QField 3.4 is out, and it won’t disappoint. It has tons of new features that continue to push the limits of what users can do in the field.
Main highlights
A new geofencing framework has landed, enabling users to configure QField behaviors in relation to geofenced areas and user positioning. Geofenced areas are defined at the project-level and shaped by polygons from a chosen vector layer. The three available geofencing behaviours in this new release are:
Alert user when inside an area polygon;
Alert user when outside all defined area polygons and
Inform the user when entering and leaving an area polygons.
In addition to being alerted or informed, users can also prevent digitizing of features when being alerted by the first or second behaviour. The configuration of this functionality is done in QGIS using QFieldSync.
Pro tip: geofencing settings are embedded within projects, which means it is easy to deploy these constraints to a team of field workers through QFieldCloud. Thanks Terrex Seismic for sponsoring this functionality.
QField now offers users access to a brand new processing toolbox containing over a dozen algorithms for manipulating digitized geometries directly in the field. As with many parts of QField, this feature relies on QGIS’ core library, namely its processing framework and the numerous, well-maintained algorithms it comes with.
The algorithms exposed in QField unlock many useful functionalities for refining geometries, including orthogonalization, smoothing, buffering, rotation, affine transformation, etc. As users configure algorithms’ parameters, a grey preview of the output will be visible as an overlay on top of the map canvas.
To reach the processing toolbox in QField, select one or more features by long-pressing on them in the features list, open the 3-dot menu and click on the process selected feature(s) action. Are you excited about this one? Send your thanks to the National Land Survey of Finland, who’s support made this a reality.
QField’s camera has gained support for customized ratio and resolution of photos, as well as the ability to stamp details – date and time as well as location details – onto captured photos. In fact, QField’s own camera has received so much attention in the last few releases that we have decided to make it the default one. On supported platforms, users can switch to their OS camera by disabling the native camera option found at the bottom of the QField settings’ general tab.
Wait, there’s more
There are plenty more improvements packed into this release from project variables editing using a revamped variables editor through to integration of QField documentation help in the search bar and the ability to search cloud project lists. Read the full 3.4 changelog to know more, and enjoy the release!
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.
App-wide plugin vs. project plugin
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.
Starting with a project plugin
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!
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.
Digging into the project plugin file
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:
Beyond 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:
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.
Deployment of a project plugin via QFieldCloud
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.
Creating an app-wide plugin directory
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:
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.
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.
Empowering users as well as developers
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!
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!
Main highlights
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.
User experience improvements
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.
Plugin framework
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.
Focused on stability and usability improvements, most users will find something to celebrate in QField 3.2
Main highlights
This new release introduces project-defined tracking sessions, which are automatically activated when the project is loaded. Defined while setting up and tweaking a project on QGIS, these sessions permit the automated tracking of device positions without taking any action in QField beyond opening the project itself. This liberates field users from remembering to launch a session on app launch and lowers the knowledge required to collect such data. For more details, please read the relevant QField documentation section.
As good as the above-described functionality sounds, it really shines through in cloud projects when paired with two other new featurs.
First, cloud projects can now automatically push accumulated changes at regular intervals. The functionality can be manually toggled for any cloud project by going to the synchronization panel in QField and activating the relevant toggle (see middle screenshot above). It can also be turned on project load by enabling automatic push when setting up the project in QGIS via the project properties dialog. When activated through this project setting, the functionality will always be activated, and the need for field users to take any action will be removed.
Pushing changes regularly is great, but it could easily have gotten in the way of blocking popups. This is why QField 3.2 can now push changes and synchronize cloud projects in the background. We still kept a ‘successfully pushed changes’ toast message to let you know the magic has happened
With all of the above, cloud projects on QField can now deliver near real-time tracking of devices in the field, all configured on one desktop machine and deployed through QFieldCloud. Thanks to Groupements forestiers Québec for sponsoring these enhancements.
Other noteworthy feature additions in this release include:
A brand new undo/redo mechanism allows users to rollback feature addition, editing, and/or deletion at will. The redesigned QField main menu is accessible by long pressing on the top-left dashboard button.
Support for projects’ titles and copyright map decorations as overlays on top of the map canvas in QField allows projects to better convey attributions and additional context through informative titles.
