topic Re: ArcGISPro Python toolbox problem with module.py cache copy problem in ArcGIS Pro Questions

ArcGISPro Python toolbox problem with module.py cache copy problem

PaulKennedy1 — Thu, 25 Oct 2018 10:43:14 GMT

Afternoon,

I am developing a toolbox for arcgispro 2.2.3.

I have the regular template .pyt file, and import a regular module.py file which contains my custom code. I can run the script just fine in arcgispro geoprocessing facility.

If I then modify the .py file, I then refresh in pro. The pyt flie appears to be refreshed, but NOT the .py file. The only way I can get pro to re-read the .py file is to close arcgis and re-open it again. It then reads the py file.

It would appear that pro holds a copy of the toolbox in a different folder to the folder I am editing?

If I put ALL my code into the pyt file it is ok, but that is very poor programming practise.

many thanks

import arcpy

import surveyestimator

import geodetic

import math

VERSION = "1.0"

class Toolbox(object😞

def __init__(self😞

"""Define the toolbox (the name of the toolbox is the name of the .pyt file)."""

self.label = "Toolbox"

self.alias = ""

# List of tool classes associated with this toolbox

self.tools = [SurveyEstimatorTool]

def execute(self, parameters, messages😞

"""Compute a survey line plan from a selected polygon in the input featureclass."""

arcpy.AddMessage ("GG Survey Estimator : %s " % (VERSION))

sse = surveyestimator.surveyEstimator()

sse.compute(parameters)

Re: ArcGISPro Python toolbox problem with module.py cache copy problem

PaulKennedy1 — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 14:07:43 GMT

Evening,

would appreciate if anyone has any thoughts on this. I am rather stuck right now. I would prefer to not have all my code in the .pyt file. It feels really dodgy and amateurish.

Re: ArcGISPro Python toolbox problem with module.py cache copy problem

DanPatterson_Retired — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 18:41:37 GMT

Is there a particular reason that you are using a pyt?

Is it for a particular functionality that they offer that custom toolboxes don't

Comparing custom and Python toolboxes—Geoprocessing and Python | ArcGIS Desktop

editing and debugging info is in the link.

I haven't found a use case for pyt over custom yet, so I am curious, since I find editing easy and the toolbox behaves as expected after edits are complete

Re: ArcGISPro Python toolbox problem with module.py cache copy problem

PaulKennedy1 — Sun, 28 Oct 2018 07:34:10 GMT

No particular reason. was using a PYT as the guidance was that python is the future path and as I am a python guy, I thought it was a good fit.

If the custom toolbox re-scans a regular .py file, I would be happy to migrate over. Do you know if that is the case?

Re: ArcGISPro Python toolbox problem with module.py cache copy problem

DanPatterson_Retired — Sun, 28 Oct 2018 10:52:47 GMT

Paul, I have been using python 3 for years and to re-import/re-load an imported module you can include

importlib — The implementation of import — Python 3.7.1 documentation

The SO site has a good example How do I unload (reload) a Python module? - Stack Overflow

You can put this in your main script

from importlib import reload

import yourmodule

then you can have a line which you comment/uncomment while testing

# reload(yourmodule) # uncomment for testing

I use Spyder as my python IDE so you can skip all that by setting Spyder to use complete re-imports by default to ensure that changes are detected in the imported module by the main module. I do find uncommenting/commenting out the reload line just as easy

/blogs/dan_patterson/2018/01/28/spyder

For python 2, it is simply a builtin function

2. Built-in Functions — Python 2.7.15 documentation

reload in python 2.7

Re: ArcGISPro Python toolbox problem with module.py cache copy problem

DanPatterson_Retired — Sun, 28 Oct 2018 10:58:49 GMT

I did a blog or two on simple toolbox/tool creation and script documentation for use in Pro which might be of use.

/blogs/dan_patterson/2016/05/19/toolbox-creation-in-arcgis-pro

/blogs/dan_patterson/2018/03/27/script-documenting-it-is-all-in-the-docs

The use case for custom vs python tools is in the link above... so it is a 'you decide' but I haven't found a good one for pyt's yet. Until you can use qt or some other dialog creator with arc* products, I tend to use the 'wizard' approach in the custom toolbox since you can screengrab your parameters settings for documentation so you have a visual record

Re: ArcGISPro Python toolbox problem with module.py cache copy problem

PaulKennedy1 — Sun, 28 Oct 2018 12:44:31 GMT

Evening Dan

thanks so much for the reload tip. I will give it a spin and let you know if it works at my end. Keeping the python code in their natural modules has to be a good thing. A big bucket of pyt is hardly setting a good standard for future scripts.

While I like the direction ESRI is taking on python, it still looks very much like a work in progress. Using a decent IDE + debugger like VSCode would make developing scripts about ten times quicker and the resulting script would be more robust.

One day...