A wrapper for the namecoind.exe -server with integrated query opportunities, which provides more than the usual (none) info about the status of the namecoin (NMC) server.

namecoind.py

import subprocess, logging, time, threading, json, os

######################################################
# Setup; change this.
CLIENT = 'namecoin\\namecoind.exe';
LOGGER = logging.getLogger('namecoind');
FORMAT = '%(asctime)-15s %(levelname)-5s: %(message)s'
logging.basicConfig(format=FORMAT, level=logging.INFO);
#######################################################

'''
Namecoind.exe-daemon
'''
class Namecoind(threading.Thread):
    def run(self):
        try:
            subprocess.Popen(CLIENT, shell=True, stdin=None, stdout=None, stderr=None, close_fds=True)
        except Exception as e:
            print e;
            
'''
ServerException is issued when server returns errors
'''
class ServerException(Exception):
    def __init__(self, value, code=0):
        LOGGER.error(value);
        self.value = value;
        self.code = code

    def __str__(self):
        return repr(self.value) + "(" + str(self.code) + ')';

'''
Checks for availability server
'''	
def checkServer():
    try:
        nmc_call('getinfo');
    except:
        return False;
    return True;

'''
Calls the client with the method and additional args.
'''
def nmc_call(method, args = []):
    rargs = [CLIENT,method] + args;
    p = subprocess.Popen(rargs,stdout=subprocess.PIPE,stderr=subprocess.PIPE);
    out, err = p.communicate();
    if err:
        err = err[7:];
        jerr = json.loads(err.replace('\r','').replace('\n',''));
        raise ServerException(str(jerr['message']), str(jerr['code']));
    try:
        ret = json.loads(out.replace('\r','').replace('\n',''));
    except Exception as e:
        ret = out
    return ret

if __name__ == "__main__":
    # Launch server
    LOGGER.info('Launching server...');
    thread = Namecoind()
    thread.daemon = True
    thread.start()
    LOGGER.info('Server synchronizing...');

    # Check heartbeat
    while not checkServer():
        LOGGER.info('...');
        time.sleep(20)
        LOGGER.info('Server is ready for requests.');

        # CLI
        while True:
            # Process input
            val = raw_input('> ')
            arr = val.split(' ')

            # special keywords
            if arr[0] == 'exit' or arr[0] == 'quit' or arr[0] == 'stop':
                print nmc_call('stop');
                exit();
            elif arr[0] == 'status' or arr[0] == 'info':
                # Status
                try:
                    print 'status: online';
                    info = nmc_call('getinfo');
                    for item in info:a
                        print str(item) + ': ' + str(info[item]);
                except:
                    print 'status: offline';
            else:
                # Or query namecoind.exe
                try:
                    out = nmc_call(arr[0],arr[1:]);
                    print repr(out);
                except Exception as e:
                    print str(e);