Creating QGIS Plugins - Building Mapping Applications with QGIS - page 93

Getting ready
Before we can delve into the plugin development process, there are three things you will
need to do:
1. Install the Qt developer tools from the Qt developer website ( http://qt-pro-
ject.org ) .
2. Install the Python bindings for Qt, called PyQt , from ht-
tp://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk/software/pyqt . While we won't be using the
Python bindings directly, there are two command-line tools included with PyQt
that we will need.
Tip
QGIS is currently based on PyQt4. Make sure you install Version 4 of the Qt
Developer tools and the PyQt bindings so that you get the compatible version.
PyQt is available as an installer for MS Windows and in source code form for
Linux. For Mac OS X users, a binary installer is available at http://sourceforge.net/
projects/pyqtx .
3. You should install and enable the Plugin Reloader plugin for QGIS. This makes it
much easier to develop and test your plugins. To do this, you will need to turn on
experimental plugin support by selecting the Manage and Install Plugins… item
from the Plugins menu, clicking on the Settings tab, and then turning on the Show
also experimental plugins checkbox. You can then see the experimental plugins,
including the Plugin Reloader. Select this plugin and then click on the Install Plu-
gin button to install it.
The Plugin Reloader adds buttons to the QGIS toolbar that you can click on in or-
der to reload your plugin: