Programming Python, Second Edition

Windows Web Scripting Extensions

Although this book doesn’t cover the Windows-specific extensions available for Python in detail, a quick look at Internet scripting tools available to Windows programmers is in order here. On Windows, Python can be used as a scripting language for both the Active Scripting and Active Server Pages systems, which provide client- and server-side control of HTML-based applications. More generally, Python programs can also take the role of COM and DCOM clients and servers on Windows.

You should note that at this point in time, everything in this section works only on Microsoft tools, and HTML embedding runs only under Internet Explorer (on the client) and Internet Information Server (on the server). If you are interested in portability, other systems in this chapter may address your needs better (see JPython’s client-side applets, PSP’s server-side scripting support, and Zope’s server-side object publishing model). On the other hand, if portability isn’t a concern, the following techniques provide powerful ways to script both sides of a web conversation.

Active Scripting: Client-Side Embedding

Active Scripting is a technology that allows scripting languages to communicate with hosting applications. The hosting application provides an application-specific object model API, which exposes objects and functions for use in the scripting language programs.

In one if its more common roles, Active Scripting provides support that allows scripting language code ...