Add items to print layout

Question

I have created a blank print layout, now I want to add items to it like a map, legend, etc.

Here is my code so far to create a new print layout, this works just fine:

#This creates a new print layout
project = QgsProject.instance()                    
manager = project.layoutManager()
layout = QgsPrintLayout(project)
layout.initializeDefaults()                         
layout.setName('My Layout')                           
manager.addLayout(layout)   

Now I want to add stuff to the layout, starting with a map:

map_item = QgsLayoutItemMap.create(layout)

But I get the following error:

When I look at the documentation for QgsLayoutItemMap.create I see this, except I do not understand it:

What does this mean "the caller takes responsibility for deleting the returned object" and how do I add a map (or other) objects to my Print Layout?

Answer 1

The correct approach looks somewhat like this:

    # create the map item
    map = QgsLayoutItemMap(layout)

    # setup its initial position on the page
    map.attemptSetSceneRect(QRectF(20, 20, 200, 100))

    # setup an initial extent to view in the map
    rectangle = QgsRectangle(-13838977, 2369660, -8672298, 6250909)
    map.setExtent(rectangle)

    # add the map to the layout
    layout.addLayoutItem(map)