The intent of this QGIS Plugin is to allow the easy importing of LINZ Data Service data (as well as other data services - see Changing Scope) into QGIS.
The initial scope of this plugin was to couple the LDS and QGIS. However as other New Zealand agencies also make use of the same technology their data can also be imported.
At the time of release this plugin supports the coupling of the below open data portals with QGIS:
The LDS Plugin supports data served over WFS, WMS and WMTS protocols. Please see the resource available on the LINZ website for more on these protocols.
Prior to using the plugin, a domain and related API Key must be stored via the "Settings" menu. When saving your API key this will trigger the plugin to request all of the domain's dataset information. This may take some time. For more on API keys please see the LDS user resources.
The available CRS options for each layer are shown next to the import button (in terms of EPSG code). If the data source is stored in multiple CRSs the user can select which CRS the dataset is to be requested in from the server.
* Note; if the QGIS project's CRS and the imported dataset's CRS do not match, QGIS will reproject the imported data to the project's CRS. Beware: reprojecting data can degrade spatial accuracies and relationships.
When importing the first dataset via the plugin for a QGIS session, the plugin will change the QGIS project's CRS to match the imported data. When these changes occur the user will be informed via the QGIS message bar.
When saving a Domain and API key for the first time via the Setting menu, the plugin will request the capabilities documents for each service / protocol type (WMS, WMTS, WFS). The data portal's server can be slow to respond with these documents causing the plugin to appear inactive. The good news is this is the only interaction with the plugin where substantial patience may be required. Once the initial documents are fetched, they will be cached and updated in the background each time the plugin is started.
The left hand panel allows users to filter by service / protocol types (either, All, WFS, WMS, WMTS). All column headers can be toggled to allow ascending or descending ordering of their data. Text can be entered in the "Filter Data Sets" search bar to filter the datasets by keyword.
Please see the LINZ-Data-Importer repository on GitHub.