Help for Processing scripts and models

Processing has received a series of updates since the release of QGIS 2.0. (I’m currently running 2.0-20131120) One great addition I want to highlight today is the improved script editor and the help file editor.

Script editor

The improved script editor features a toolbar with commonly used tools such as undo and redo, cut, copy and paste, save and save as …, as well as very useful run algorithm and edit script help buttons. It also shows the script line numbers which makes it easier to work with while debugging code.

The model editor has a similar toolbar now which allows to export the model representation as an image, run the model or edit the model help.

Help editor

When you press the edit script help button, you get access to the new help editor. It’s easy to use: On the top, it displays the current content of the help file. On the bottom-left, it lists the different sections of the help file which can be filled with information. In the input parameters and outputs section, the help editor automatically lists the all parameters specified in the script code. Finally, in the bottom-right, you can enter the description. The resulting help file is saved in the same location as the original script under the name <scriptname>.py.help.