How do I add transparency to shape in python pptx?

Question

def new_presentation():
    prs=Presentation()
    img="C:/Users/Dennis/Desktop/Tom-Hiddleston-4-1024x768.jpg"
    mainsld=new_slide(prs, 6)
    mainshp=mainsld.shapes
    mainshp.add_picture(img, 0,0, Inches(10))
    titleshape=mainshp.add_shape(MSO_SHAPE.RECTANGLE, Inches(0), Inches(1), Inches(10), Inches(1))
    titleshape.fill.solid()
    titleshape.fill.fore_color.rgb=RGBColor(0x00,0x64,0x00)
    titleshape.fill.transparency = 0.25 ##doesnt work???##########################
    titleshape.line.fill.background()
    titlebox=mainshp.add_textbox(Inches(1), Inches(0.8),Inches(1), Inches(1)).text_frame.add_paragraph()
    titlebox.text="TOM HIDDLESTON"
    titlebox.font.name="Calibri"
    titlebox.font.size=Pt(36)
    titlebox.font.color.rgb=RGBColor(0x90,0x90,0x00)
    prs.save('test.pptx')

The line marked with "######s" is supposed to make the shape more transparent as written in the pptx documentation - it is a shape.fill property . Everything else in the code works perfectly. I'm using python 2.7 and latest pptx. Thank you for your help in advance.

Answer 1

FillFormat.transparency is not implemented yet. The part of the documentation where you saw that may have been an analysis page, which is a precursor to development.

This is the analysis page: http://python-pptx.readthedocs.io/en/latest/dev/analysis/features/dml-fill.html?highlight=transparency

This is the FillFormat (.fill) API, as developed: http://python-pptx.readthedocs.io/en/latest/api/dml.html#fillformat-objects

You can however use lxml calls from the FillFormat object to manipulate the XML under it. You probably want to start with the spPr element in the .fill element:

spPr = titleshape.fill._xPr
print spPr.xml

Here's one example of doing that sort of thing: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/python-pptx/UTkdemIZICw/qeUJEyKEAQAJ

You'll find more if you search on various combinations of the terms python-pptx, OxmlElement, lxml, and workaround function.