How to use Application.ShowDevTools in the xlwings API way

The ShowDevTools member of the Application object in Excel’s object model provides control over the visibility of the VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) development environment, commonly known as the VBA Editor or IDE (Integrated Development Environment). When automating Excel with xlwings, this property allows you to programmatically show or hide the VBA Editor window, which is useful during development, debugging, or when creating macros and user forms. It’s a Boolean property that can be set to True to display the editor or False to hide it, and it can also be read to check the current visibility state.

In xlwings, you access this property through the api property of the App or Book objects, which exposes the underlying Excel VBA object model. The syntax for using ShowDevTools is straightforward, as it maps directly to the Excel object model.

Syntax in xlwings:

• To get the current visibility state: app.api.ShowDevTools
• To set the visibility state: app.api.ShowDevTools = True or app.api.ShowDevTools = False

Where app is an instance of xw.App representing the Excel application. The property accepts and returns a Boolean value:

• True: Makes the VBA Editor visible.
• False: Hides the VBA Editor.

Note: This property is specific to the Excel application instance and affects the VBA Editor globally for that instance. It may not be available or have an effect if VBA is disabled or not installed (e.g., in some Excel runtime environments). Always ensure the Excel instance has VBA support.

Code Examples with xlwings:

1. Showing the VBA Editor:
   This example starts an Excel application, makes it visible, and then opens the VBA Editor.

import xlwings as xw
# Start a new Excel application
app = xw.App(visible=True)
# Show the VBA Developer Tools (Editor)
app.api.ShowDevTools = True
# Keep the application open for demonstration
input("Press Enter to close Excel...")
app.quit()

2. Toggling VBA Editor Visibility:
   This example checks the current state of the VBA Editor, toggles it, and prints a message.

import xlwings as xw
app = xw.App(visible=True)
# Get current visibility state
current_state = app.api.ShowDevTools
print(f"VBA Editor is currently visible: {current_state}")
# Toggle the state
app.api.ShowDevTools = not current_state
print(f"Toggled visibility. Now visible: {app.api.ShowDevTools}")
# Clean up
app.quit()

3. Conditional Display Based on Debug Mode:
   In a script, you might want to show the VBA Editor only during debugging or development phases.

import xlwings as xw
DEBUG_MODE = True # Set to False in production
app = xw.App(visible=True)
if DEBUG_MODE:
    app.api.ShowDevTools = True
    print("Debug mode: VBA Editor shown.")
else:
    app.api.ShowDevTools = False
    print("Production mode: VBA Editor hidden.")
# Perform other automation tasks...
app.quit()