jpy - a Python-Java Bridge

jpy is a bi-directional Python-Java bridge which you can use to embed Java code in Python programs or the other way round. It has been designed particularly with regard to maximum data transfer speed between the two languages. It comes with a number of outstanding features:

• Fully translates Java class hierarchies to Python
• Transparently handles Java method overloading
• Support of Java multi-threading
• Fast and memory-efficient support of primitive Java array parameters via Python buffers (e.g. Numpy arrays)
• Support of Java methods that modify primitive Java array parameters (mutable parameters)
• Java arrays translate into Python sequence objects
• Java API for accessing Python objects (jpy.jar)

jpy has been tested with Python 2.7, 3.3-3.6 and Oracle Java 7 and 8 JDKs.

The initial development of jpy has been driven by the need to write Python extensions to an established scientific imaging application programmed in Java, namely the BEAM toolbox funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) which is now continued through SNAP, the SeNtinel Application Platform project, also funded by ESA. Writing such Python plug-ins for a Java application usually requires a bi-directional communication between Python and Java since the Python extension code must be able to call back into the Java APIs.

For more information please have a look into jpy's

• documentation
• source repository
• issue tracker

How to build on Linux and Mac

Install a JDK 8, preferrably the Oracle distribution. Set JDK_HOME or JPY_JDK_HOME to point to your JDK installation and run the build script:

$ export JDK_HOME=<your-jdk-dir>
$ export JAVA_HOME=$JDK_HOME
$ python get-pip.py
$ python setup.py --maven bdist_wheel

On success, the wheel is found in the dist directory.

To deploy the jpy.jar (if you don't know why you need this step, this is not for you): ::

$ mvn clean deploy -DskipTests=true

How to build on Windows

If you are on Windows, please note that if you run a 32-bit Python you'll also need a 32-bit JDK. Set JDK_HOME or JPY_JDK_HOME to point to your JDK installation. You'll need Windows SDK 7.1 or Visual Studio C++ to build the sources. With Windows SDK 7.1::

> SET VS90COMNTOOLS=C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\Tools\
> SET DISTUTILS_USE_SDK=1
> C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1\bin\setenv /x64 /release
> SET JDK_HOME=<your-jdk-dir>
> python setup.py --maven bdist_wheel

With Visual Studio 14 and higher it is much easier::

> SET VS100COMNTOOLS=C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\Tools\
> SET JDK_HOME=<your-jdk-dir>
> python setup.py --maven bdist_wheel

On success, the wheel is found in the dist directory.

Releasing jpy

The target reader of this section is a jpy developer wishing to release a new jpy version. Note: You need to have Sphinx installed to update the documentation.

1. Make sure all Java and Python units tests run green
2. Remove the -SNAPSHOT qualifier from versions names in both the Maven pom.xml and setup.py files.
3. Generate Java API doc by running mvn javadoc:javadoc which will update directory doc/_static
4. Update documentation, cd doc and run make html
5. http://peterdowns.com/posts/first-time-with-pypi.html