Python Scripts

.. note::

Since Tiled 1.3, Tiled can be :doc:`extended using JavaScript
</manual/scripting>`. The JavaScript API provides a lot more
opportunity for extending Tiled's functionality than just adding custom
map formats. It is fully documented and works out of the box on all
platforms. It recommended over the Python plugin whenever possible.

Tiled ships with a plugin that enables you to use Python 3 to add support for custom map and tileset formats.

For the scripts to get loaded, they should be placed in ~/.tiled. Tiled watches this directory for changes, so there is no need to restart Tiled after adding or changing scripts (though the directory needs to exist when you start Tiled).

There are several example scripts_ available in the repository.

.. note::

To create the ``~/.tiled`` folder on Windows, open command prompt
(``cmd.exe``), which should start in your home folder by default, then
type ``mkdir .tiled`` to create the folder.

On Linux, folders starting with a dot are hidden by default. In most file
managers you can toggle showing of hidden files using ``Ctrl+H``.

.. note::

Since Tiled 1.2.4, the Python plugin is disabled by default, because
depending on which Python version is installed on the system the loading of
this plugin may cause a crash (`#2091`_). To use the Python plugin, first
enable it in the Preferences.

.. warning::

For the Tiled Python plugin to work you'll need to install a compatible
version of Python.

On Windows, get Python from https://www.python.org/. As of Tiled 1.11, the
Windows 10+ build requires Python 3.12 whereas the Windows 7-8 build
requires Python 3.8. You will also need to check the box "Add python.exe to
PATH" in the installer:

.. figure:: images/python-windows.png

On Linux you will need to install the appropriate package. However,
currently Linux AppImage builds are done on Ubuntu 22.04 against Python
3.10, and you'd need to install the same version (on Ubuntu likely
``libpython3.10`` and on Fedora ``python3.10-libs``).

The Python plugin is not available for macOS releases, nor in the Ubuntu
snap.

Example Export Plugin

Suppose you'd like to have a map exported in the following format:

.. code::

29,29,29,29,29,29,32,-1,34,29,29,29,29,29,29,
29,29,29,29,29,29,32,-1,34,29,29,29,29,29,29,
29,29,29,29,29,29,32,-1,34,29,29,29,29,29,29,
29,29,29,29,29,29,32,-1,34,29,29,29,29,29,29,
25,25,25,25,25,25,44,-1,34,29,29,29,29,29,29,
-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,34,29,29,29,29,29,29,
41,41,41,41,41,41,41,41,42,29,29,24,25,25,25,
29,29,29,29,29,29,29,29,29,29,29,32,-1,-1,-1,
29,29,29,29,29,29,39,29,29,29,29,32,-1,35,41,
29,29,29,29,29,29,29,29,29,29,29,32,-1,34,29,
29,29,29,29,29,29,29,29,37,29,29,32,-1,34,29;

You can achieve this by saving the following example.py script in the scripts directory:

.. code:: python

from tiled import *

class Example(Plugin):
    @classmethod
    def nameFilter(cls):
        return "Example files (*.example)"

    @classmethod
    def shortName(cls):
        return "example"

    @classmethod
    def write(cls, tileMap, fileName):
        with open(fileName, 'w') as fileHandle:
            for i in range(tileMap.layerCount()):
                if isTileLayerAt(tileMap, i):
                    tileLayer = tileLayerAt(tileMap, i)
                    for y in range(tileLayer.height()):
                        tiles = []
                        for x in range(tileLayer.width()):
                            if tileLayer.cellAt(x, y).tile() != None:
                                tiles.append(str(tileLayer.cellAt(x, y).tile().id()))
                            else:
                                tiles.append(str(-1))
                        line = ','.join(tiles)
                        if y == tileLayer.height() - 1:
                            line += ';'
                        else:
                            line += ','
                        print(line, file=fileHandle)


        return True

Then you should see an "Example files" entry in the type dropdown when going to File > Export, which allows you to export the map using the above script.

.. note::

This example does not support the use of group layers.

.. raw:: html

<div class="new">New in Tiled 1.11</div>

Tileset Plugins

To write tileset plugins, extend your class from tiled.TilesetPlugin instead of tiled.Plugin.

Debugging Your Script

Any errors that happen while parsing or running the script are printed to the Console, which can be enabled in *View > Views and Toolbars

Console*.

API Reference

It would be nice to have the full API reference documented here, but for now please check out the source file_ for available classes and methods.

.. note::

Any help with maintaining the Python plugin would be very appreciated. See
`open issues related to Python support`_

.. _example scripts: https://github.com/mapeditor/tiled/tree/master/src/plugins/python/scripts .. _source file: https://github.com/mapeditor/tiled/blob/master/src/plugins/python/tiledbinding.py .. _open issues related to Python support: https://github.com/mapeditor/tiled/issues?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+python+in%3Atitle .. _#2091: https://github.com/mapeditor/tiled/issues/2091