Hello,
I am after a bit of advice about some basic tools I want to develop to make my work easier.

I want to develop some small Windows programs that can perform simple tasks against servers using SOAP, REST, SQL etc.

Nothing very sophisticated. An example would be connecting to a database on a phone system server via SOAP to query its database to determine if any phones are forwarding to a particular extension (so this can be reviewed/altered before the extension is deleted).

Ideally I want a single .exe file which will launch a Windows GUI into which I can put the server hostname, login credentials and number which I am searching for.

I have written a CLI Python script that does this but getting Python running on user PC’s is painful and I did not have much luck converting it to an exe.

I am wondering if Python is the right tool to use. Would it be better to use something from Microsoft? If yes what?

Someone suggested Xojo which looks good but a bit obscure.

If you’ve written it in python wouldn’t it be easier to knock up a HTTP(s) front end and then have that link in with your scripts on a server somewhere?

I Somouk thanks for the response.

I deploy these systems and work with multiple customers so having a simple .exe with no server dependancies would make things easier. Often I am forced to use customer’s PCs rather than my own so it can be tricky to install things such as python.

I agree. If there are many PCs, just set up a server and have everyone log on via a web page. EDIT but that assumes you are all on the same site/network/customer.

Why is getting python working so hard? Security restrictions? Running exes could also be hard.

If you want to use MS stuff, just download Visual Studio (it’s free afaik) and fill your boots (with tutorials).

Thanks Molgrips

So can I develop standalone Windows apps in the free version of Visual Studio and are they truly standalone or do they need .NET framework to be installed?

Also what programming language is used? – I have seen C#, Visual Basic and Powershell mentioned.

To the novice it all seems very arcane and complex.

You will need the .Net runtime libraries – but these are part of Windows anyway so will already be there – but there are many versions so be aware of which version you are targetting.

You can develop Windows apps in the free version of Visual Studio – also known as “Community”.

As for language, depends on your background. If you’re starting from scratch then C#. VB is more forgiving, but C# will instil a better coding standard.

It’s a long time since I have had this problem but:

1. I’ve had reasonable success building .exe files for windows from python with tkinter or wx as a UI. The files are massive though. I have managed that even when developing on a Mac and just building on a pc.

2. Many years ago I used to have a python install on a memory stick that would run on windows. No idea if modern windows or python still play ball with that.

3. Bear in mind that if it looks easy you dilute your perceived value – I keep some stuff in CLI just because it looks like I am smarter! I only add a UI if other people have to use it.

4. Python is possibly not the best choice for the reasons you have discovered, (although any device may have security restrictions causing you problems even with exes) but you already have it working; the effort of recoding in another language almost always is more than the effort of making that work.

If it’s just soap and rest you could build a single html file to do it for you, as long as the headers on the apis permit it

Visual Studio has Python now too which may help if you’re used to Python. C# would be better for a standalone desktop app, but it gets complicated. You could have a CLI app, Windows Forms, WPF, UWP app (the latter is an app like you get in Windows Store, and runs on many platforms. Bit more tricky to deploy in a company environment though).

If deploying an executable is tricky, the Web page hosted on a server option would be easier for users and admins. Bit more tricky for you as you need to sort out hosting. Though you can have it self host.

To aid deployment it might also be useful to look at ClickOnce deployment technologies.

+1 for free version of visual studio.
C# is pretty easy to pick up, and windows forms very quick and intuitive to develop.
Edit: There’s also millions of C# examples out there, so you can almost certainly find several examples of anything you may want to do.

If you are deploying to customers PC’s which won’t necessarily up to date i’d build for .NET 4.0 (Client profile), then you should just be able to copy your .exe across and not worry about having to update .NET

It reads more as though the OP wants to create a single .exe file which he can have on a USB stick or the like and run it on a local machine as required when he’s out and about with no further dependencies.

Does the Community stuff create that?