Python Magazine

by Chad Cooper

Let's face it, using Python, we can pull data from virtually anywhere in the corporate enterprise: databases, text files, or other documents. But how can we easily visualize data that has place associated with it? Well, we turn to Python and the API of a popular web-mapping application, that's how.

by Arkadiusz Wahlig

Skype is one of the most popular VoIP clients and instant messengers, with features like voice and video calls, and chats. What isn't as well known is the fact that Skype's functionality can be extended using external programs. This article explains how to create extensions using Python thanks to the Skype4Py library. We will focus on some examples to show what this technology could be used for.

by Matthew B. Doar

Many web applications include an API that lets you interact with them from the command line as well as with a browser. In this article, Matthew shows how to build a command line interface for JIRA, a well-known issue tracking system, using Python and SOAP. JIRA is a Java application, but using SOAP allows you access to many of its features using just Python.

by Brian Jones

There are a great many tools available today that make databases easier for developers to deal with. Whether it's a simple administrative GUI like phpMyAdmin, a simple query interface, an Access-like form generator, or full-blown object-relational mappers (ORMs), anything coders wish to do with a database appears to be right at their fingertips. However, none of these tools (perhaps no tool) can help developers around the most fundamental database problem facing their projects: the design of the data model.

by Brian Jones

Amidst all of the hype surrounding new technologies that are helping to build what is being called "Web 2.0", it's easy to get lost in a sea of buzzwords and make these beautiful streams of data we seek to master fall into the background.

by Mark Mruss

Of all the tasks assigned to programmers, commenting code and writing documentation are among the least liked. This article introduces you to Python's documentation strings. While they won't make commenting your code any more enjoyable, they will provide a systematic approach to doing it, as well as access to additional tools for documentation generation and testing.

by Doug Hellmann

IPython is a feature-rich interactive shell for Python developers. Virtualenv creates isolated development environments so you can test or install packages without introducing conflicts. This month, Doug examines how both tools can make your life a little easier.

by Steve Holden

People who haven't used databases from Python often don't realize how easy it can be. In this article Steve offers a few hints and some pointers to the more advanced systems that can save you even more time.