using py2exe with wxPython and Matplotlib

Question

I'm trying to generate an .exe file from a python script that uses wxPython and Matplotlib and it looks like to be impossible.

The imports I'm doing (related with Matplotlib) are the following:

from numpy import *
import matplotlib
matplotlib.interactive(True)
matplotlib.use("WXAgg")
from matplotlib.figure import Figure
from matplotlib.backends.backend_wxagg import FigureCanvasWxAgg as FigCanvas
from matplotlib.ticker import MultipleLocator

Here is the setup.py file I'm trying to use:

from distutils.core import setup
import py2exe
import matplotlib

opts = {
'py2exe': {"bundle_files" : 3,
           "includes" : [ "matplotlib", 
            "matplotlib.backends",  
            "matplotlib.backends.backend_wxagg",
                        "numpy", 
                        "matplotlib.ticker",
                        "matplotlib.figure", "_wxagg"],
            'excludes': ['_gtkagg', '_tkagg', '_agg2', 
                        '_cairo', '_cocoaagg',
                        '_fltkagg', '_gtk', '_gtkcairo', ],
            'dll_excludes': ['libgdk-win32-2.0-0.dll',
                        'libgobject-2.0-0.dll']
          }
   }

setup(


  windows=[{'script':'starHunter.py', 'icon_resources':[(1, 'icon.ico')]}],

  data_files=matplotlib.get_py2exe_datafiles(),

  options=opts,

  zipfile=None
)

I'm always getting "Could not find matplotlib data files" after trying to run the .exe file, which by the way, is successfully created.

Additional information: I'm using Python 2.6, Matplotlib 0.99.3, wxPython 2.8.11.0 on Windows XP

Thanks in advance. Any help will be appreciated!

Cheers, Andressa Sivolella

Answer 1

Try using PyInstaller rather than py2exe. It has full support for wxPython and matplotlib. And it's in active development, unlike py2exe.

Answer 2

There are a number of problems with matplotlib.get_py2exe_datafiles(), as convenient as it would be if it worked. It's also a good idea to specify which backend to use. Here's a working matplotlib import I recently used:

from distutils.core import setup
import py2exe
from glob import glob

import matplotlib       #Import then use get_py2exe_datafiles() to collect numpy datafiles.
matplotlib.use('wxagg') #Specify matplotlib backend. tkagg must still be included else error is thrown.

data_files = [
            ("Stuff", glob(r'C:\ProjectFolder\Stuff\*.*')) 
            ,("dlls", glob(r'C:\ProjectFolder\dlls\*.dll'))  
            ,("pyds", glob(r'C:\ProjectFolder\pyds\*.pyd')) # py2exe specified pyd's 
            ]
# Extend the tuple list because matplotlib returns a tuple list.      
data_files.extend(matplotlib.get_py2exe_datafiles())  #Matplotlib - pulls it's own files

options =   {'py2exe':{#'bundle_files': 1,                                 # Bundle files to exe
                        'includes': ["matplotlib.backends.backend_tkagg"]  # Specifically include missing modules
                        ,'excludes': ['_gtkagg', 'tkagg']                  # Exclude dependencies. Reduce size.
                      }
            }   

setup(
name='ProjectName'
,options = options  
,data_files=data_files
,console=['projectname.py']
)

Answer 3

For a simply test, you could simply copy 'mpl-data' folder in 'site-packages\matplotlib' to your app folder. As far as I know, 'mpl-data' cannot be bundled into the single executable so this has to be included in your binary distribution as a folder.

I used py2exe via GUI2Exe and could freeze my app that uses matplotlib + numpy/scipy + wx (so obviously wxagg backend). I didn't need to include _tkagg (which is explicitly excluded in GUI2Exe default setting which worked for me).