How do I set custom spatial reference/coordinate sys to my shapefile

Question

I have a python code which converts JSON text file to a shapefile. I have to set coordinate system to this shapefile created. I do not want to access the .prj file from my computer as this code will be embedded in a web toolbox.

Answer 1

There's a Python code example for doing this under Define Projection.

Answer 2

There is no way to set a shapefile's coordinate system without the .prj file. Without knowing your platform it's hard to provide advice. You mention a 'web toolbox' and python. If you know the input coordinate system of your JSON text file(which I'm betting is WGS84 lat/lon). You could build a generic .prj file on the fly to kick back to the user to accompany the generated shapefile.

Something like:

body='GEOGCS["GCS_WGS_1984",DATUM["D_WGS_1984"'
body+=',SPHEROID["WGS_1984",6378137.0,298.257223563]]'
body+=',PRIMEM["Greenwich",0.0],UNIT["Degree",0.0174532925199433]]'
fout=open("c:/whereverIamstagingmyshapefileoutput/myprj.prj","w")
fout.write(body)
fout.close()