Catching up on last month’s meeting (at this month’s meeting no less!). Kent was originally going to present about the new features in Python 2.6, but was unfortunately unable to attend at the last minute. We plowed along, with Bill leading the discussion, walking through the what’s new page. This lead to some discussion about documenting your Python. Python 2.6 has started using Sphinx for the official Python documentation. Another popular package for Python documentation is Epydoc. In Kent’s absence, Shawn presented an introduction to accessing web services from Python, using both XML-RPC and SOAP. After explaining a little bit about what web services are, Shawn jumped straight into a practical example, working with bug and issue tickets in Atlassian Software’s JIRA Bug/Issue Tracker. We used the test project in the Public instance of JIRA to exercise our code. After reviewing the XML-RPC example in the JIRA documentation, we jumped into a Python prompt and using xmlrpclib from the standard library, went ahead and created this ticket in the public JIRA instance. We then referred to the Javadoc for the XML-RPC interface and interacted with our ticket, for example adding comments. Moving on to SOAP, Shawn pointed out that there are numerous SOAP libraries for Python each with their own pros and cons. He mentioned three (and has since thought of another added here): SOAPpy, ZSI, suds, and soaplib. Using SOAPpy, JIRA’s SOAP Example, and the Javadoc for the SOAP API, we again jumped to the Python prompt and manipulated our test ticket. Working with JIRA brought up the discussion of other bug tracking packages. Two packages, both written in Python, are Roundup and Trac. Arc showed us Ohloh and that they have an API and examples. Arc also mentioned a Python web templating library called Genshi. And lastly, for those wondering at the end of the meeting about “Zombie Strippers” being on my Google Calendar…it is a hilarious horror/comedy starring Jenna Jameson and Robert Englund (yes that Robert Englund). It’s coming out on DVD and Blu-Ray on October 28th. For more about the film see the offical Sony Pictures website, IMDB entry, and the Wikipedia page. -Shawn