Mapbox MBtiles Utilities

A Python 2.7 and 3 library for working with Mabox mbtiles v1.1

Features

Provides a lighweight Python API for reading and writing mbtiles files.

Mabox mbtiles v1.1 allow you to store geographic data as rendered image tiles or as vector tiles, along with associated metadata.

Installation

pip install pymbtiles

To install from master branch on GitHub using pip:

pip install git+https://github.com/consbio/pymbtiles.git#egg=pymbtiles --upgrade

Usage

Python API

open for reading and read a tile:

from pymbtiles import MBTiles
with MBtiles('my.mbtiles') as src:
    tile_data = src.read_tile(z=0, x=0, y=0)

returns tile data in bytes.

open for writing (existing file will be overwritten):

with MBtiles('my.mbtiles', mode='w') as out:
    out.write_tile(z=0, x=0, y=0, tile_data)

or write a bunch of tiles at once:

from pymbtiles import MBTiles, Tile

tiles = (
    Tile(z=1, x=0, y=0, tile_data=first_tile),
    ...
)

with MBtiles('my.mbtiles', mode='w') as out:
    out.write_tiles(tiles)

Use r+ mode to read and write.

Metadata is stored in the meta attribute of the mbtiles instance:

with MBtiles('my.mbtiles') as src:
    metadata = src.meta

This metadata is stored in the metadata table in the mbtiles file, and contains a number of records required or optional under the mbtiles specification .

To update metadata:

with MBtiles('my.mbtiles', 'r+') as out:
    out.meta['some_key'] = 'some_value'

You can set several values at once by passing in a new dict object:

with MBtiles('my.mbtiles', 'w') as out:
    out.meta = my_metadata_dict

Note:

• tiles are output to mbtiles format in xyz tile scheme.

Possibly useful:

• mbtileserver: a lightweight Go tile server
• tpkutils: a library for converting ArcGIS tile cache to mbtiles

Changes :

0.3.0

• all write-like operations for metadata and tiles are now overwrite by default

Credits:

Inspired by:

• mbutil
• node-mbtiles

SQL for creating mbtiles database derived from node-mbtiles

License:

See LICENSE.md