docs/init.html

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<p><a href="./">up</a></p>
<h1 id="initailizing-a-dataset-collection">initailizing a dataset
collection</h1>
<p>You can create a dataset collection from Python using the
<code>init()</code> function. You need to provided a file system
friendly dataset name. Additional metadata can be added to the
collection if you need it.</p>
<h2 id="preamble">Preamble</h2>
<p>The standard approach for using dataset is using the
<code>from</code> notation for your import. The examples code assumes
you’ve done this.</p>
<div class="sourceCode" id="cb1"><pre
class="sourceCode python"><code class="sourceCode python"><span id="cb1-1"><a href="#cb1-1" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a>    <span class="im">from</span> py_dataset <span class="im">import</span> dataset</span></code></pre></div>
<h2 id="init">init()</h2>
<p>We need to have a collection name, e.g. <code>things.ds</code>. The
extension “.ds” is a convension and is not enforced by the dataset
library.</p>
<pre><code>    # We&#39;re going to save our collection name for latter
    c_name = &#39;things.ds&#39; 
    dsn = &quot;&quot; # Use a pairtree to store the collection.
    if not dataset.init(c_name, dsn):
        print(dataset.error_message())</code></pre>
<p>At this point you should have a directory (folder) on your file
system called “things.ds” it will contain a collection.json file and
several other JSON documents for managing the collection.</p>
<h2 id="annotating-your-collection-with-metadata">Annotating your
collection with metadata</h2>
<p>When you create a new collection a “codemeta.json” file is created
and placed in the root folder along side the “collection.json” file. You
can edit the codemeta.json file directory to maintain metadata about the
collection itself.</p>
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