Can I expand the view of a structure in IDAPython?

Question

When I define data as a structure with IDAPython, it appears in IDA View in a collapsed view. Out of curiosity, is it possible to programmatically expand the view of the structure?

For example, if I run MakeStructEx(0x400000, -1, "IMAGE_DOS_HEADER"), I see:

IMAGE_DOS_HEADER <5A4Dh, 90h, 3, 0, 4, 0, 0FFFFh, 0, 0B8h, 0, 0, 0, \
                  40h, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0E0h>

But I would like to see:

dw 5A4D                ; e_magic
dw 90h                 ; e_cblp
dw 3                   ; e_cp
dw 0                   ; e_crlc
... (lines removed) ...
dd 0E0h                ; e_lfanew

I am using IDA 6.2.

Answer 1

Put the text cursor somewhere between the < and > and press + on the numeric keypad.

Answer 2

Unfortunately I don't have IDA 6.2, but if this version supports IDAPython and corresponding APIs you can try to do the following:

import idc
idc.Jump(address)
idc.ProcessUiAction("UnHide", 0)

This will move the cursor to the "address" ea and replay user action associated with "UnHide" string, which is Ctrl+Numpad+, which does what you requested in IDA 6.8. I think that it should work in IDA 6.2 too. There is a chance good chance that there is some IDAPython API designed specifically for that, but I was unable to find it.

This definitely works in IDA 6.8. Good luck