Metadata Publishing Just Got Easier

pycsw is an OGC CSW server implementation written in Python. Started in 2010 (more formally announced in 2011), pycsw allows for the publishing and discovery of geospatial metadata via numerous APIs (CSW 2/CSW 3, OpenSearch, OAI-PMH, SRU), providing a standards-based metadata and catalogue component of spatial data infrastructures. pycsw is Open Source, released under an MIT license, and runs on all major platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X).

Deploy in 4 Minutes

        # Setup a virtual environment:
        virtualenv pycsw && cd pycsw && . bin/activate
        
        # Grab the pycsw source code:
        git clone https://github.com/geopython/pycsw.git && cd pycsw
        pip install -e . && pip install -r requirements-standalone.txt
        
        # Create and adjust a configuration file:
        cp default-sample.cfg default.cfg
        vi default.cfg
        # adjust paths in
        # - server.home
        # - repository.database
        # set server.url to http://localhost:8000/
        
        # Setup the database:
        pycsw-admin.py -c setup_db -f default.cfg
        
        # Load records by indicating a directory of XML files, use -r for recursive:
        pycsw-admin.py -c load_records -f default.cfg -p /path/to/xml/
        
        # Run the server:
        python ./pycsw/wsgi.py
        
        # See that it works!
        curl http://localhost:8000/?service=CSW&version=2.0.2&request=GetCapabilities

Lightweight, Fast

pycsw stays out of your way:

Just a Python library
Install in just 4 minutes
Run multiple CSW endpoints with a single install
Headless: no GUI, just simple, scriptable command line configuration/deployment
Fully compliant, transactional, extensible metadata server in 400KB

Features

Flexible

Everything is callable and configurable:

Embed within your Python application, or use standalone
Deploy via mod_wsgi, Django, Flask, Pylons, or CGI
Integrated with popular open data portal software: GeoNode, CKAN, HHypermap, Open Data Catalog
Hook up to your existing metadata database, or use pycsw's native model and import your XML files
Choose your backend: PostgreSQL (with or without PostGIS), MySQL, or hack with SQLite
Manage settings in a configuration file, database, or even pass a Python dict
Robust, byte-level testing / continuous integration

Read the Docs

Compliant

pycsw is Certified OGC Compliant and is an OGC Reference Implementation

View the Demos