[python-win32] Calling (D)COM Server from another PC

[Tim Golden]

| Hello together,
| this question might be foolish, but after quite some search I 
| could not find
| how to make use of DCOM with the current win32com package.
| I tested out the DispatchEx which takes as its second 
| parameter a 'machine',
| probably either the hostname or the IP. I tried to invoke 
| methods of the
| Internet Explorer on other PCs in the network, and actually 
| it worked (no
| exception thrown), but on the target machine no changes could be seen
| (IE.Visible=1 would make a IE Window visible but it didn't do 
| anything on
| the other pc).
| So does someone of you know how to make use of DCOM, ie 
| calling COM or OLE
| objects on other PCs.

Certainly DispatchEx works ok for automating via
DCOM. However, I don't know what's defined for how
visible the thing is on the other machine's desktop.
For example, the following code will correctly create
a new Excel Workbook, put 5 in its top-left cell and
save it on the other machine's disk:

<code>

import win32com.client

xl = win32com.client.DispatchEx ("Excel.Application", "VOGBP200")

#
# Otherwise it may popup an "Are you sure?"
#  dialog box -- which you won't see and
#  can't respond to!
#
xl.DisplayAlerts = 0

ws = xl.Workbooks.Add ().ActiveSheet
ws.Cells (1, 1).Value = 5
xl.ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs ("temp.xls")
xl.Quit ()

</code>

Now, I tried putting a "Visible = 1" in and nothing
happened, so I'm guessing that -- since DCOM's not
really intended to be a LanDesk / NetOp sort of 
thing -- that you can't make remote apps Visible.
But I'm guessing.

TJG


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