Setup a development environment

You have installed navground using one of the methods illustrated in the previous sections, and now you want to develop your own extensions/plugins.

Using colcon

We recommend to use colcon and ament during development. They are not required, but will simplify some of the recurrent tasks, like compiling packages in the right order of dependency.

Navground built from source

If you have build navground in a colcon workspace, there is not much to do: just create your new packages in the src directory. You may also use a different colcon workspace. In this case, source the original workspace to create an overlay.

Navground installed from a release

If you have installed navground from a binary release, just source the installation directory (e.g., `` source /opt/navground/setup.bash`` in Linux) before building the with colcon:

1. install colcon

   $ python -m pip install colcon-common-extensions
   

2. create a source directory

   Linux & macOSWindows

   $ mkdir -p ws/src
   

3. source the navground environment

   macOSLinuxWindows

   $ source /opt/navground/setup.zsh
   

4. build the workspace

   $ cd ws
   $ colcon build --merge-install
   

5. If you build navground C++ plugins but don’t have ament_cmake installed, export NAVGROUND_PLUGINS_PREFIX

   macOS and LinuxWindows

   $ export NAVGROUND_PLUGINS_PREFIX=`pwd`/install:$NAVGROUND_PLUGINS_PREFIX
   

Navground installed from PyPi

If you have installed navground from a PyPi wheel, you are restricted to develop Python plugins. In this case, there is not much you need do except sourcing the virtual environment, if you are using one.

Without colcon

Similar considerations apply when you develop without colcon and ament. In this case, you need to source the environment where navground is installed.

In case you are developing a C++ plugin, you also need to export the location where you are installing it:

macOS and LinuxLinux

$ export NAVGROUND_PLUGINS_PREFIX=<root directory of the plugin installation>:$NAVGROUND_PLUGINS_PREFIX