Installing GDAL / OGR for Python on Windows

Installing GDAL/OGR for Python on Windows is now even easier!

Python and Spatialite (32-bit) on 64-bit Windows

For some reason it is insanely difficult to use Spatialite from Python on Windows. In theory the following should create and connect to an in-memory database, then load the Spatialite extension (after mod_spatialite and friends have been put somewhere and added to your system Path):

import sqlite3

with sqlite3.connect(':memory:') as conn:

	conn.enable_load_extension(True)

	conn.execute("SELECT load_extension('mod_spatialite')")

However, this fails stating: OperationalError: The specified module could not be found.

A simple CherryPy RESTful JSON server

A simple CherryPy RESTful JSON server

I have recently been working with CherryPy. It seems really cool, but it is quite hard to find simple and clear online examples for some things. In this case I wanted to set up a RESTful server that can accept POST requests containing JSON/GeoJSON, and return JSON/GeoJSON, with the request coming from JavaScript in a web page (no jQuery).

Enable Python installations that were not installed by ArcGIS to access Arcpy functionality

ArcGIS installs its own version of Python that is not officially registered with the system but can in reality be used just like a normal install. I personally prefer just to use this as my primary Python, but it is not always possible. The instructions below can help you let a different Python install access and use Arcpy

Using Arcpy with multiprocessing – Part 3

The following post builds upon the script and methods developed in Part 1 and Part 2, so read them first!

The purpose of this series is not to give you a one line example that you can copy and paste to your code, but step through the process and make the underlying principles clear.

Parallelised Composite Geocoding script

The code below is an implementation of a Composite Address Locator for geocoding that has multiprocessor parallelisation capabilities and can be resumed if interrupted.

Locating Python and adding it to your system Path

To access the Python interpreter and run Python scripts you need to know the location of python.exe for your installation. To make running scripts easier you may wish to add this location to your system Path, either temporarily or permanently. This post describes how to do each of these as well as some general considerations.