Installing PhotonLib

What is PhotonLib?

PhotonLib is the C++ and Java vendor dependency that accompanies PhotonVision. We created this vendor dependency to make it easier for teams to retrieve vision data from their integrated vision system.

PhotonLibPy is a minimal, pure-python implementation of PhotonLib.

Online Install - Java/C++

Click on the WPI icon on the top right of your VS Code window or hit Ctrl+Shift+P (Cmd+Shift+P on macOS) to bring up the command palette. Type, “Manage Vendor Libraries” and select the “WPILib: Manage Vendor Libraries” option. Then, select the “Install new library (online)” option.

../../../_images/adding-offline-library.png

Paste the following URL into the box that pops up:

https://maven.photonvision.org/repository/internal/org/photonvision/photonlib-json/1.0/photonlib-json-1.0.json

Note

It is recommended to Build Robot Code at least once when connected to the Internet before heading to an area where Internet connectivity is limited (for example, a competition). This ensures that the relevant files are downloaded to your filesystem.

Refer to The WPILib docs for more details on installing vendor libraries.

Offline Install - Java/C++

Download the latest PhotonLib release from our GitHub releases page (named something like photonlib-VERSION.zip`), and extract the contents to $HOME/wpilib/YEAR. This adds PhotonLib maven artifacts to your local maven repository. PhotonLib will now also appear available in the “install vendor libraries (offline)” menu in WPILib VSCode. Refer to the WPILib docs for more details on installing vendor libraries offline.

Install - Python

Add photonlibpy to pyproject.toml.

# Other pip packages to install
requires = [
    "photonlibpy",
]

See The WPILib/RobotPy docs for more information on using pyproject.toml.

Install Specific Version - Java/C++

In cases where you want to test a specific version of PhotonLib, make sure you have finished the steps in Online Install - Java/C++ and then manually change the version string in the PhotonLib vendordep json file(at /path/to/your/project/vendordep/photonlib.json) to your desired version.

../../../_images/photonlib-vendordep-json.png