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initailizing a dataset collection

You can create a dataset collection from Python using the init() function. You need to provided a file system friendly dataset name. Additional metadata can be added to the collection if you need it.

Preamble

The standard approach for using dataset is using the from notation for your import. The examples code assumes you’ve done this.

    from py_dataset import dataset

init()

We need to have a collection name, e.g. things.ds. The extension “.ds” is a convension and is not enforced by the dataset library.

    # We're going to save our collection name for latter
    c_name = 'things.ds' 
    dsn = "" # Use a pairtree to store the collection.
    if not dataset.init(c_name, dsn):
        print(dataset.error_message())

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.

Annotating your collection with metadata

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.