Xstar atomic database: the PyXstar package

We present a progress report on the development of PyXstar, a Python package to manage the data (input, output, intermediate, atomic database, and model-grids) associated with the XSTAR code for treating photoionized and collisionally ionized plasmas. The PyXstar modular structure and database retrieval scheme are described, and its functionality is illustrated with Python functions and classes for performing database searches. We briefly compare PyXstar with two other Python spectrum modeling tools: PyNeb and PyAtomDB.