Last update:
Sat Nov 23 03:00:27 2024
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Agrimotion, an agricultural consultancy in South Africa, specializes in perennial crops. Their IMPI platform, developed with Lutra Consulting and Mergin Maps, simplifies farm management by enhancing data collection and analysis, boosting productivity, and reducing costs.
During the pandemic, people noticed how well they could work remotely, how productive meetings via video call could be, and how well webinars worked. At OPENGIS.ch, this wasn’t news because we have always been 100% remote. However, we missed the unplanned, in-person interactions that occur during meetups with a 
or 
. That’s why we’re very pleased that last week we could join the Swiss QGIS user day for the second time after the pandemic.
OPENGIS.ch has been invested in QGIS since its inception in 2014, actually even before; our CEO Marco started working with QGIS 0.6 in 2004 and our CTO Matthias with version 1.7 in 2012. Since 2019, we have also been the company with the most core committers. We can definitely say that OPENGIS.ch has been one of the main driving forces behind the large adoption of QGIS in Switzerland and worldwide.
Looking at the work done in the QGIS code we’re by far the most prolific company in Switzerland and second worldwide only to North Road Consulting. On top of it, we were the first – and still only one of two- companies to sustain QGIS.org at a Large level since 2021.
This makes us very proud and it is why we’re even happier to see how much that is happening around QGIS in Switzerland aligns with the visions and goals we set out to reach years ago.
The morning started with a presentation by our CTO Matthias “What’s new in QGIS” featuring plenty of work sponsored by the Anwendergruppe CH.
DXF Improvements, the release of SwissLocator 3.0 with swissalti3d and vector tiles integration, and an update on the advances towards solid curve handling in QGIS, a prerequisite for properly handling AV data in Switzerland, were only some of the many noteworthy points he touched.
The highlight of Matthias’ presentation was the better OGC API Features support in QGIS, which was also highlighted in a subsequent talk about Kablo, showing how the next generation of industry solutions (Fachschalen) will be implemented.
Slides: Neues aus der QGIS Welt - QGIS Anwendertag 2024Following was a short presentation on the project DMAV, Christoph Lauber introduced a project that aims to implement an industry solution for official cadastral surveying with QGIS.
Adrian Wicki of the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) and Isabel presented how OPENGIS.ch and the partners Puzzle and Zeilenwerk help the FOEN with the SAM project with assess the hazards of flood, forest fire, or landslides, and warn authorities and the population. With an agile project organisation, the complex project succeeds in fulfilling requirements by applying user-centred development concepts. QGIS is used for visualizing and analyzing data and helping forecasters gain insights into the current situation.
Slides: BAFU_SAMAndreas Neumann from ETH Zurich and Michael presented the qgis-js project. QGIS-js is an effort to port QGIS core to WebAssembly so that it can be run in a web browser. Although still in the early experimentation phase, this project has great potential to leverage interesting new use cases that weren’t even thinkable before.
Slides: https://boardend.github.io/qgis-js-demo/ Olivier Monod from the City of Yverdon presented Kablo, an electricity management proof of concept of the next generation implementation for industry solutions developed in collaboration with OPENGIS.ch.
By applying a middleware based on OGC API Features and Django, Kablo shows how common limitations of current industry solutions (like permission management and atomic operations) can be overcome and how the future brings desktop and web closer together.
Slides: kablo-qgis-user-daysObviously, it wasn’t just OPENGIS.ch. Sandro Mani from Sourcepole presented the latest and greatest improvements on QWC2, like street view integration and cool QGIS features brought to a beautiful web gis. Andreas Schmid from Kt. Solothurn presented how cool cloud-optimized geotiff (COG) is and what challenges come with it. Interested in the topic? Read more in our report about cloud optimized formats. Mattia Panduri from Canton Ticino explained how they used QGIS to harmonise the cantonal building datasets and Timothée Produit from IG Group SA presented how pic2map helps bring photos to maps.
To round up the morning, Nyall Dawson from North Road Consulting did a live session around the world to show the latest developments around elevation filtering in QGIS.
In the afternoon, workshops followed. Claas Leiner led a QGIS expression one while Matthias and Michael showed how to leverage QGIS processing for building geospatial data processing workflows.
The first QGIS model baker user meeting took place in the third room. The participants discussed this fantastic tool we developed to make INTERLIS work smarter and more productive.
It was a very rich and constructive QGIS user day. We came home with plenty of new ideas and a sense of fulfilment, seeing how great the community we observed and helped grow has become.
