What this book covers

Chapter 1, Getting Started with QGIS, shows you how to install and run the QGIS application, and introduces the three main ways in which Python can be used with QGIS.

Chapter 2, The QGIS Python Console, explores the QGIS Python Console window, and explains how it acts as a useful tool while building your own custom mapping applications. It also gives you a taste of what can be done with Python and QGIS, and improves your confidence and familiarity with the QGIS environment.

Chapter 3, Learning the QGIS Python API, introduces the Python libraries available for the QGIS Python developer, and shows how these libraries can be used to work with geospatial data and create useful and interesting maps based on your geospatial data.

Chapter 4, Creating QGIS Plugins, introduces the concept of a QGIS plugin, and explains how to write a plugin using Python. We take an in-depth look at how plugins work, and how to create a useful geospatial application as a QGIS plugin. We also look at the possibilities and limitations of QGIS plugins.

Chapter 5, Using QGIS in an External Application, completes the process of building standalone Python applications that make use of the QGIS Python libraries. You will learn how to create a wrapper script to handle platform-specific dependencies, design and build a simple but complete standalone mapping application, and learn about the structure of an application built on top of QGIS. Along the way, you will become a far more competent QGIS programmer as you build your own turnkey mapping application from scratch.

Chapter 6, Mastering the QGIS Python API, delves once more into the PyQGIS library, looking at some more advanced aspects of this library, as well as various techniques for working with QGIS using Python.

Chapter 7, Selecting and Editing Features in a PyQGIS Application, looks at how Python programs built using PyQGIS can allow the user to select, add, edit, and delete geospatial features within a map interface.

Chapter 8, Building a Complete Mapping Application Using Python and QGIS, covers the process of designing and building a complete turnkey mapping application called "ForestTrails". You will design the application, implement the overall user interface, and construct a suitable high-resolution basemap for use by the application.

Chapter 9, Completing the ForestTrails Application, covers the completion of the implementation of the "ForestTrails" mapping application by implementing the various map-editing tools, as well as writing a feature to find the shortest available path between two points on the map.