In this chapter, we will cover the following recipes:
Installing QGIS for development
Using the QGIS Python console
Using Python's ScriptRunner plugin
Setting up your QGIS IDE
Debugging QGIS Python scripts
Navigating the PyQGIS API
Creating a QGIS plugin
Distributing a plugin
Building a standalone application
Storing and reading global preferences
Storing and reading project preferences
Accessing the script path from within your script
Introduction
This chapter explains how to configure QGIS for automation using Python. In addition to setting up QGIS, we will also configure the free Eclipse Integrated Development Environment (IDE) with the PyDev plugin to make writing, editing, and debugging scripts easier. We will also learn the basics of different types of QGIS automated Python scripts through the PyQGIS API. Finally, we'll examine some core QGIS plugins that significantly extend the capability of QGIS.