Marble/Runners/MarblePythonLoadingKML

Loading KML files into Marble

Tutorial Series	Marble Python Tutorial
Previous	Tutorial 3 - Basic Interactions with MarbleWidget
What's Next	Tutorial 5 - Loading OSM files into MarbleWidget
Further Reading	n/a

Loading KML files into a Marble Widget

Note

the documentation for the Marble Python bindings are currently not available online. They can instead be found in the source code at the location: src/bindings/python/html/marble/Marble.html.

Marble uses so-called runners to calculate routes, do reverse geocoding, parse files and search for placemarks (cities, addresses, points of interest, ...). This tutorial shows how to open a .kml (or .gpx, .osm, ...) file and display it into the Marble Widget.

#!/usr/bin/env python
from PyQt4.QtCore import *
from PyQt4.QtGui import *
from PyKDE4.marble import *
import sys
import os

def main():
    app = QApplication(sys.argv)

    # check the file was loaded
    if(len(sys.argv) < 2):
      print("Usage: python " + sys.argv[0] + " file.kml")
      return 1
    # load file
    inputFile = os.path.abspath(sys.argv[-1])

    print(inputFile)

    # create the marble widget
    marble = Marble.MarbleWidget()

    # resize the widget and add a window title
    marble.resize(800, 600)
    marble.setWindowTitle("loadKML")

    # Load the OpenStreetMap map
    marble.setMapThemeId("earth/openstreetmap/openstreetmap.dgml")

    # center on Bucharest and Zoom
    marble.centerOn(Marble.GeoDataCoordinates(26.0783, 44.4671, 0, Marble.GeoDataCoordinates.Degree));
    marble.setZoom(2200)

    # add the kml file to the model
    marble.model().addGeoDataFile(inputFile)

    # add the widget to the KMainWindow
    marble.show()

    # run the app
    app.exec_()

main()

Copy and paste the code above into a text editor. Then save it as loading_kml.py and run it:

python loading_kml.py some-file.kml

You should end up with a map displaying your kml file. For an example file, download and unpack Bucharest.kml (a LinearRing representing Bucharest's city boundaries), place it in the same folder as your loading_kml.py file and run python loading_kml.py bucharest.kml. The result should be similar to this:

Note

The same method works for loading other file types too, like OpenStreetMap (.osm), GPX and Shapefiles (.shp).

Note

If you provide maps in your application please check the Terms of Use of the map material. The map material that is shipped with Marble is licensed in the spirit of Free Software. This usually means at least that the authors should be credited and that the license is mentioned. E.g. for OpenStreetMap the license is CC-BY-SA. Other map data shipped with Marble is either public domain or licensed in the spirit of the BSD license.