Merge pull request #1003 from BRAINSia/MakeMatplotlibOptional

BUG: matplotlib is supposed to be optional

Author: hjmjohnson

CHANGES

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 Next release
 ============
 
+* BUG: matplotlib is supposed to be optional (https://github.com/nipy/nipype/pull/1003)
 * FIX: Fix split_filename behaviour when path has no file component (https://github.com/nipy/nipype/pull/1035)
 * ENH: Updated FSL dtifit to include option for grad non-linearities (https://github.com/nipy/nipype/pull/1032)
 * ENH: Updated Camino tracking interfaces, which can now use FSL bedpostx output.

nipype/pipeline/plugins/base.py

@@ -112,11 +112,15 @@ def create_pyscript(node, updatehash=False, store_exception=True):
     # create python script to load and trap exception
     cmdstr = """import os
 import sys
+
+can_import_matplotlib = True #Silently allow matplotlib to be ignored
 try:
     import matplotlib
     matplotlib.use('%s')
 except ImportError:
+    can_import_matplotlib = False
     pass
+
 from nipype import config, logging
 from nipype.utils.filemanip import loadpkl, savepkl
 from socket import gethostname
@@ -130,7 +134,9 @@ def create_pyscript(node, updatehash=False, store_exception=True):
         from collections import OrderedDict
     config_dict=%s
     config.update_config(config_dict)
-    config.update_matplotlib()
+    ## Only configure matplotlib if it was successfully imported, matplotlib is an optional component to nipype
+    if can_import_matplotlib:
+        config.update_matplotlib()
     logging.update_logging(config)
     traceback=None
     cwd = os.getcwd()