# New Project Creation
Creating a Python plugin from scratch could be done manually or with the help of the project creation. The project tool helps you to start the development of a Python plugin project faster.
To create a new project, first find out where you want to place it and what to name it. Maybe you keep your python projects under your user folder or under C:\Projects. let's say C:\Projects and we want to name it MyPythonProject. In this case, do the following from your TAP installation folder:
tap python new-project --directory C:\Projects\MyPythonProject --project-name MyPythonProject
This should give you the following folder structure:
- MyPythonProject This is your Python module named MyPythonProject.
- MyPythonProject/TestInstrument.py This is an example of in instrument, it can be deleted.
- MyPythonProject/TestStepExample.py This is also an example of a test step, it can be deleted.
- MyPythonProject.Api This is a C# project, which is useful to manage the OpenTap packages you want to have .
- MyPythonProject.Api/ExampleApi.cs This file contains an example of how to create and use C# interfaces with your Python code. .
- MyPythonProject.Api/MyPythonProject.Api.csproj This file contains the C# project definition, but also which packages gets installed when you build the project
- bin (After build) This folder contains a full OpenTAP installation, with all the dependencies you defined in the csproj file above.
- MyPythonProject.sln * The C# solution file. Just ignore this.*
- package.xml * This file contains definitions for your OpenTAP package. It can be used to create a .TapPackage file which can be distributed.*
- Readme.md * Contains some information on how to get started. It can be modified at your discretion. *
Once you have the folder structure set up, you can build the project using
2. dotnet build
.
This does not build your Python code, but it installs all the packages you need to a bin folder, which contains your debug build.
After completing this command you have a full OpenTAP installation just for hosting your plugin, but you'll probably also want to install other plugins. For example, you probably want a test plan editor installed to debug and run your code.
- edit: MyPythonProject.Api/MyPythonProject.Api.csproj
Find these lines:
<!-- Uncomment one of these lines to get a test plan editor installed when you build. -->
<!-- <OpenTapPackageReference Include="Editor"/> -->
<!-- <OpenTapPackageReference Include="EditorX"/> -->
<!-- <OpenTapPackageReference Include="TUI"/> -->
Uncomment one or more of the lines containing OpenTapPackageReference to install something capable of editing a test plan.
dotnet build
again.
After this build, you should have the editor installed. If you uncommented "Editor", you can now run bin\Editor.exe. To get an test plan editor running: