The Persistence Server is an XBMC script designed to provide a background server that holds persistent objects in memory and makes them available (via socket connections) to other client scripts and plugins. Please note that Persistence is an advanced developer's tool because it is useless as a standalone script, and any plugins or scripts that connect to it must be configured properly to act as clients.

Status: Testing
Download: Full download

Installation and Operation:
In order for the script to run properly, "Persistence.py" should be copied to your XBMC installation's "/scripts/Persistence/" subfolder, along with the other Python script included in this distribution, "Unpersist.py". You will also need to copy "ClassHandler.py" into the folder of the plugin or script you want to use as a client.

In addition to the Persistence files, you'll need to copy the attached "comm.py" to either the "/scripts/Persistence/" folder AND your client's folder, or to your XBMC's "/python/Lib/" subfolder. I recommend the latter, as that will make the single file available to both the client and the server.

This distribution also includes a pair of test files, "TestClient.py" and "default.py." These files are dummy clients used for development purposes. If you're not interested in modifying the Persistence server, you can ignore or delete these files. (To run them, import TestClient from a command-line Python interpreter and create a client instance with the command "client = TestClient.TestClient()" or move "default.py" (along with "TestClient.py" and "comm.py") into a folder in your XBMC's "/plugins/Videos/" subfolder and launch it as a plugin.)

In order to use Persistence, simply launch it from the script launcher. The word "(Running)" will appear next to the script's name to let you know the server is now active. Any add-ons that have been configured as Persistence scripts should be able to connect to it automatically. To close the server, run the companion script Unpersist from the script launcher.

For detailed instructions on configuring a script or plugin as a Persistence client, check out the tutorial on the XBMC Online Manual.

Changelog:
A changelog.txt file is included with the download. Below is the most recent list of changes:
Updated March 25, 2009

• Initial commit.

• Hang on exit.
  You MUST run Unpersist to interrupt the server before closing XBMC, or the whole application will lock up.
• Repeated calls to the server can generate an "Access violation" error in the C engine that I haven't been able to track down yet.

• Provide better support for multiple simultaneous connections.
• Consider allowing multiple instances of a given class definition.