A big thanks go to the organisers and everyone involved in making such a great event happen. Only the beer in the sunshine was literally watered by the rain. Nevertheless, there were exciting discussions in the station bistro or in the restaurant coaches on the way home.
See you next time and keep contributing 
Full Changelog: v3.3.1...v3.3.2
This blog post will introduce QField’s brand new plugin framework and walk through the creation of a plugin to support bird watchers in need of a quick way to digitize photos of spotted birds onto a point vector layer.
As announced recently, QField now empowers users through a brand new plugin framework allowing for simple customization on the way the application behaves or looks all the way through to creating completely new functionalities.
The plugin framework relies on Qt’s QML engine and JavaScript, allowing for cross-platform support out of the box. This means that plugins will run perfectly fine on all platforms currently supported by QField: Android, iOS, Windows, Linux, and macOS.
First, let’s look at the two types of plugins supported by QField: app-wide plugins and project plugins. As their names imply, the main difference is their scope. An enabled app-wide plugin will remain active as long as QField is running, while project plugins are activated on project load and deactivated when the project tied to the plugin is closed.
Project plugins are shipped alongside a given project file (.qgs/.qgz). Project plugins must share the same name of the project file with a .qml extension. For example, if your project file is birdwatcher.qgz, QField will look for the presence of a birdwatcher.qml to activate the project plugin. For app-wide plugins, installation is done via the plugins manager popup; more on this below.
Distribution of project plugins can be greatly facilitated through QFieldCloud. The presence of project plugins within a cloud project environment will be automatically detected and packaged alongside the project file and its datasets when deployed to QField devices.
We will start with looking into a simple project plugin that offers a new digitizing mechanism focused on snapping photos as a trigger for point feature addition. This plugin will demonstrate how new functionalities and behaviors can be added to QField to serve specific needs. In this case, the new digitizing mechanism could come in handy for bird watchers and other users in need of a quick way to snap photos!
It’s advised to download a version of QField running on your desktop environment while testing plugins. Links to Windows, Linux, and macOS builds are available here. Once installed, download this project archive containing a tiny birdwatcher sample project and extract it into a new directory on your local machine.
The project archive consists of a point vector layer (observations.gpkg), a project file (birdwatcher.qgz) as well as a project plugin (birdwatcher.qml) which we will look into below. Please note that the point vector layer’s attribute form is already configured to display captured photos. We will not spend time on attribute form setup in this post; see this relevant documentation page if you are interested in knowing how that was achieved.
We can now test the project plugin by opening the project (birdwatcher.qgz) in QField. Users familiar with QField will notice a new ‘camera’ tool button present on the top-right corner of the map canvas. This button was added by the project plugin. You can press on it, to open the QField camera, take a photo (of yourself, a random object on your table, or with a bit of luck a bird), and witness how that leads to a point feature creation.
Let’s open the project plugin file (birdwatcher.qml) in your favorite text editor. The first few lines define the QML imports needed by the plugin:
import QtQuick
import QtQuick.Controls
import org.qfield
import org.qgis
import Theme
import "qrc:/qml" as QFieldItemsBeyond the two QtQuick imports, we will make use of QField-specific types and items as well as QGIS ones (registered and declared in this source file), a Theme to retrieve icons and colors as well as QField items such as tool buttons (see this source directory), as well as the QField QML items embedded into the application itself to make use of the camera.
The next line declares an generic Item component which will be used by QField to initiate the plugin. This must be present in all plugins. As this plugin does, you can use the Component.onCompleted signal to trigger code execution. In this case, we are using iface to add a tool button on top of the map canvas:
Component.onCompleted: {
iface.addItemToPluginsToolbar(snapButton)
}Just above these lines, the plugin declare a number of properties pointing to items found in the main QField ApplicationWindow:
property var mainWindow: iface.mainWindow()
property var positionSource: iface.findItemByObjectName('positionSource')
property var dashBoard: iface.findItemByObjectName('dashBoard')
property var overlayFeatureFormDrawer: iface.findItemByObjectName('overlayFeatureFormDrawer')Users can reach through to any items within QField’s ApplicationWindow provided they have an objectName property defined. The string value is used in the iface.findItemByObjectName() function to retrieve the item.
The rest of the file consists of a loader to activate the QField camera, a tool button to snap a photo, and a function to create a new feature within which the current position is used as geometry and the snapped photo is attached to the feature form.
