Package management for Spotfire Service for Python

Spotfire Service for Python programmers in your organization can develop their own packages or take advantage of some of the thousands of compatible packages developed by other Python programmers.

The largest and most commonly-used curated repository for Python packages is the Python Package Index (pypi). Administrators should check with authors to make sure they know the location for needed packages.

Spotfire analysts can develop data functions that use these packages for either other Spotfire Analyst installations or by users of Spotfire Business Author and Consumer.

  • To share an SPK with Spotfire Analyst installations, see the instructions in the guide Python Data Functions in TIBCO Spotfire®. Packages deployed in this manner are distributed to other Spotfire Analyst installations in your organization.
  • To share an SPK with Spotfire Business Author and Consumer users through Spotfire Web Player, see SPKs for Python packages. Packages deployed in this manner are on Spotfire Server.
An SPK must be created using the same operating system as that of the node manager running the Spotfire Service for Python.
  • If your node manager is running on a Windows server, then you can create the SPK either from a Windows computer running Spotfire Analyst, or you can create the SPK from the computer running the node manager where Spotfire Service for Python is installed.
  • If your node manager is running on a Linux server, then you must create the SPK from the computer running the node manager where Spotfire Service for Python is installed.

The following image shows the workflow for creating an SPK to share Python packages with other analysts, or with Spotfire Business Author and Consumer users.

Spotfire package management workflow

  • Included Packages
    Your installation of Spotfire includes a Python interpreter and several packages it needs to run under Spotfire. To run the Python interpreter, you must have the 64-bit version of Spotfire.
  • Manage packages through roles
    Working with packages in a deployment that includes Spotfire and Spotfire Server can add some complexity to management policies.
  • Installing Python packages manually
    If you have a small Spotfire Server deployment, and you do not need to manage packages across several nodes or servers, then you can install packages directly on the computer running the node manager, rather than creating an SPK.
  • The Spotfire SPK
    A Spotfire SPK is usually created and tested by developers to package and deploy third-party extensions to the Spotfire Server, which can then be distributed to Spotfire Analyst users, or distributed to the Spotfire Server node for use by another service.