Introduction

This is a Python project template with a configuration script that saves the data paths to config.ini. Publishing to PyPI (so you only have to install this via python3 -m pip install elfin_conjunctions) is a few extra steps and this article goes into the details.

I found this package format very useful for my data analysis projects so hopefully you will too. Feel free to copy/paste these files into your own repository and rename/delete all of the dummy names and modules.

Installation

• To install as a developer run:

    git clone git@github.com:mshumko/elfin_conjunctions.git
    cd elfin_conjunctions
  
    # Then one of these (see comment in requirement.txt):
    python3 -m pip install -e .

  or

  python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt 

Configuration

After you install the project using the above commands, run python3 -m elfin_asi_conjunctions config to add the path to the ELFIN data. It will be saved to elfin_asi_conjunctions/config.ini.

Dependencies

You'll need to install IRBEM to use the Conjunction class in conjunction.py. You'll need to compile the fortran code and then install the Python wrapper.

Structure

This folder (project_template):

• The project_template folder contains the auxiliary files required to install the project package (a folder).
  • setup.py: Installs project using setuptools. It's formatting is rapidly evolving, but a popular location to save the project metadata in setup.cfg. The setup.cfg metadata contains external dependencies that are installed via python3 -m pip install -e . (don't forget the period).
  • requirements.txt: the pinned project dependencies installed when you call python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt.
• The project folder contains the package source code and the folder's name becomes the package name (imported via import project).
  • __init__.py: module is executed when you call import project. Here, it contains the code to load the config.ini file
  • __main__.py: module creates the config.ini with the hard-coded paths. You can call it using python3 -m project config. Techincal note: __main__.py is executed after __init__.py, so __init__.py includes an if statement to prevent a crash.
  • library.py: A dummy project module that can be imported via import project.library or from project import library. The convention is that package source code contains functions and classes and no scripts. This is to avoid executing scripting code (code outside of any function or class) on import.
  • a_script.py: A dummy script that shows how to import project and call the hello function in project/library.py. Once project is installed, you can run a_scipt.py anywhere on your computer.