Loading a vector layer from a file sample

This recipe describes the most common type of data used in QGIS, a file. In most cases, you'll start a QGIS project by loading a shapefile.

Getting ready

For ease of following the examples in this book, it is recommended that you create a directory called qgis_data in your root or user directory, which provides a short pathname. This setup will help prevent the occurrence of any frustrating errors resulting from path-related issues on a given system. In this recipe and others, we'll use a point shapefile of New York City museums, which you can download from https://geospatialpython.googlecode.com/svn/NYC_MUSEUMS_GEO.zip.

Unzip this file and place the shapfile's contents in a directory named nyc within your qgis_data directory.

How to do it...

Now, we'll walk through the steps of loading a shapefile and adding it to the map, as follows:

1. Start QGIS.
2. From the Plugins menu, select Python Console.
3. In the Python console, create the layer:

   layer...