win32com.client.Dispatch works, win32com.client.GetActiveObject doesnt

Question

Im using python 2.7.9, windows 7...

The overall goal: Have another application access our custom com server (already running at this point) and send it a message to be displayed. Obviously, there needs to be a single server, multiple clients.

Im trying to use some custom code as a com server. The class was created as:

class StatusServerClass:
     _public_methods_ = ...
     _reg_progid_ = "CseStatusServerLib.CseStatusServer"
     _reg_verprogid_ = "CseStatusServerLib.CseStatusServer"
     _reg_progid_ = "CseStatusServerLib.CseStatusServer"
     _reg_clsid_ = "{<GUID here>}"
     _reg_desc_ = 'CSE Status Server'
     _typelib_guid_ = "{<typelib GUID here>}"
     _typelib_version_ = 1, 0    # Version 1.0  
     _reg_clsctx_ = pythoncom.CLSCTX_LOCAL_SERVER    
     _reg_threading_ = "Apartment"   # Not used?

     def __init__.....

and registered using:

win32com.server.register.UseCommandLine(StatusServerClass)

I can see it in regedit and as far as i know, it looks ok. The GUID is right, name is right.

Now when i go to use it, this works just fine:

self.StatusClient = Dispatch('CseStatusServerLib.CseStatusServer')

but when i want to attach to a running instance from another exe (or even another python window for debug) using:

win32com.client.GetActiveObject("CseStatusServerLib.CseStatusServer")

it just gives me:

dispatch = pythoncom.GetActiveObject(resultCLSID)
com_error: (-2147221021, 'Operation unavailable', None, None)

Tells me that its not registered?

Ive tried using the GUID, Ive tried using pythoncom.GetObject with both the ID and the GUID... no luck.

Ive tried comtypes package and get the same thing.

Any ideas on what im doing wrong? Why does Dispatch find it by name, but GetActiveObject gets mad?

Seems that Dispatch working by name would suggest that the registering worked?

What else can i verify in the regedit?

thanks!!!

UPDATED 6/6/2016

In case you haven't realized yet, I know very little about this. But I have read that for win32com.client.GetActiveObject() to work, the server needs to be in the "running object table"... and its not.

So, I found some more example code that i used to register the class this way:

import win32com.server.util
wrapped = win32com.server.util.wrap(StatusServerClass)
flags = pythoncom.REGCLS_MULTIPLEUSE|pythoncom.REGCLS_SUSPENDED

handle = pythoncom.RegisterActiveObject(wrapped,
                            StatusServerClass._reg_clsid_,flags)

and that does allow the server to show in the running object table, and i can get this:

testSW = win32com.client.GetActiveObject("CseStatusServerLib.CseStatusServer")

to return without error.

So now, I can use Dispatch or GetActiveObject just fine in python, pythonWin, and even interact with the server in Excel/VB <-> python and it appears to share namespsace.

BUT... I still cant get this IE-based third party app to use the existing server... even with GetActiveObject. Always wants to create new instance and use its own namespace... not good

Is there something with IE or Chrome that would prevent the existing server from being used? Again, it works fine in Excel/VB. The application is supposed to execute "python myscript.py" (which works fine in idle, pythonwin and cmdline), but doesnt execute the com server stuff when called from IE/Chrome App (although other python functions like file writing work just fine).

Also, seeing as how i know very little about this, by all means, suggest a better way of doing this: starting a server in python as a singleton and then accessing it from another application.

thanks!!