A huge addition to the TIBCO Spotfire Developer license in Spotfire 3.1 is the ability to use a scripting language to add document-specific scripts to Action Controls in the Text Area. These scripts have access to the entire Spotfire C# API and can be executed in both Professional and the Web Player! This will open up an entirely new frontier in the development of sophisticated Spotfire Analytic Applications that behave exactly like the application author wants.

(This new functionality will be an especially welcome addition to DecisionSite power users who built a lot of Guides with JavaScript/COM in DecisionSite!)

IronPython is the scripting language that is supported with this new functionality. IronPython is Microsoft’s officially supported implementation of the Python language and interpreted through the .NET Framework. All the software needed to write and execute Python scripts is deployed with the Spotfire platform engine. Python is an easy to learn language, but in practice the majority of the code you will write behind Active Controls will require much, much less knowledge of the Python syntax and much, much more knowledge of the Spotfire C# API. If you do want to learn the details of the IronPython/Python syntax, Microsoft’s

http://ironpython.net/ site is a great place to start.

Watch the Spotfire Technology Network, this Knowledge Base and the User Community for a lot more information and examples on the power of IronPython scripting to solve many challenges, but the best place to get started is with the Using Scripts in the Text Area topic of the user manual. It takes you through the steps to build and deploy your first script along with a number of useful example scripts.