Configuring Kivy on PyDev

Kivy installation on PyDev is a bit more involved because it requires some environment variables to be set in order to work properly, so, I thought I'd give a step-by-step on where exactly to configure that on PyDev (especially now that LiClipse: http://brainwy.github.io/liclipse/ adds support to the Kivy Language).

Note: The details below use paths based on windows, but it should be similar in other platforms.

1. Download/extract Kivy (for this example D:\bin\Kivy-1.7.2-w32\)

2. Add interpreter in Window > Preferences > Pydev > Interpreters > Python Interpreter (point to: D:\bin\Kivy-1.7.2-w32\Python\python.exe).

Note: For PyDev 3.3.3 onwards, the easier way to go there is doing: Ctrl+3 and writing 'Python interpreter' to open that preferences page (and the same thing can be used to go to a view or even activate some action).

3. Add the Kivy directory to the PYTHONPATH for this interpreter (in the same Python Interpreter page > libraries > add folder > D:\bin\Kivy-1.7.2-w32\kivy)

4. Add 'kivy' to the 'forced builtins' (again in that same page > forced builtins).

5. Add the needed environment variables (in that same page > environment):

GST_REGISTRY = D:\bin\Kivy-1.7.2-w32\gstreamer\registry.bin

GST_PLUGIN_PATH = D:\bin\Kivy-1.7.2-w32\gstreamer\lib\gstreamer-0.10

PATH = D:\bin\Kivy-1.7.2-w32;D:\bin\Kivy-1.7.2-w32\Python;D:\bin\Kivy-1.7.2-w32\gstreamer\bin;D:\bin\Kivy-1.7.2-w32\MinGW\bin;%PATH%

Alternatively, instead of adding those manually to the environment, open a cmd.exe, execute D:\bin\Kivy-1.7.2-w32\kivyenv.bat and then start Eclipse (but then you have to remember to do that manually every time -- or add it to the system environment variables -- note that you have to remember to update it if you move it or upgrade kivy).

After that, it should be possible to go to the pydev package explorer, expand the interpreter node in the tree > system libs > examples, open some example main.py and open it, then, with the editor opened used F9 to run the example (you may have to select which project should be used to get the information on the PYTHONPATH to be used as it's running as an external file).