Additional improvements
The QFieldCloud user experience continues to be improved. In this release, we have reworked the visual feedback provided when downloading and synchronizing projects through the addition of a progress bar as well as additional details, such as the overall size of the files being fetched. In addition, a visual indicator has been added to the dashboard and the cloud projects list to alert users to the presence of a newer project file on the cloud for projects locally available on the device.
With that said, if you haven’t signed onto QFieldCloud yet, try it! Psst, the community account is free
The creation of relationship children during feature digitizing is now smoother as we lifted the requirement to save a parent feature before creating children. Users can now proceed in the order that feels most natural to them.
Finally, Android users will be happy to hear that a significant rework of native camera, gallery, and file picker activities has led to increased stability and much better integration with Android itself. Activities such as the gallery are now properly overlayed on top of the QField map canvas instead of showing a black screen.
The launch of QField 3.0 was a big deal, but now we’re back to focusing on smaller, more frequent updates. Don’t let the shorter change log for 3.1 trick you – there are lots of cool new features in this update!
Main highlights
One of the main improvements in this release is the brand-new functionality to enable snapping to common angles while digitizing. When enabled, the coordinate cursor will snap to configured angles alongside a visual guideline. This comes in handy when adding new geometries while surveying features with regular angles (e.g. buildings, parking lots, etc.). As QField gets more digitizing functionalities, we’ve taken the time to implement a nifty UI that collapses digitizing toggle buttons into a drawer, leaving extra space for the map canvas to shine through.
In addition, the vertex editor – one of QField’s most advanced geometry tools – received tons of love during this development cycle, focusing on improving its usability. Changes worth mentioning include:
A new undo button allows users to revert individual vertex manipulations in case of mistaken adjustment, which can save you from having to cancel a large set of ongoing manipulations;
The possibility to select vertices using finger tapping on the screen, dramatically improving the user experience;
Clearer on-screen markers to represent vertices and
Tons of bug fixes to the vertex editor itself, as well as the broader set of geometry tools.
It is now possible to lock the geometry of individual features within a single vector layer. While QField has long supported the concept of a locked geometry state for vector layers, that was until now a layer-wide toggle. With the new version of QField, a data-defined property can dictate whether a given feature geometry can be edited. Interested in geofenced geometry editing? We’ve got you covered This functionality requires the latest version of QFieldSync, which is available through QGIS’ plugin manager.
Noticeably improvements
Permission handling has been improved across all platforms. On Android, QField now delays the permission request for camera, microphone, location, and Bluetooth access until needed. This makes for a much friendlier user experience.
QField 3.0 was one of the largest releases, with major changes in its underlying libraries, including a migration to Qt 6. With the community’s help, we have spent countless hours testing before release. However, it is never a bulletproof process, and that version came with a few noticeable regressions. In particular, camera handling on Android suffered from upstream issues with Qt. We’ve tracked as many of those as possible, making this new version much more stable. One lingering camera issue remains and will be fixed upstream in the next three weeks; we’ll update as soon as it is available.
Finally, long-time users of QField will notice improvements in how geometry highlights and digitizing rubber bands are drawn. We’ve doubled down on efforts to ensure that the digitized geometries and the coordinate cursor itself are always clearly visible, whether overlaid against the canvas’s light or dark parts.
We want to extend a heartfelt thank you to our sponsors for their generous support. If you’re inspired by the developments in QField and want to contribute, please consider donating. Your support will help us continue to innovate and improve this tool for everyone’s benefit.
Shipped with many new features and built with the latest generation of Qt’s cross-platform framework, this new chapter marks an important milestone for the most powerful open-source field GIS solution.
Main highlights
Upon launching this new version of QField, users will be greeted by a revamped recent projects list featuring shiny map canvas thumbnails. While this is one of the most obvious UI improvements, countless interface tweaks and harmonization have occurred. From the refreshed dark theme to the further polishing of countless widgets, QField has never looked and felt better.
