38.5. MiniAEFrame — Open Scripting Architecture server support

The module MiniAEFrame provides a framework for an application that can function as an Open Scripting Architecture (OSA) server, i.e. receive and process AppleEvents. It can be used in conjunction with FrameWork or standalone. As an example, it is used in PythonCGISlave.

The MiniAEFrame module defines the following classes:

class MiniAEFrame.AEServer

A class that handles AppleEvent dispatch. Your application should subclass this class together with either MiniApplication or FrameWork.Application. Your __init__() method should call the __init__() method for both classes.

class MiniAEFrame.MiniApplication

A class that is more or less compatible with FrameWork.Application but with less functionality. Its event loop supports the apple menu, command-dot and AppleEvents; other events are passed on to the Python interpreter and/or Sioux. Useful if your application wants to use AEServer but does not provide its own windows, etc.

38.5.1. AEServer Objects

AEServer.installaehandler(classe, type, callback)

Installs an AppleEvent handler. classe and type are the four-character OSA Class and Type designators, '****' wildcards are allowed. When a matching AppleEvent is received the parameters are decoded and your callback is invoked.

AEServer.callback(_object, **kwargs)

Your callback is called with the OSA Direct Object as first positional parameter. The other parameters are passed as keyword arguments, with the 4-character designator as name. Three extra keyword parameters are passed: _class and _type are the Class and Type designators and _attributes is a dictionary with the AppleEvent attributes.

The return value of your method is packed with aetools.packevent() and sent as reply.

Note that there are some serious problems with the current design. AppleEvents which have non-identifier 4-character designators for arguments are not implementable, and it is not possible to return an error to the originator. This will be addressed in a future release.