Merge pull request #984 from plotly/better-geopandas-msg

Better pip install error msg for county choropleth

Author: Kully

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@
 All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 This project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/).
 
+## [2.5.2] - UNRELEASED
+### Updated
+- error message for `plotly.figure_factory.create_choropleth` is more helpful for Windows users on installing `geopandas` and dependencies including `shapely`.
+
 ## [2.5.1] - 2018-03-26
 ### Fixed
 - `plotly.figure_factory.create_choropleth` now works in Windows without raising an OSError. The module now uses cross-platform path tools from `os` to manipulate and manage the shapefiles contained in this package.

plotly/figure_factory/_county_choropleth.py

@@ -563,11 +563,14 @@ def create_choropleth(fips, values, scope=['usa'], binning_endpoints=None,
     if not gp or not shapefile or not shapely:
         raise ImportError(
             "geopandas, pyshp and shapely must be installed for this figure "
-            "factory.\n\nRun the following commands in the terminal to "
-            "ensure that the correct versions of the modules are installed:\n"
+            "factory.\n\nRun the following commands to install the correct "
+            "versions of the following modules:\n\n"
             "`pip install geopandas==0.3.0`\n"
             "`pip install pyshp==1.2.10`\n"
-            "`pip install shapely==1.6.3`\n"
+            "`pip install shapely==1.6.3`\n\n"
+            "If you are using Windows, follow this post to properly "
+            "install geopandas and dependencies:"
+            "http://geoffboeing.com/2014/09/using-geopandas-windows/"
         )
 
     df, df_state = _create_us_counties_df(st_to_state_name_dict,