Integrating Jython Cpython

Question

I am about to begin a project where I will likely use PyQt or Pyside.

I will need to interface with a buggy 3rd party piece of server software that provides C++ and Java APIs. The Java APIs are a lot easier to use because you get Exceptions where with the C++ libraries you get segfaults. Also, the Python bindings to the Java APIs are automatic with Jython whereas the Python bindings for the C++ APIs don't exist.

So, how would a CPython PyQt client application be able to communicate with these Java APIs? How would you go about it?

Would you have another separate Java process on the client that serializes / pickles objects and communicates with the PyQt process over a socket?

I don't want to re-invent the wheel... is there some sort of standard interface for these types of things? Some technology I should look into? RPC, Corba, etc?

Thanks, ~Eric

Answer 1

If you want to maintain complete isolation and increase your robustness (the 3rd party library going down and not taking your client, and if it's buggy I would recommend that) then perhaps something like CORBA is the way forwards. Don't forget that Java comes with a CORBA implementation as standard, so you just need to generate your C proxy from the IDL.

Swig may be of interest if you want to run stuff in-process. It simplifies the binding of components in different languages. Note in particular that it generates bindings for Python and Java.

Answer 2

If the criteria is not reinventing the wheel, there is the SimpleXMLRPCServer and xmlrpclib modules available in the standard library. They should work in Jython too.

Answer 3

There appear to be Java bindings for Qt. ( Google: "Java Qt bindings" )

Maybe it would be simpler just to use them from Jython.

Qt Jambi : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qt_Jambi

or

Qt Java : http://sourceforge.net/projects/qtjava/

( haven't tried them myself, so no idea how well they'll work. )

And here is a relevant SO thread.

Answer 4

You can call Java from C-Python via JPype

http://jpype.sourceforge.net/

Answer 5

Please see a related question, where I recommended execnet. It seems to be the right solution to these sorts of problems if you want to write the integration in Python (like me).