The function itself provides a good example of what can be achieved by using the parts of QGIS exposed through QML, as well as utility functions and user interface provided by QField:
function snap(path) {
let today = new Date()
let relativePath = 'DCIM/' + today.getFullYear()
+ (today.getMonth() +1 ).toString().padStart(2,0)
+ today.getDate().toString().padStart(2,0)
+ today.getHours().toString().padStart(2,0)
+ today.getMinutes().toString().padStart(2,0)
+ today.getSeconds().toString().padStart(2,0)
+ '.' + FileUtils.fileSuffix(path)
platformUtilities.renameFile(path, qgisProject.homePath + '/' + relativePath)
let pos = positionSource.projectedPosition
let wkt = 'POINT(' + pos.x + ' ' + pos.y + ')'
let geometry = GeometryUtils.createGeometryFromWkt(wkt)
let feature = FeatureUtils.createFeature(dashBoard.activeLayer, geometry)
let fieldNames = feature.fields.names
if (fieldNames.indexOf('photo') > -1) {
feature.setAttribute(fieldNames.indexOf('photo'), relativePath)
} else if (fieldNames.indexOf('picture') > -1) {
feature.setAttribute(fieldNames.indexOf('picture'), relativePath)
}
overlayFeatureFormDrawer.featureModel.feature = feature
overlayFeatureFormDrawer.state = 'Add'
overlayFeatureFormDrawer.open()
}The QGIS API Documentation site is a good resource for learning what parts of the many QGIS classes are exposed to QML. For example, the QgsFeature documentation page contains a Properties section and a Q_INVOKABLE prefix next to functions indicating their availability within a QML/JavaScript environment.
As mentioned above, QFieldCloud greatly eases the deployment of project plugins to devices in the field. We will now go through the steps required to create a cloud project environment based on the birdwatcher sample project, and witness it handling the project plugin automatically.
This will require you to registered for a freely available QFieldCloud community account if you haven’t done so yet (it takes a minute to do so, what are you waiting for 
). We will also need the QFieldSync plugin in QGIS, which can be enabled through the QGIS plugin manager.
Let’s open QGIS, and log into QFieldCloud by clicking on the QFieldSync toolbar’s blue cloud icon. Once logged in, click on the ‘Create New Project’ tool button found at the bottom of the dialog.
In the subsequent panel dialog, choose the ‘Create a new empty QFieldCloud project’ and then hit the ‘Next’ button. Give it a name and a description, and for the local directory, pick the folder within which you had extracted the birdwatcher project, then hit the ‘Create’ button.
QFieldSync will then ask you to upload your newly created cloud project environment to the server. Notice how the project plugin file (birdwatcher.qml) is part of the files to be delivered to the cloud. Confirm by clicking on the ‘Upload to server’ button.
When QFieldSync is finished uploading, you are ready to take your mobile device, open QField, log into your QFieldCloud account and download the cloud project. Once the cloud project is loaded, you will be asked for permission to load the project plugin, which you can grant on a permanent or one-time basis.
Bravo! You have successfully deployed a project plugin through QFieldCloud.
Let’s move on to creating a functional app-wide plugin directory. Download this sample app-wide plugin and extract it into a new directory placed in the ‘plugins’ directory, itself found within the QField app directory. The location of the app directory is provided in the ‘About QField’ overlay, take note of it prior to extracting the plugin if you have not done so yet.
As seen in the screenshot above, which demonstrates the directory hierarchy, a given plugin directory must contain at least two files: a main.qml file, which QField will use to activate the plugin, and a metadata.txt file containing basic information on the plugin, such as the plugin name, author details, and version.
Here’s a sample metadata.txt from the birdwatcher project plugin upgraded into an app-wide plugin:
[general]
name=Snap!
description=Digitize points through snapping photos
author=OPENGIS.ch
icon=icon.svg
version=1.0
homepage=https://www.opengis.ch/Opening main.qml in your favourite text editor will reveal that it has the exact same content as the above-shared project plugin. The only change is the renaming of birdwatcher.qml to main.qml to take into account this plugin’s app-wide scope.
PSA: we have setup this GitHub QField template plugin repository to ease creation of plugins. Fork at will!
While currently not as smooth as deploying a project plugin through QFieldCloud, app-wide plugins can be installed onto devices using a URL pointing to a zipped archive file containing the content of a given plugin directory. The zipped archive file can then be hosted on your own website, on a GitHub or GitLab repository, a Dropbox link, etc.
In QField, open the plugins manager popup found in the settings panel, and use the ‘Install plugin from URL’ button to paste a URL pointing to a zipped plugin file.
You should keep the zipped archive file name consistent for a better user experience, as it is used to determine the installation directory. This is an important consideration to take into account when offering plugin updates. If your zipped plugin file name changes, the plugin will not be updated but rather added to a new directory alongside the previously installed plugin.
