I am using python 2.6.5 on an Ubuntu intalled server.
I need to integrate an API for our applicaion, in that case, i needed to use a DLL given to me by the API provider. Their example of code about api integration is written in Visual Basic... I made a search on google and found some examples of using ctypes , and i try using cdll and pydll, which caused the following error...
OSError: /home//some.dll: invalid ELF header
One possibility is using IronPython, but i do not have much information about ironpython so i am not sure if it will handle my needs completely..
Is there any available module that let me use that dll on python (or aynthing that i am missing from the exixting ones). It is hard to upgrade my python version?
DLLs are Windows creatures. The only way you'll be able to use a DLL is by using a Windows build of Python. You'll be able to run Windows Python on Ubuntu by having Windows installed inside a virtual machine. You also might be able to run it using Wine.
An alternative, of course, is to ask your API provider if they have a Linux version of the API.
DLLs may be windows creatures, but if a DLL is 'pure .NET' and doesn't utilize executables specific to windows etc., then it can work often in Linux, through Mono. (mono ipy.exe).
Ironpython's System and similiar windows modules are customized to be os agnostic (to a untested degree).
I have successfully run NHibernate, FluentNHibernate, log4net, and a few other commonly used DLLS in Ubuntu.
import clr
import sys
sys.path.append(os.path.abspath('./DLL')) #where your dlls are
clr.AddReference('System')
clr.AddReference('FluentNHibernate')
from FluentNHibernate.Cfg.Db import PostgreSQLConfiguration
The key seems to be to import DLLs in this fashion. If a dll imports another (fluentnhibernate imports nhibernate), you don't need to import Nhibernate for example.
