Packaging a python application ( with enthought, matplotlib, wxpython) into executable

Question

My Python 2.7 application uses matplotlib, enthought (mayavi, traits), wxpython libraries. I need to package it into an executable on Windows, which, after some research and experimenting seems like a not straightforward task.

I have so far experimented with PyInstaller and bbfreeze. In both of them I specify hidden imports/includes (which I could gather fromrandom information on the web) to import the Enthought packeges. Both manage to create an executable (for bbfreeze I excluded the matplotlib part of my application so far), but when I run it, both return the same error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<string>", line 6, in <module>
File "__main__.py", line 128, in <module>
File "__main__test__.py", line 23, in <module>
File "traitsui/api.py", line 36, in <module>
File "traitsui/editors/__init__.py", line 23, in <module>
File "traitsui/editors/api.py", line 49, in <module>
File "traitsui/editors/table_editor.py", line 37, in <module>
File "traitsui/table_filter.py", line 35, in <module>
File "traitsui/menu.py", line 128, in <module>
File "pyface/toolkit.py", line 98, in __init__
NotImplementedError: the wx pyface backend doesn't implement MenuManager

Any ideas what should I do? Alternatively has anyone had experience with creating such an executable and can recommend a tool or method ? So far I have seen only this tutorial but it uses py2exe and apparently requires downloading the whole ETS - if nothing else gonna give it a try...

Answer 1

Here is the solution which worked for me.

I have tried to use bbfreeze, PyInstaller , py2exe and cx_Freeze. In the end I decided to go with cx_Freeze as it is apparently popular with people who are packaging the applications with enthought classes.

With cx_Freeze I got the similar error message as above. The problem is that it saves the necessary modules in "library.zip" file, which is something that enthought classes including mayavi have problem with. Fortunately cx_Freeze allows specifying "create_shared_zip": False option, which then makes it so that source files are directly copied into the build directory as they are, instead of in a zip file.

Additionally, I have found that some Enthought files and folders have to be manually included in include_files (same goes for scipy, source: here). After this it worked. I add my setup file code below, hope it helps.

import sys
import os
from cx_Freeze import setup, Executable
import scipy

scipy_path = os.path.dirname(scipy.__file__) #use this if you are also using scipy in your application

build_exe_options = {"packages": ["pyface.ui.wx", "tvtk.vtk_module", "tvtk.pyface.ui.wx", "matplotlib.backends.backend_tkagg"],
                     "excludes": ['numarray', 'IPython'],
                     "include_files": [("C:\\Python27\\Lib\\site-packages\\tvtk\\pyface\\images\\", "tvtk\\pyface\\images"),
                                       ("C:\\Python27\\Lib\\site-packages\\pyface\\images\\", "pyface\\images"),
                                       ("C:\\Python27\\Lib\\site-packages\\tvtk\\plugins\\scene\\preferences.ini", "tvtk\\plugins\\scene\\preferences.ini"),
                                       ("C:\\Python27\\Lib\\site-packages\\tvtk\\tvtk_classes.zip", "tvtk\\tvtk_classes.zip"),
                                       ("C:\\Python27\\Lib\\site-packages\\mayavi\\core\\lut\\pylab_luts.pkl","mayavi\\core\\lut\\pylab_luts.pkl"),
                                       ("C:\\Python27\\Lib\\site-packages\\mayavi\\preferences\\preferences.ini","mayavi\\preferences\\preferences.ini"),
                                       ("C:\\Python27\\Lib\\site-packages\\numpy\\core\\libifcoremd.dll","numpy\\core\\libifcoremd.dll"),
                                       ("C:\\Python27\\Lib\\site-packages\\numpy\\core\\libmmd.dll","numpy\\core\\libmmd.dll"),
                                       (str(scipy_path), "scipy") #for scipy
                                       ]                       
                     ,"create_shared_zip": False #to avoid creating library.zip
                     }

executables = [
    Executable('myfile.py', targetName="myfile.exe", base=None)
]

setup(name='myfile',
      version='1.0',
      description='myfile',
      options = {"build_exe": build_exe_options},
      executables=executables
      ) 

Configuration:

python 2.7
altgraph==0.9
apptools==4.3.0
bbfreeze==1.1.3
bbfreeze-loader==1.1.0
configobj==5.0.6
cx-Freeze==4.3.3
Cython==0.23.4
matplotlib==1.4.3
mayavi==4.4.3
MySQL-python==1.2.5
natgrid==0.2.1
numpy==1.10.0b1
opencv-python==2.4.12
pandas==0.16.2
pefile==1.2.10.post114
Pillow==3.1.1
plyfile==0.4
psutil==4.1.0
pyface==5.0.0
Pygments==2.0.2
pygobject==2.28.6
pygtk==2.22.0
PyInstaller==3.1
pyparsing==2.0.3
pypiwin32==219
PySide==1.2.2
python-dateutil==2.4.2
pytz==2015.4
scipy==0.16.0
six==1.9.0
subprocess32==3.2.7
traits==4.5.0
traitsui==5.0.0
transforms3d==0.2.1
VTK==6.2.0