QField does allow for a version tag to be added to a zipped archive file name, provided it is appended at the end of the file name, preceded by a dash, and includes only numbers and dots. For example, myplugin-0.0.1.zip and myplugin-0.2.1.zip will install the plugin in the myplugin directory.
Here at OPENGIS.ch, we believe this new plugin framework empowers not only users but also developers, including our very own ninjas! With plugin support, we now have the possibility to develop answers to specific field scenarios that would not necessarily be fit for QField-wide functionalities. We would love to hear your opinion and ideas.
If you would like to supercharge your fieldwork and need some help, do not hesitate to contact us – your projects are our passion 
P.S. If you are developing a cool QField plugin, also let us know!
Bird SVG in video CC-BY https://svgrepo.com/svg/417419/birdOslandia is the main partner of OPENGIS.ch around QField. We are proud today to forward the announcement of the new QField release 3.3 “Darién”. This release introduces a brand new plugin framework that empowers users to customize and add completely new functionalities to their favourite field application.
The plugin framework comes with other new features and improvements for this release, detailed below.
One of the biggest feature additions of this version is a brand new drawing tool that allows users to sketch out important details over captured photos or annotate drawing templates. This was a highly requested feature, which is brought to all supported platforms (Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, and, of course, Linux) with the financial support of the Swiss QGIS user group.
Also landing in this version is support for copying and pasting vector features into and from the clipboard. This comes in handy in multiple ways, from providing a quick and easy way to transfer attributes from one feature to another through matching field names to pasting the details of a captured feature in the field into a third-party messenger, word editing, or email application. Copying and pasting features can be done through the feature form’s menu as well as long pressed over the map canvas. Moreover, a new feature-to-feature attributes transfer shortcut has also been added to the feature form’s menu. Appreciation to Switzerland, Canton of Lucerne, Environment and Energy for providing the funds for this feature.
The feature form continues to gain more functionalities; in this version, the feature form’s value map editor widget has gained a new toggle button interface that can help fasten data entry. The interface replaces the traditional combo box with a series of toggle buttons, lowering the number of taps required to pick a value. The German Archaeological Institut – KulturGutRetter sponsored this feature.
Other improvements in the feature form include support for value relation item grouping and respect for the vector layer attributes’ « reuse last entered value » setting.
Finally, additional features include support for image decoration overlay, a new interface to hop through cameras (front, back, and external devices) for the ‘non-native’ camera, the possibility to disable the 3-finger map rotation gesture, and much more.
Long-time users of QField will notice the new version restyling of the information panels such as GNSS positioning, navigation, elevation profile, and sensor data. The information is now presented as an overlay sitting on top of the map canvas, which increases the map canvas’ visibility while also achieving better focus and clarity on the provided details. With this new version, all details, including altitude and distance to destination, respect user-configured project distance unit type.
The dashboard’s legend has also received some attention. You can now toggle the visibility of any layer via a quick tap on a new eye icon sitting in the legend tree itself. Similarly, legend groups can be expanded and collapsed directly for the tree. This also permits you to show or hide layers while digitizing a feature, something which was not possible until now. The development of these improvements was supported by Gispo and sponsored by the National Land Survey of Finland.
QField 3.3 introduces a brand new plugin framework using Qt’s powerful QML and JavaScript engine. With a few lines of code, plugins can be written to tweak QField’s behaviour and add new capabilities. Two types of plugins are possible: app-wide plugins as well as project-scoped plugins. To ensure maximum ease of deployment, plugin distribution has been made possible through QFieldCloud! Amsa provided the financial contribution that brought this project to life.
Our partner OPENGIS.ch will soon offer a webinar to discover how QField plugins can help your field (and business) workflows by allowing you to be even more efficient in the field.
Users interested in authoring plugins or better understanding the framework, can already visit the dedicated documentation page and a sample plugin implementation sporting a weather forecast integration.
A question concerning QField ? Interested in QField deployment ? Do not hesitate to contact Oslandia to discuss your project !
Since 2018 and the arrival of Loïc Bartoletti, Oslandia has accelerated its focus on topography and topology within and around QGIS.
Two questions have driven this focus:
To address this, Oslandia has worked on several fronts: training, developing open-source plugins, and improvements in QGIS.
The following plugins were developed by Oslandia or partners, with contributions from Oslandia:
These plugins can be used at different stages of a project. They can be used all together or only those needed and integrated into workflows.
Oslandia also focuses on improving the core of QGIS. Last years, our teams have worked on:
— Integration of shape tools: circles, ellipses, rectangles, regular polygons, etc.
