Using Python to create a command line interpreter for Notes (Page 4)

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Using Python to create a command line interpreter for Notes (continued)

Python has identical syntax for calling Notes objects by either method. Using PythonWin, the commands required are:


import win32com.client

sess=win32com.client.Dispatch("Lotus.NotesSession")

Typing the above on its own will use late-bound COM. To use early-bound, there's a Python script called "make.py" built into PythonWin that will configure Python for any available COM class. To make it even easier, PythonWin includes this in the standard menu. To use it with Notes, select "Lotus Domino Objects" from the list offered. Once make.py has been run, all calls to those objects will use the more efficient early-bound COM calls.

If you wish to automate this process of registering the Domino classes, perhaps as part of a Python program interfacing to Notes, then put the following lines in your code:


from win32com.client import gencache 

gencache.EnsureModule('�-2EED-1069-BF5D-00DD011186B7}', 0, 1, 0)

Since Python now knows all about the Notes objects, PythonWin can also give you the same helpful pop-up class boxes for Notes as it does for internal Python classes. Figure C shows the box that appears when the NotesSession object "sess" is typed in.

FIGURE C

Pop-up class browser is a standard part of PythonWin. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Once the "sess" object is defined, it's possible to use a much more familiar syntax to call other objects. In this example, a database is opened and the title is examined and changed:


>>> db=sess.GetDatabase("","log.nsf")

>>> db.Title

u'Notes Log'

>>> db.Title='Notes Log (Python)'

>>> db.Title

u'Notes Log (Python)'

There are three things to note from this example:

Python lets you omit the print statement to examine an object;

Notes returns strings as Unicode rather than plain ASCII while Python has simple functions to switch between these;

It's only possible to create one new Notes object using COM (whether you use Visual Basic, Python, or any other language), and that's the NotesSession.

The objects which are typically created using a "Dim New" statement in LotusScript, such as NotesDatabase, are created instead using methods of NotesSession.

Using Java
PythonWin is just one of many implementations of Python on various platforms. One recent addition is the Java based JPython. This is supplied as a JAR file of 100% Pure Java code. It enables a Python interpreter to operate within any JVM (Java Virtual Machine) on any system, or for a Java applet on a Web page to execute Python script code rather than Java.

Like PythonWin, JPython is both a command line interpreter and a full language interpreter, with the difference that now you have all the Java classes--Swing, JDBC (Java Data Base Connectivity), Domino, LotusXSL and thousands of others--available to browse and play with on the command line. And unlike COM, this will run on Linux, Solaris, Macintosh, or any other Java supporting platform.