Automatically starting the Python console

As you become familiar with programming QGIS using Python, you'll want the Python console to always be available in QGIS. So, in this recipe, we'll add a Python startup script to QGIS to make sure the console starts when QGIS does.

Getting ready

First, you need the startup.py file, which QGIS will read at startup. You'll be able to use this file to customize different aspects of QGIS:

1. In your user directory, locate the hidden .qgis2 folder.

2. Your user folder is typically located in ~/.qgis2 on Linux and OSX and C:\Users\<username>\.qgis2 on Windows, which you can also access the %USERPROFILE% environment variable.

3. Create a Python file named startup.py.

How to do it...

1. Open the startup.py file you created.

2. Add the following lines to it:

           from console import console 
           console.console_show() 
   

How it works...

When QGIS starts, it looks for a Python script named startup.py in the user's folder and executes any code it finds there. If you have an error in the file, QGIS will display an error dialog and disable Python within QGIS.