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I'm fairly new at Python in general, but I'm trying to create a small background application that will read an excel file and send me an e-mail every day on some condition. I was wondering what is the best way to go about this? Should I just use some sort of loop where it does the action every so many seconds, and then execute the script from the command line? Is there a way to make it into a standalone background app? Thanks for your answers.

Phil D
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  • which operating system are you using ? – sachin saxena Jun 18 '15 at 06:33
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    Set up your script to run repeatedly using the Windows Task Scheduler. It can run any kind of program, including things like `python.exe C:\path\to\the\script.py`. – poke Jun 18 '15 at 06:34
  • You have to use startup tasks to run the python script upon startup so you don't forget to start it upon system restarts. – Alex Huszagh Jun 18 '15 at 06:34
  • You could use 'threading.Timer' in combination with from 'datetime import datetime' For more information see - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11523918/python-start-a-function-at-given-time – user3636636 Jun 18 '15 at 06:40
  • Yes I'm using Windows, and I considered the task scheduler, but then I thought, what if others wanted to download this script? So I'm trying to figure out how to make it into a standalone app. @Alexander - thanks for the tip! I wouldn't have thought of that issue. – Phil D Jun 19 '15 at 19:17
  • @user3636636 That's a good idea, how does it compare to the apscheduler library? – Phil D Jun 19 '15 at 19:19

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Take a look at http://apscheduler.readthedocs.org/en/3.0/

Here is an example from there site:

from datetime import datetime
import os

from apscheduler.schedulers.blocking import BlockingScheduler


def tick():
    print('Tick! The time is: %s' % datetime.now())


if __name__ == '__main__':
    scheduler = BlockingScheduler()
    scheduler.add_executor('processpool')
    scheduler.add_job(tick, 'interval', seconds=3)
    print('Press Ctrl+{0} to exit'.format('Break' if os.name == 'nt' else 'C'))

try:
    scheduler.start()
except (KeyboardInterrupt, SystemExit):
    pass

Edit: I assumed this was the main point of your question. Re -reading however, are you wanting to know the whole process? -

  1. How to read from excel file

  2. How to automate an email

  3. How to time/ schedule the function call

  4. How to package as a desktop app

That is a loaded question. Let me know if you want me to elaborate on those points too

user3636636
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  • Thanks for the answer! I actually looked into this library before, I just wasn't sure how to implement it. Well, I figured out the first two points (email and excel) but my question was more oriented towards the last two (schedule and package). Could you please elaborate on the last point? – Phil D Jun 19 '15 at 19:15