How can I add autocomplete to Vim for non-standard Python libraries?

Question

For example, I have a Python script using the Google App Engine SDK:

from google.appengine.ext import db
from google.appengine.ext import webapp
from google.appengine.ext.webapp import template
from google.appengine.ext.webapp.util import run_wsgi_app

The module db has a submodule Key, so I try to use autocomplete on it:

db.KTab

But at the bottom of the Vim window, I get the following:

-- Omni completion (^O^N^P) Pattern not found

How do I include the path to non-standard Python libraries so that Vim autocompletion can find them? And also display their docstrings?

Answer 1

You need to add your library files to your tags file. For instance, if you have installed the Google App Engine via pip in a virtual environment located in env/:

virtualenv --no-site-package env/
source env/bin/activate
pip install google_appengine

... then you should execute:

ctags -R --python-kinds=-i -o tags env/

If you did not install google_appengine through pip, then you should locate the path to your python libraries (hint: it should be indicated by $PYTHONPATH. And according to this reference page: "on Unix, this is usually .:/usr/local/lib/python.") and replace env/ by the path you found.

Finally, your .vimrc file should parse your tags file. For instance, in my .vimrc, I have:

set tags+=/path/to/my/tags