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LiveLab offers easy entry to Python and NDS.Live

3. May 2022

Spring is here, so how about a visit to the sandbox? No, don’t worry, we don’t mean the playground around the corner. After all, there’s NDS.Live – and plenty of opportunities to test and experiment around while exploring the future of driving.

LiveLab is a cross-platform Python sandbox to develop cloud-based NDS.Live map services. It provides an easy entry to work with Python and NDS.Live, especially for users who might be new to both! You can run LiveLab on Windows, Linux or macOS. LiveLab comes with a lot of example scripts to cover typical use-cases of connected map data exchanges, including service discovery using the NDS.Live Registry. These scripts complement the tutorials that are offered in the Developer Portal.

Sandbox with toys
Users who are new to Python and NDS.Live can work with the LiveLab sandbox.

The app provides both high-level map feature- and low-level binary layer-access. For example, you can view a road with all its geometry and attributes gathered from separate data layers. On the other hand, you can also use LiveLab to inspect the binary contents of individual SmartLayers and DataLayers.

LiveLab SmartLayers and DataLayers
LiveLab can be used to inspect binary contents of individual SmartLayers and DataLayers.
Image Source: NDS Association

A major component of LiveLab is also its integration with the NDS.Live MapViewer. You can not only use it to view both NDS.Live and NDS.Classic map data simultaneously, but even interact with the MapViewer through Python in LiveLab to display custom layers or interactive features.

LiveLab Git repositories
LiveLab has built-in Git repositories which are updated as soon as new functionality is available.
Image Source: NDS Association

Expert users can also use all the convenient Python functionality provided by LiveLab outside of the application in a custom Python environment, as the underlying libraries are deployed to the Python Package registry pip.nds.live! Both LiveLab and our pip.nds.live registry are also accessible to public members registering through the NDS.Live Developer Portal.

The flexibility of Python allows NDS to update the functionality of LiveLab without having to go through a full release cycle. LiveLab has built-in Git repositories which are updated as soon as new functionality is available. This way, LiveLab can keep up with the agile release process of NDS.Live.

Give it a try and let us know what you think!

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