Eclipse setup to use python in a virtualenv

Today I will cover how to setup eclipse to use the python virtual environment we created in part 2 of this series.

When you first launch eclipse, create a new workspace and call it something relevant. I called it python273 and created it in a folder called workspaces under my home directory.

Now go ahead and install the pydev module. You can do this by going to the eclipse marketplace. Click on Help->Eclipse Marketplace… Type pydev in the find textbox and click on Go. Click on the Install button when you see the pydev module. Go through the installation and restart eclipse.

Once eclipse comes back, open the preferences pane and expand pydev and select the Interpreter - Python option. Click on the New button on that screen and fill out the interpreter name and select the path to python in your virtualenv (/Users/username/.virtualenvs/python273/bin/python)

Click on OK. Now you will be greeted with a dialogue box of all modules eclipse found. Select all the modules you want to add to eclipses pythonpath. I will just let the default be. just make sure you are only using paths which are in your virtualenv. Click OK. You should now see the following dialogue box

Just click on Proceed anyways. Then click on OK on the preferences page.  Now lets switch to pydev mode in eclipse and test our Install.

Create a new PyDev Project (just select the defaults) and then create a new module. Just write some print statements, save and then setup some debug points and start debugging the code. You should now be able to switch to debug mode and step through code.

In the next part I will walk through setting up git on your laptop and integrate github into your workflow.