Summary

In this chapter, we covered the different ways to extend QGIS using actions and Python scripting. We started with different types of actions and then continued to the Python Console, which offers a direct, interactive way to interact with the QGIS Python API. We also used the editor that is part of the Python Console panel and provides a better way to work on longer scripts containing loops or even multiple class and function definitions. Next, we applied our knowledge of PyQGIS to develop custom tools for the Processing Toolbox. These tools profit from Processing's automatic GUI generation capabilities, and they can be used in Graphical modeler to create geopreocessing models. Last but not least, we developed a basic plugin based on a Plugin Builder template.

With this background knowledge, you can now start your own PyQGIS experiments. There are several web and print resources that you can use to learn more about QGIS Python scripting. For the updated QGIS API documentation, check out http://qgis.org/api/. If you are interested in more PyQGIS recipes, take a look at PyQGIS Developer Cookbook at http://docs.qgis.org/testing/en/docs/pyqgis_developer_cookbook and QGIS programming books offered by Packt Publishing, as well as Gary Sherman's book The PyQGIS Programmer's Guide, Locate Press.