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Scripting

• Scans are created and maintained in the Workspace Explorer tree, as per and alongside OHLCvs and Point & Figure charts. Scan definitions may be copy-pasted, exported and imported between Chartboard sites as simple *.Msgraws#Scanner files, independently of the assigned Python script.
• Scripts are based on the Python 3.11 release that ships with the product.
• Duplex interaction is provided by an extensive set of Python extension functions.
• Chartboard Extension Classes (CBEC) are available for developing proprietary scripts.
• Scanning scripts are disk files with the .pys extension and may be exchanged as required. Advisor scripts use .pya; regular Python modules common to both usually keep the standard .pyw extension.
• A console window can be activated from inside Chartboard for monitoring and debugging.
• Python has duplex access back into Chartboard for data and visuals, and forward access into third-party products — SQL databases, AI and machine learning.
• Scripts generate a synthetic chart for each stock, through which standard visuals may be queried. Those charts can be viewed individually for selected stocks once the scan completes.
• Scanning scripts attach to scans as required. Chartboard supports multiple scan definitions, all serialised.
• Multiple scans may run concurrently — but only a single instance of any given scan.

Operation

Scan objects are managed through the Workspace Explorer tree:

1. From a workspace folder's context menu, select [New Stock Scanner…], which opens the scan configuration dialog.
2. Activate the scan by double-clicking it, or through the [View Scan] context menu item.
3. Use the displayed ribbon bar items to manage scan activity.

Chartboard Extension Classes

Scanning scripts are usually built on CBEC, which wraps the raw Chartboard Python scripting API. The extension classes ship with the product in PythonCBEC.pyw; alternatively the API can be used directly to build an equivalent library or extend the existing one.

Scanning and advisor scripts share the same extension classes, with one structural difference: scanning scripts access Chartboard through CScanner-generated descendant classes, while advisor scripts access it as CStack descendants. Both are managed through the Python Scripts Map attachment explorer. Scanner scripts may only run from scanning environments, and advisor scripts only from a chart stack environment.

Debugging

• Activate the application console and divert Python's stderr and stdout to it — Ribbon Bar → [Home] tab → [View] group → Console. If scripts are active on multiple charts, debug messages will interleave.
• Scripts may be edited inside Chartboard or in a third-party editor.
• The {Python Debug} → Inspection cursor, moved over a chart stack, exposes the underlying data in Python scripting format.
• Property grids expose hints for the parameters reachable from automation scripts, in the Property Description region at the base of the grid.

Sample scanners

Each of these generates a list control summarising its results. A chart for any tabulated stock is generated automatically by double-clicking its row, or by selecting {View Scan Chart} from the row's context menu.