— Improvement of snapping tools.
— Enhancement of Z and M coordinate support.
— Improvement of topological tools (relationships between geometries).
Coming soon is the possibility to use geometry and topology validation and correction plugins directly in QGIS processing tools, developed by Jacky Volpès and Loïc Bartoletti.
Oslandia is QUALIOPI certified and offers a training program around QGIS and QField:
« In 2023, 89 people were trained by Oslandia, who recommend our training at 90.9%.»
Since our partnership with OPENGIS.ch, Oslandia offers QField Cloud server deployment services, training, and QField support.
Several technical posts are being prepared: how to open CAD files in a GIS? What are the differences between QField and LSCI? You will find them on our website in the coming weeks. 
Additionally, we are preparing a white paper on the topic of migrating from CAD to QGIS, which we should release in September.
Stay tuned!
Thanks to generous supporters, we are in the wonderful position to be able to announce that another project is successfully funded:
Our thanks go out to:
for providing the additional funding to top up the QGIS Grant Programme contribution for QEP#248.
The next proposals on the wait list are:
If you want to help make these improvement a reality, please get in touch.
QField 3.3 has been released, and with it, we are proud to introduce a brand new plugin framework that empowers users to customize and add completely new functionalities to their favourite field application. That’s on top of a bunch of new features and improvements added during this development cycle. What preceded this moment was just the beginning!
One of the biggest feature additions of this version is a brand new drawing tool that allows users to sketch out important details over captured photos or annotate drawing templates. This was a highly requested feature, which we are delighted to bring to all supported platforms (Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, and, of course, Linux) with the financial support of the Swiss QGIS user group.
Also landing in this version is support for copying and pasting vector features into and from the clipboard. This comes in handy in multiple ways, from providing a quick and easy way to transfer attributes from one feature to another through matching field names to pasting the details of a captured feature in the field into a third-party messenger, word editing, or email application. Copying and pasting features can be done through the feature form’s menu as well as long pressed over the map canvas. If copy pasting ain’t your style, a new feature-to-feature attributes transfer shortcut has also been added to the feature form’s menu. Appreciation to Switzerland, Canton of Lucerne, Environment and Energy for providing the funds for this feature.
The feature form continues to gain more functionalities; in this version, the feature form’s value map editor widget has gained a new toggle button interface that can help fasten data entry. The interface replaces the traditional combo box with a series of toggle buttons, lowering the number of taps required to pick a value. If you enjoy this as much as we do, send a virtual thanks to German Archaeological Institut – KulturGutRetter, which sponsored this feature.
Other improvements in the feature form include support for value relation item grouping and respect for the vector layer attributes’ “reuse last entered value” setting.
Finally, additional features that are sure to please include support for image decoration overlay, a new interface to hop through cameras (front, back, and external devices) for the ‘non-native’ camera, the possibility to disable the 3-finger map rotation gesture, and much more.
Long-time users of QField will notice the new version restyling of the information panels such as GNSS positioning, navigation, elevation profile, and sensor data. The information is now presented as an overlay sitting on top of the map canvas, which increases the map canvas’ visibility while also achieving better focus and clarity on the provided details. While revisiting these information panels, we’ve made sure all details, including altitude and distance to destination, respect user-configured project distance unit type.
The dashboard’s legend has also received some attention. You can now toggle the visibility of any layer via a quick tap on a new eye icon sitting in the legend tree itself. Similarly, legend groups can be expanded and collapsed directly for the tree. This also permits you to show or hide layers while digitizing a feature, something which was not possible until now. The development of these improvements was supported by Gispo and sponsored by the National Land Survey of Finland.
Last but far away from least, QField 3.3 introduces a brand new plugin framework using Qt’s powerful QML and JavaScript engine. With a few lines of code, plugins can be written to tweak QField’s behaviour and add breathtaking capabilities. Two types of plugins are possible: app-wide plugins as well as project-scoped plugins. To ensure maximum ease of deployment, we have enabled project plugin distribution through QFieldCloud! We extend our heartfelt thanks to Amsa for the financial contribution that brought this incredible project to life.
Stay tuned for an upcoming webinar and a dedicated post that will dive into how QField plugins can revolutionize your field (and business) workflows by allowing you to be even more efficient in the field.
Users interested in authoring plugins or better understanding the framework can already visit the dedicated documentation page, a sample plugin implementation sporting a weather forecast integration and our latest blog article.
QGIS User Groups all over the world have become an essential component of the QGIS community. They provide a point of contact for local users and developers and help people connect through localized communication channels or by organizing events.
