are worked out, so values are never half done. llusen gives up on a call after five minutes of waiting.
• A call llusen refuses raises LlusenError, with llusen's own message. For a formula, error.at is the (start, end) of the problem in it.
• If llusen isn't running, or API Enabled is off, connect raises NotRunning (a ConnectionError).

Exporting

llusen writes the file, so the path is on the machine llusen runs on. A relative path, or one from ~, is made whole from the script's folder first. A file already there is replaced, through a temporary file, so a failed write leaves it as it was. Rows go in the order llusen shows them (sorted, every row, whatever the filters). llusen writes on a thread of its own and answers once the file is complete; the status bar says so. The path's extension decides the kind (.csv, .xlsx, .ods), unless format says; a path with no extension gets the format's.

Values

When giving values, NaN, NaT and pd.NA are null; numpy's numbers are numbers; a naive datetime is sent as it is, and an aware one in UTC; pandas' Timedelta and numpy's timedelta64 are durations (to the microsecond), and a time of day must have no time zone. A new column's type is worked out from its values (whole numbers make int, any decimal makes float), unless named in types.

Reference

llusen.connect(port=None, token=None, info_file=None, timeout=360, project=None) gives a Project: with project, the llusen that has that project file open. Use it in a with block, or call close(). One connection is for one thread at a time.

Project

• describe(): every table as llusen describes it (columns, types, formulas, formats, filters, sort, summary values, groupings, charts, notes).
• table_names(), table(name), chart(name).
• new_table(name, data, types=None): data is a DataFrame, or a dict of column names to lists of values.
• new_group_table(name, grouping), e.g. 'table("orders").group(r => ({ Item: r.item }))'.
• new_chart(name, table, x, ys, kind=None): ys is a column or a list of them; kind is "bar", "line" or "doughnut" (a doughnut takes one column of values).
• export(path, format=None, tables=None): every table (or those named) to an Excel (.xlsx) or OpenDocument (.ods) workbook, a sheet each, with summary values at the top and column formats; charts are left out. Gives {"path", "rows", "sheets"} once written.
• call(method, **params): any API method, as llusen documents it.

Table

• read(columns=None, start=0, count=None): {name: [values]}, read in pieces of 100,000 rows. to_pandas(columns=None).
• columns, len(table), summary() (values by name), describe().
• add_column(name, formula=None, values=None, type=None), set_formula, remove_formula, rename_column, delete_columns(*names), set_format(column, format=None).
• append_rows(data) gives the first new row; set_cells(column, values, start=0), all or none.
• change_case(column, case) puts every cell of a text column in "upper", "lower", "capitalize" (Hello world) or "title" (Hello World) case, and gives how many changed. The formula functions of the same names do it in a new column instead.
• Live rows: with table.locked(): table.insert_rows(data), or lock(), insert_rows(data) and unlock(). While a script has a table locked, rows go in at its end, many times a second if need be, with no undo steps; llusen lifts any sort and filters, and no one else can change the table (the user watches it fill, scrolled to the end). insert_rows is answered at once, with the row its first will be at, and its rows go in as soon as the table, and the tables reading it, have worked out the last ones. unlock waits until all are in. The lock goes if the script's connection closes. is_locked says whether a script has it.
• lock(clear=False, columns=None): columns are the rows' columns and types, as {"price": "float", "side": "text"}. With clear=True, the table is emptied for a new run and its plain columns made exactly those, in that order (formula columns stay, after them), with no undo step; it gives what changed. Without, they are checked against the table's, and a difference refuses the lock. locked() takes the same.
• set_filter(column, formula=None) gives the rows shown; value is the column's cell, as in "value > 5". clear_filters(). reapply_filters() runs them again over rows added or changed since they ran, and gives the rows shown.
• set_sort(column, direction="ascending") sorts the rows shown by a column, "ascending" or "descending"; clear_sort() puts them back as they were. Rows read are stored rows, whatever the sort.
• add_summary(formula, name=None, format=None) gives its name; set_summary_formula, set_summary_format, delete_summary.
• set_grouping(grouping) for a group table.
• export(path, format=None): as CSV, or as a workbook of this table if the path ends in .xlsx or .ods (or format says so).
• rename(name), delete().

Chart

• notes(), add_note(text, anchors=()) gives its id. Each anchor is a (series, x) pair, where x is a value of the column along the bottom: a date, a time, a duration, a number, or text as llusen shows it. A series of "" puts the note on every series at that place. A note's anchors all share one series, or are all "".
• set_note(id, text=None, anchors=None) changes a note's text, its anchors (() for the chart as a whole), or both; delete_note(id).
• title(), and set_title(title=None): None or "" is the title made from its columns.
• set_settings(kind=None, **settings): the kind ("bar", "line", "doughnut") and the settings menu, as smooth, line_fill, line_from_zero, horizontal, bar_from_zero and pie (each True or False); what is left out stays. Gives whether it changed.
• hidden_series(), and set_hidden_series(series) to hide those series from the key, as a click on it does, showing the rest. At least one series stays shown.
• rename(name), delete().

The protocol

Each message is one line of JSON-RPC 2.0 on a TCP connection to 127.0.0.1, with authenticate {token} first. See the module notes in llusen-core/src/api.rs for every method and its params, if you want to call llusen from another language.

Tests

python -m unittest discover -s tests runs the tests against a stand-in for llusen. examples/orders.py is a tour against the real thing.