PyQtSkeleton

A very basic project to make it easier to jump-start other PyQt/PySide projects

##Included

• This README.md
• .gitignore for Python apps (modified)
• Uses the excellent qtpy compatibility layer from the guys that make Spyder IDE
• Selection of PyQt API v2
• Begginning wndmain.ui (dynamically loaded)
• Custom PNG icon template with correct exhibition on taskbar
• Simple callback thread example
• CHANGELOG.md example
• Logging utilities using the logging default module
• Simple run.py to execute simple commands (a little like Make). No dependencies.
• PyInstaller spec file to convert whole program into a single .exe file. This spec file includes:
  • Single-file EXE generation
  • Multi-resolution conversion of PNG icon to ICO (depends on Pillow)
  • data folder automatic inclusion in executable
  • frozen() function to facilitate using frozen data files
  • Exclusion of unused Qt modules (comment if your app uses them)
  • Uses UPX if available Note: when using some libraries, you'll need setuptools version 19.2, or the EXE generation might fail.
• Translation i18n support through Qt Linguist. Supports translating (and loading) in multiple languages with the --lang option, which defaults to the system's language.
• Window position and state saving. Settings are stored in an INI file, which can be used for other program settings.

Install dependencies

pip install qtpy
pip install PyInstaller

or

conda install qtpy
pip install PyInstaller

How to use

1. Copy the files to your new project's directory.

2. Change the README.md file to reflect your project's characteristics.

3. Rename main.py to <yourproject>.py and main.spec to <yourproject>.specif you want.

4. Open <yourproject>.spec and change the name variable to your project's name. Also change the main.py file in the Analysis step to <yourproject>.py like you renamed in the previous step.

5. Open the <yourproject>.py file and change the header as you wish, specially the application name, author and LICENSE parts.

6. In the bottom of the file, change the myappid variable to match your project's details. This is used to set your executable's icon separate from other Python processes in the window manager.

7. Trim the unused parts of the project. The Thread and ConsoleHandler usages are just examples for useful features.

8. The window and icon files are in the data directory. Put application resources in this directory, so that they will be automatically included when using PyInstaller. Remember to use the frozen() function when using those resources' filenames.

9. When ready to freeze the app, go to the command line and use:

pyinstaller <yourproject>.spec

10. Enjoy!

Troubleshooting

If your script doesn't build with PyInstaller, try one or more of these in the <yourproject>.spec file:

1. Change the single_file variable to False. This will put all files in a directory. Looking at the gathered files may help identify missing DLLs.

2. In the EXE() call, change console=False to console=True. After that, when running the built executable from the command line, it is possible to see errors and tracebacks that may help find where the problem is.

3. If that's not enough, change debug=False to debug=True. This will enable PyInstaller's debug messages which are shown when the program is loading the script.

Remember to revert these changes when the problem is solved.