Main Page Basics, Building SPICE Applications (Python)
## Table of Contents
       Basics, Building SPICE Applications (Python)
          Note About HTML Links
          Environment Set-up
          Confirm that Python can access SpiceyPy
          A simple example program
          SpiceyPy Documentation
Top # Basics, Building SPICE Applications (Python) March 01, 2023 Top ## Note About HTML Links The HTML version of this lesson contains links pointing to various HTML documents provided with the Toolkit. All of these links are relative and, in order to function, require this document to be in a certain location in the Toolkit HTML documentation directory tree. In order for the links to be resolved, if not done already by installing the lessons package under the Toolkit's ``doc/html'' directory, create a subdirectory called ``lessons'' under the ``doc/html'' directory of the ``cspice/'' tree and copy this document to that subdirectory before loading it into a Web browser. Top ## Environment Set-up In order to install SpiceyPy, using pip, first install install and or update pip, setuptools, wheel, and numpy:
       $ pip install -U pip setuptools wheel
       $ pip install -U numpy
Then install SpiceyPy:
       $ pip install spiceypy
Using anaconda, miniconda or conda:
       $ conda config --add channels conda-forge
       $ conda install spiceypy
The instructions above are for SpiceyPy 5.1.2. Instructions for earlier and later SpiceyPy versions may be different. Please refer to the SpiceyPy documentation for additional details. Top ## Confirm that Python can access SpiceyPy Run pip list in order to get a list of the third party libraries that are currently available to your Python installation:
          $ pip list --format=columns
          Package    Version
          ---------- -------
          ...
          numpy      1.23.3
          ...
          pip        22.2.2
          ...
          setuptools 65.4.1
          ...
          spiceypy   5.1.2
          ...
          wheel      0.37.1
          ...
Top ## A simple example program This script calls the spiceypy function 'tkvrsn' and outputs the return value. File tk_ver.py:
       from __future__ import print_function
       import spiceypy

       def print_ver():
               """Prints the TOOLKIT version
               """
               print(spiceypy.tkvrsn('TOOLKIT'))

       if __name__ == '__main__':
               print_ver()
From the command line, execute the function:
       $ python tk_ver.py
       CSPICE_N0067
From Python, execute the function:
       $ python
       >>> import tkvrsn
       >>> tkvrsn.print_ver()
       CSPICE_N0067
Top ## SpiceyPy Documentation The current version of SpiceyPy does not provide extensive documentation, but there are several ways to navigate your way through the Python version of the toolkit. One simple way is to use the standard Python mechanisms. All interfaces implemented in SpiceyPy can be listed using the standard built-in function dir(), which returns an alphabetized list of names comprising (among) other things, the API names. If you need to get additional information about an API parameters, the standard built-in function help() could be used:
       >>> import spiceypy
       >>> help(spiceypy.tkvrsn)
which produces
       Help on function tkvrsn in module spiceypy.spiceypy:

       tkvrsn(item: str) -> str
           Given an item such as the Toolkit or an entry point name, return
           the latest version string.

           https://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/naif/toolkit_docs/C/cspice/
           tkvrsn_c.html

           :param item: Item for which a version string is desired.
           :return: the latest version string.
As indicated in the help on the function, the complete documentation is available on the CSPICE toolkit docs. Therefore it is recommended to have the CSPICE toolkit installed locally in order to access its documentation offline.