Another important aspect of users groups is that many of them also have become sustaining members of QGIS.ORG. In total, their contributions account for a significant share of our project budget.
The Danish User Group now has opened a new chapter by becoming the first user group supporting QGIS on the Flagship level. And that’s a reason to celebrate 
and to reminisce. For example, about the awesome time we had at the first QGIS User Conference organized at the University of Copenhagen campus in Nødebo.
And who can forget how we all struggled to pronounce QGIS 2.16 “Nødebo”?
And how the “ø” upset some services? Good times.
Thank you very much to everyone from the Danish user group and to all the other user groups, small and large, who support QGIS our project and help make it even better for everyone.
We are thrilled to announce that the Best of Swiss Apps Enterprise winner 2022, QField, has been officially recognized as a Digital Public Good by the UN-endorsed Digital Public Goods Alliance. This prestigious recognition highlights QField’s significant contributions to six key Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure), SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 15 (Life on Land), and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions). The “Swiss Made Software” QField is the leading fieldwork application with almost 1 Million downloads worldwide.
QField stands out as the leading fieldwork app, designed to bring the power of geospatial data collection and management to the fingertips of users worldwide. Developed with a user-centric approach, QField allows seamless integration with QGIS, providing a robust and intuitive platform for data collection, visualization, and analysis directly in the field. This recognition as a Digital Public Good underscores QField’s vital role in advancing digital solutions for sustainable development.
One of QField’s key strengths is its ease of use, making it accessible not only to professionals but also to students, researchers, and community members. Its intuitive interface ensures that users with varying levels of technical expertise can efficiently collect and manage geospatial data. This inclusivity promotes wider adoption and engagement, enhancing the app’s impact across different sectors and communities.
At the heart of QField’s success is its commitment to technological excellence and open-source principles. As an exemplary open-source project, QField fosters a collaborative environment where developers and users alike contribute to continuous improvement and innovation. QField frequently contributes back to its upstream project, QGIS, ensuring mutual growth and enhancement of both platforms. This community-driven approach not only enhances the app’s functionality but also ensures that it remains accessible and adaptable to diverse needs across the globe.
QField’s capabilities extend beyond just one aspect of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); they intersect with multiple goals, enhancing efforts towards a sustainable future:
As we celebrate this recognition, we remain committed to pushing the boundaries of what is possible in fieldwork technology. QField will continue to evolve, driven by the needs of its global user base and the imperative to support sustainable development. We invite all stakeholders to join us on this journey towards a more sustainable and equitable future.
For more information about QField and its contributions to the SDGs, please visit https://qfield.org/sdgs.html
Marco Bernasocchi is happy to receive interview requests or queries about the project.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +41 79 467 24 70 (14:00 – 18:00 CET)
OPENGIS.ch GmbH
Via Geinas 2
CH-7031 Laax
QField is an open-source fieldwork app that integrates seamlessly with #QGIS, providing a powerful platform for data collection, visualization, and analysis. Designed for professionals across various sectors, QField empowers users to efficiently manage and analyze geospatial data in the field, contributing to sustainable development and innovation worldwide. Link: https://qfield.org
#QFieldCloud is a spatial cloud service integrated in #QField that allows remote provisioning and synchronisation of geodata and projects. Although “QFieldCloud” is still in an advanced beta stage, it is already being used by many groups to significantly improve their workflows. Link: https://qfield.cloud
OPENGIS.ch GmbH is a Swiss software development company based in Laax. OPENGIS.ch employs 19 people and works mainly in the field of spatial software development, geodata infrastructure deployments and professional support. Personalised open-source GIS solutions are often planned and developed as desktop or mobile applications. OPENGIS.ch finances itself through tailor-made customer solutions, professional support and adaptations. Link: https://opengis.ch
The Digital Public Goods Alliance is a multi-stakeholder initiative endorsed by the United Nations Secretary-General, working to accelerate the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals in low- and middle-income countries by facilitating the discovery, development, use of, and investment in digital public goods.
For more information on the Digital Public Goods Alliance please reach out to [email protected].
Images for editorial purposes are freely available for download if the copyright ©OPENGIS.ch is mentioned: https://download.opengis.ch/2024_qfield_sdgs_images.zip
PDF and other files can now be opened from within the feature form. Use an HTML link with the address project://<path_to_file_within_project> to open packaged files! HTML links can be placed inside an HTML widget or a multiline text editor.
The mobile app is now capable of opening GeoTIFF files compressed with zstd format.
Don’t miss out on this opportunity to win a free seat at an upcoming Mergin Maps Admin Essentials training.
