Sharing Tools (GIS4102- GIS Programming)

We have arrived at the final assignment, can you believe it? The assignment tasked us in updating a given script and place it within a toolbox to share. The script itself created 50 random points and placed a 10000 meter buffer around them, all contained within a boundary feature. We were introduced to the sys.argv[] expression and variables for the input and output file locations were updated to use this expression in order for the script to successfully run. Next, I added dialogue explanations to the parameters to make everything more user friendly. Finally, the script was embedded into the tool and given a password. The results of which can be seen in the image provided.

With this being our final blog post, I wanted to summarize some takeaways:

• While after one course in Python am I by any means proficient, I can certainly see the benefit in knowing the language. At my current place of employment, GIS has many uses. But one of the biggest benefits is performing batch processing on large amounts of information. Having Python in my pocket, creating a script that can run several operations on a single file then move to perform the same on multiple files can be very useful. 
• Again, while not proficient, having the fundamentals down can still be beneficial. If I need to write a script, I will have a foundation to start with. There are plenty of resources provided by ArcGIS Help that can assist me in syntax and example code. 
• With any programming language, details are important. One mistake in the syntax can cause the script to not run at all. Having learned of the debugging process will assist in this, but in general, being weary of small details is a must.