KERNEL Services for end user (Python interface)

In a SALOME application, distributed components, servers and clients use the CORBA middleware for comunication. CORBA interfaces are defined via idl files. All the different CORBA interfaces are available for users in Python, see CORBA interfaces below.

For some general purpose services, CORBA interfaces have been encapsulated in order to provide a simple interface (encapsulation is generally done in C++ classes, and a Python SWIG interface is also generated from C++, to ensure a consistent behavior between C++ modules and Python modules or user script).

General purpose services

SALOME services access from a Python shell

See Salome Application Concept for detailed instructions on how to launch a Python interpreter with full access to the SALOME environment and services.

You can use the embedded Python interpreter in Graphical User Interface, or an external interpreter, with:

./runSession
python

In either cases, SALOME services access is done with:

import salome
salome.salome_init()

In the embedded interpreter, it is already done, but there is no problem to do it several times, so it is preferable to add these instructions systematically in your scripts, to allow them to work in all configurations. See Using salome.py module for a short description of most useful variables and functions.

Container and component instanciation

See SALOME_LifeCycleCORBA for the C++ interface (Python interface obtained with SWIG is very similar).

In the following example, a test component provided in KERNEL is launched in the local container, "FactoryServer", created when SALOME starts:

import salome
salome.salome_init()
   
import LifeCycleCORBA
lcc = LifeCycleCORBA.LifeCycleCORBA()
obj=lcc.FindOrLoad_Component("FactoryServer","SalomeTestComponent")
   
import Engines
comp=obj._narrow(Engines.TestComponent)
 
comp.Coucou(1)

The answer is something like:

'TestComponent_i : L = 1'

The _narrow() instruction is not always mandatory in Python, but sometimes useful to be sure you have got the right type of object. Here, Testcomponent interface is defined in CORBA module Engines. With this example, it works also without the _narrow() instruction:

obj.Coucou(1)

In the next example, a component instance is created in a specific Container defined by it's computer hostname and it's name. Here we use the local computer. Note that in Utils_Identity, Utils_Identity::getShortHostName() gives the short hostname of the computer, without domain suffixes, which is used in SALOME. The container process is created here if it does not exists, and a new component instance is created:

import salome
salome.salome_init()
import LifeCycleCORBA
lcc = LifeCycleCORBA.LifeCycleCORBA()

import Utils_Identity
host  = Utils_Identity.getShortHostName()

import Engines
params={}
params['hostname']=host
params['container_name']='myContainer'
comp=lcc.LoadComponent(params,'SalomeTestComponent')
comp.Coucou(1)

If you want to get a list of containers and component instances, client object from orbmodule provides a list:

import orbmodule
clt=orbmodule.client()
clt.showNS()

The list looks like:

Logger.
ContainerManager.object
Containers.dir
  cli70ac.dir
    FactoryServerPy.object
    SuperVisionContainer.object
    FactoryServer.object
    FactoryServer.dir
      SalomeTestComponent_inst_1.object
    myContainer.object
    myContainer.dir
      SalomeTestComponent_inst_1.object
      SalomeTestComponent_inst_2.object
Registry.object
Kernel.dir
  ModulCatalog.object
  Session.object
Study.dir
  Study2.object
  extStudy_1.object
  extStudy_2.object
  extStudy_3.object
myStudyManager.object
SalomeAppEngine.object

File transfer service

See SALOME_FileTransferCORBA for the C++ interface (Python interface obtained with SWIG is very similar).

The following example shows how to tranfer a file from a remote host to the client computer. Remote hostname is 'cli76cc', we would like to copy 'tkcvs_8_0_3.tar.gz' from remote to local computer. A full pathname is required. A container is created on remote computer if it does not exist, to handle the file transfer:

import salome
salome.salome_init()

import LifeCycleCORBA
remotefile="/home/prascle/tkcvs_8_0_3.tar.gz"
aFileTransfer=LifeCycleCORBA.SALOME_FileTransferCORBA('cli76cc',remotefile)
localFile=aFileTransfer.getLocalFile()

CORBA Naming service access

See SALOME_NamingService for the C++ interface. The Python interface SALOME_NamingServicePy::SALOME_NamingServicePy_i is not yet derived from the C++ interface and offers only the most useful functions.

All IDL Interfaces

1. Containers and component life cycle, File transfer service
   • Engines : engines CORBA module.
   • Engines::EngineComponent : generic component interface. All SALOME components inherit this interface.
   • Engines::Container : host for C++ and Python components components instances
   • Engines::fileTransfer : agent for file transfer created by a container copy a local file to a distent client
   • Engines::fileRef : reference to a file, used by a container for file transfers
   • Engines::ContainerManager : unique instance, in charge of container creation on remote computers
   • Engines::MPIContainer : a parallel implementation for containers and components
   • Engines::MPIObject
2. Study management
   • SALOMEDS : SALOMEDS CORBA module
   • SALOMEDS.idl :

This file contains a set of interfaces used for creation, management and modification of the Study.