We're excited to announce significant updates to our ecosystem. Over the past few months, we've dedicated ourselves to redesigning both the mobile app and dashboard, aiming to enhance your overall experience.
Today, I took ChatGPT’s Data Analyst for a spin. You’ve probably seen the fancy advertising videos: just drop in a dataset and AI does all the analysis for you?! Let’s see …
Of course, I’m not going to use some lame movie database or flower petals data. Instead, let’s go all in and test with a movement dataset.
You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression, they say. — Well, Data Analyst, you didn’t impress on the first try. How hard can it be to guess the delimiter and act accordingly?
Anyway, let’s help it a little:
That looks much better. It makes an effort to guess what the columns could mean and successfully identifies the spatiotemporal information.
Now for some spatial analysis. On first try, it didn’t want to calculate the length of the trajectories in geographic terms, but we can make it to:
It will also show the code used to get to the results:
And indeed, these are close enough to the results computed using MovingPandas:
“What about plots?” I hear you ask.
For a first try, not bad at all:
Let’s see if we can push it further:
Looks like poor Data Analyst ended up in geospatial library dependency hell 
It’s interesting to watch it try find a solution.
Alas, no background map appears:
Not giving up yet :)
Woah, what happened here? It claims it created an interactive map in an HTML file.
And indeed it did:
This has been a very interesting experiment for me with many highs and lows. The whole process is a bit hit and miss. But when it does work, it’s fun.
I wasn’t sure what to expect with regards to Data Analyst’s spatial data processing capabilities. Looks like there are enough examples in its training data to find solutions for the basic trajectory analysis problems I asked it solve today, eventually, at least.
What’s the conclusion? Most AI marketing videos are severely overselling the capabilities of these tools. However, that doesn’t mean that they are completely useless, either. I’m looking forward to seeing the age of smaller open source models specifically trained for geospatial analysis to finally make it unnecessary for humans to memorize data analysis library syntax.
The PostgreSQL Connection Service File pg_service.conf is nothing new. It has existed for quite some time and maybe you have already used it sometimes too. But not only the new QGIS plugin PG service parser is a reason to write about our love for this file, as well we generally think it’s time to show you how it can be used for really cool things.
The Connection Service File allows you to save connection settings for each so-called “service” locally.
So when you have a database called gis on a local PostgreSQL with port 5432 and username/password is docker/docker you can store this as a service called my-local-gis.
# Local GIS Database for Testing purposes
host=localhost port=5432 dbname=gis user=docker password=docker
This Connection Service File is called pg_service.conf and is by client applications (such as psql or QGIS) generally found directly in the user directory. In Windows it is then found in the user’s application directory postgresql.pg_service.conf. And in Linux it is by default located directly in the user’s directory ~/.pg_service.conf.
But it doesn’t necessarily have to be there. The file can be anywhere on the system (or on a network drive) as long as you set the environment variable PGSERVICEFILE accordingly:
export PGSERVICEFILE=/home/dave/connectionfiles/pg_service.conf Once you have done this, the client applications will search there first – and find it.
If the above are not set, there is also another environment variable PGSYSCONFDIR which is a folder which is searched for the file pg_service.conf.
Once you have this, the service name can be used in the client application. That means in psql it would look like this:
~$ psql service=my-local-gis
psql (14.11 (Ubuntu 14.11-0ubuntu0.22.04.1), server 14.5 (Debian 14.5-1.pgdg110+1))
SSL connection (protocol: TLSv1.3, cipher: TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, bits: 256, compression: off)
Type "help" for help.
gis=#And in QGIS like this:
If you then add a layer in QGIS, only the name of the service is written in the project file. Neither the connection parameters nor username/password are saved. In addition to the security aspect, this has various advantages, more on this below.
But you don’t have to pass all of these parameters to a service. If you only pass parts of them (e.g. without the database), then you have to pass them when the connection is called:
$psql "service=my-local-gis dbname=gis"
psql (14.11 (Ubuntu 14.11-0ubuntu0.22.04.1), server 14.5 (Debian 14.5-1.pgdg110+1))
SSL connection (protocol: TLSv1.3, cipher: TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, bits: 256, compression: off)
Type "help" for help.
gis=#You can also override parameters. If you have a database gis configured in the service, but you want to connect the database web, you can specify the service and explicit the database:
$psql "service=my-local-gis dbname=web"
psql (14.11 (Ubuntu 14.11-0ubuntu0.22.04.1), server 14.5 (Debian 14.5-1.pgdg110+1))
SSL connection (protocol: TLSv1.3, cipher: TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, bits: 256, compression: off)
Type "help" for help.
web=#Of course the same applies to QGIS.
