Requirements and Installation

Requirements

gcMapExplorer is written in Python3, therefore, it requires Python3 for installation. It also requires several external Python packages.

Package Required during installation: It has to be installed before gcMapExplorer installation.

Package required after installation: These packages are installed automatically during gcMapExplorer installation.

Package required to install manually:

  • PyQt5 - It needs to be installed manually. In case of Python-3.5, it can be installed automatically from PyPI.

Installation Steps on Linux

  1. Python3 is available through package managers such as yum (Fedora, CentOs), YaST (OpenSuse) and apt-get (Ubuntu, Linux Mint). For example on ubuntu: run sudo apt-get install python3 command to install Python3.
  2. Install Cython by pip3 install Cython command.
  3. Similar to Python3, PyQt5 is available through package managers. For example on ubuntu: run sudo apt-get install python3-pyqt5 command to install Python3.
  4. Install gcMapExplorer by pip3 install gcMapExplorer command.

Installation Steps on MacOS

  1. Python3 is available through Homebrew package manager. After installing Homebrew, run brew install python3 command to install Python3.
  2. Install Cython by pip3 install Cython command.
  3. Similar to Python3, PyQt5 is available through Homebrew . Run brew install pyqt5 --with-python3 command to install pyqt5.
  4. Install gcMapExplorer by pip3 install gcMapExplorer command.

Installation Steps on Windows OS

  1. Download and install WinPython3-Qt5 . Note that WinPython should include PyQt5.
  2. Open WinPython directory (Default is in C:/ drive) and click on “WinPython Command Prompt”. It will open a command prompt terminal.
  3. Run pip install gcMapExplorer in command prompt terminal to install gcMapExplorer

Note

To execute gcMapExplorer command, simple command prompt terminal (from Start Menu) might not work. Use “WinPython Command Prompt” present in WinPython directory to launch or execute gcMapExplorer.

Updating gcMapExplorer

To update the gcMapExplorer package use following command:

pip install --upgrade --no-deps gcMapExplorer

OR

pip3 install --upgrade --no-deps gcMapExplorer

--upgrade flag is used to update the package and --no-deps prevents update of dependent packages like numpy, scipy, matplotlib etc.

Configuring gcMapExplorer

Presently two types of global options are required.
  • Scratch Directory to dump intermediate temporary files
  • Location to bigWigInfo and bigWigToWig tool

These options are stored in a configuration file. During first use of gcMapExplorer, Scratch Directory is set to by default temporary directory depending on OS. Location to external tools can be set by either manually opening and editing configuration file or through gcMapExplorer Python module (see below).

For quick look to configuration file and cleaning scratch directory, gcMapExplorer config command can be used:

Configuration using gcMapExplorer Python modules: