A true GIS layer contains both spatial geometry and non-spatial attributes. In this recipe, we'll access a vector point layer's attributes in PyQGIS. We'll use a file-based layer from a shapefile, but once a layer is loaded in QGIS, every vector layer works the same way.
Once again, we'll use the same New York City Museums layer from the Loading a vector layer from a file recipe in this chapter. You can download the layer from https://github.com/GeospatialPython/Learn/raw/master/NYC_MUSEUMS_GEO.zip.
Unzip that file and place the shapefile's contents in a directory named nyc
within your qgis_data
directory, within your root or home directory.