PyWPS runs on Python 2.7, 3.3 or higher. PyWPS is currently tested and developed on Linux (mostly Ubuntu). In the documentation we take this distribution as reference.

Prior to installing PyWPS, Git and the Python bindings for GDAL must be installed in the system. In Debian based systems these packages can be installed with a tool like apt:

$ sudo apt-get install git python-gdal

Alternatively, if GDAL is already installed on your system you can install the GDAL Python bindings via pip with:

$ pip install GDAL==1.10.0 --global-option=build_ext --global-option="-I/usr/include/gdal"

Using pip

The easiest way to install PyWPS is using the Python Package Index (PIP). It fetches the source code from the repository and installs it automatically in the system. This might require superuser permissions (e.g. sudo in Debian based systems):

$ sudo pip install -e git+https://github.com/geopython/pywps.git@master#egg=pywps-dev

.. todo::

  * document Debian / Ubuntu package support

Manual installation

Manual installation of PyWPS requires downloading the source code followed by usage of the setup.py script. An example again for Debian based systems (note the usage of sudo for install):

$ tar zxf pywps-x.y.z.tar.gz
$ cd pywps-x.y.z/

Then install the package dependencies using pip:

$ pip install -r requirements.txt
$ pip install -r requirements-gdal.txt  # for GDAL Python bindings (if python-gdal is not already installed by `apt-get`)
$ pip install -r requirements-dev.txt  # for developer tasks

To install PyWPS system-wide run:

$ sudo python setup.py install

For Developers

Installation of the source code using Git and Python's virtualenv tool:

$ virtualenv my-pywps-env
$ cd my-pywps-env
$ source bin/activate
$ git clone https://github.com/geopython/pywps.git
$ cd pywps

Then install the package dependencies using pip as described in the Manual installation section. To install PyWPS:

$ python setup.py install

Note that installing PyWPS via a virtualenv environment keeps the installation of PyWPS and its dependencies isolated to the virtual environment and does not affect other parts of the system. This installation option is handy for development and / or users who may not have system-wide administration privileges.

To use PyWPS the user must code processes and publish them through a service. A demo service is available that makes up a good starting point for first time users. This launches a very simple built-in server (relying on flask), which is good enough for testing but probably not appropriate for production. It can be cloned directly into the user area:

$ git clone https://github.com/geopython/pywps-demo.git

It may be run right away through the demo.py script. First time users should start by studying the demo project structure and then code their own processes.

Full more details please consult the :ref:`process` section. The demo service contains some basic processes too, so you could get started with some examples (like area, buffer, feature_count and grassbuffer). These processes are to be taken just as inspiration and code documentation - most of them do not make any sense (e.g. sayhello).