And regarding the environment variables mentioned, you can also set a standard service.
export PGSERVICE=my-local-gisParticularly pleasant in daily work with always the same database.
$ psql
psql (14.11 (Ubuntu 14.11-0ubuntu0.22.04.1), server 14.5 (Debian 14.5-1.pgdg110+1))
SSL connection (protocol: TLSv1.3, cipher: TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, bits: 256, compression: off)
Type "help" for help.
gis=#There are several reasons why such a file is useful:
For the last reason, here are three use cases.
Someone reports a problem in QGIS on a specific case with their database. Since the problem cannot be reproduced, they send us a DB dump of a schema and a QGIS project file. The layers in the QGIS project file are linked to a service. Now we can restore the dump on our local database and access it with our own, but same named, service. The problem can be reproduced.
With INTERLIS the structure of a database schema is precisely specified. If e.g. the canton has built the physical database for it and configured a supernice QGIS project, they can provide the project file to a company without also providing the database structure. The company can build the schema based on the INTERLIS model on its own PostgreSQL database and access it using its own service with the same name.
You can access a test and a production database with the same QGIS project if you have set the environment variable for the connection service file accordingly per QGIS profile.
You create two connection service files.
The one to the test database /home/dave/connectionfiles/test/pg_service.conf:
[my-local-gis]
host=localhost
port=54322
dbname=gis-testAnd the one for the production database /home/dave/connectionfiles/prod/pg_service.conf:
[my-local-gis]
host=localhost
port=54322
dbname=gis-productiveIn QGIS you create two profiles “Test” and “Prod”:
And you set the environment variable for each profile PGSERVICEFILE which should be used (in the menu Settings > Options… and there under System scroll down to Environment
or
If you now use the service my-local-gis in a QGIS layer, it connects the database prod in the “Prod” profile and the database test in the “Test” profile.
Let’s have a look at the authentication. If you have the connection service file on a network drive and make it available to several users, you may not want everyone to access it with the same login. Or you generally don’t want any user information in this file. This can be elegantly combined with the authentication configuration in QGIS.
If you want to make a QGIS project file available to multiple users, you create the layers with a service. This service contains all connection parameters except the login information.
This login information is transferred using QGIS authentication.
You also configure this authentication per QGIS profile we mentioned above. This is done via Menu Settings > Options… and there under Authentication:
(or directly where you create the PostgreSQL connection)
If you add such a layer, the service and the ID of the authentication configuration are saved in the QGIS project file. This is in this case mylogin. Of course this name must be communicated to the other users so that they can also set the ID for their login to mylogin.
Of course, you can use multiple authentication configurations per profile.
And yes, there is now a great plugin to configure these services directly in QGIS. This means you no longer have to deal with text-based INI files. It’s called PG service parser:
It finds the connection service file according to the mentioned environment variables PGSERVICEFILE or PGSYSCONFDIR or at its default location.
As well it’s super easy to create new services by duplicating existing ones.
And what would a blog post be without some geek food? The back end of this plugin is published on PYPI and can be easily installed with pip install pgserviceparser and then be used in Python.
For example to list all the service names.
>>> import pgserviceparser
>>> pgserviceparser.service_names()
['my-local-gis', 'another-local-gis', 'opengisch-demo-pg']Optionally you can pass a config file path. Otherwise it gets it by the mentioned mechanism.
Or to receive the configuration from the given service name as a dict.
>>> pgserviceparser.service_config('my-local-gis')
{'host': 'localhost', 'port': '54322', 'dbname': 'gis', 'user': 'docker', 'password': 'docker'}There are some more functions. Check them out here on GitHub or in the documentation.
We hope you share our enthusiasm for this beautiful file – at least after reading this blog post. And if not – feel free to tell us why you don’t in the comments
We’re delighted to announce Felt’s continued flagship-level sustaining membership of QGIS. Felt’s contributions will allow us to continuously improve QGIS’ functionality and documentation, as well as the QGIS project infrastructure, including our 2024 Grant Programme.
In addition to their membership, Felt is releasing a new version of the “Add To Felt” QGIS plugin. Developed by the talented team at North Road, the plugin makes it easy to upload your data from QGIS to the web, where you can share it with colleagues and clients. The newest release includes raster data support and more robust preservation of styles from QGIS to Felt. This enables seamless integration and a flexible workflow between your desktop and the web.
Don’t miss your chance to meet Felt’s team presenting “Add To Felt” at tomorrow’s QGIS Open Day.