The top search bar has a new functionality that allows users to look for features within the currently active vector layer by matching any of its attributes against a given search term. Users can also refine their searches by specifying a specific attribute. The new functionality can be triggered by typing the ‘f’ prefix in the search bar followed by a string or number to retrieve a list of matching features. When expanding it, a new list of functionalities appears to help users discover all of the tools available within the search bar.
QField’s tracking has also received some love. A new erroneous distance safeguard setting has been added, which, when enabled, will dictate the tracker not to add a new vertex if the distance between it and the previously added vertex is greater than a user-specified value. This aims at preventing “spikes” of poor position readings during a tracking session. QField is now also capable of resuming a tracking session after being stopped. When resuming, tracking will reuse the last feature used when first starting, allowing sessions interrupted by battery loss or momentary pause to be continued on a single line or polygon geometry.
On the feature form front, QField has gained support for feature form text widgets, a new read-only type introduced in QGIS 3.30, which allows users to create expression-based text labels within complex feature form configurations. In addition, relationship-related form widgets now allow for zooming to children/parent features within the form itself.
To enhance digitizing work in the field, QField now makes it possible to turn snapping on and off through a new snapping button on top of the map canvas when in digitizing mode. When a project has enabled advanced snapping, the dashboard’s legend item now showcases snapping badges, allowing users to toggle snapping for individual vector layers.
QField 3.0 snapping capabilities
In addition, digitising lines and polygons by using the volume up/down hardware keys on devices such as smartphones is now possible. This can come in handy when digitizing data in harsh conditions where gloves can make it harder to use a touch screen.
While we had to play favourites in describing some of the new functionalities in QField, we’ve barely touched the surface of this feature-packed release. Other major additions include support for Near-Field Communication (NFC) text tag reading and a new geometry editor’s eraser tool to delete part of lines and polygons as you would with a pencil sketch using an eraser.
Starting with this new version, the scale bar overlay will now respect projects’ distance measurement units, allowing for scale bars in imperial and nautical units.
QField now offers a rendering quality setting which, at the cost of a slightly reduced visual quality, results in faster rendering speeds and lower memory usage. This can be a lifesaver for older devices having difficulty handling large projects and helps save battery life.
Vector tile layer support has been improved with the automated download of missing fonts and the possibility of toggling label visibility. This pair of changes makes this resolution-independent layer type much more appealing.
On iOS, layouts are now printed by QField as PDF documents instead of images. While this was the case for other platforms, it only became possible on iOS recently after work done by one of our ninjas in QGIS itself.
Many thanks to DB Fahrwgdienste for sponsoring stabilization efforts and fixes during this development cycle.
Qt 6, the latest generation of the cross-platform framework powering QField
Last but not least, QField 3.0 is now built against Qt 6. This is a significant technological milestone for the project as this means we can fully leverage the latest technological innovations into this cross-platform framework that has been powering QField since day one.
On top of the new possibilities, QField benefited from years of fixes and improvements, including better integration with Android and iOS platforms. In addition, the positioning framework in Qt 6 has been improved with awareness of the newer GNSS constellations that have emerged over the last decade.
Forest-themed release names
Forests are critical in climate regulation, biodiversity preservation, and economic sustainability. Beginning with QField 3.0 “Amazonia” and throughout the 3.X’s life cycle, we will choose forest names to underscore the importance of and advocate for global forest conservation.
As always, we hope you enjoy this new release. Happy field mapping!
The latest version of QField is out, featuring as its main new feature sensor handling alongside the usual round of user experience and stability improvements. We simply can’t wait to see the sensor uses you will come up with!
The main highlight: sensors
QField 2.8 ships with out-of-the-box handling of external sensor streams over TCP, UDP, and serial port. The functionality allows for data captured through instruments – such as geiger counter, decibel sensor, CO detector, etc. – to be visualized and manipulated within QField itself.
Things get really interesting when sensor data is utilized as default values alongside positioning during the digitizing of features. You are always one tap away from adding a point locked onto your current position with spatially paired sensor readings saved as point attribute(s).
The development of this feature involved the addition of a sensor framework in upstream QGIS which will be available by the end of this coming June as part of the 3.32 release. This is a great example of the synergy between QField and its big brother QGIS, whereas development of new functionality often benefits the broader QGIS community. Big thanks to Sevenson Environmental Services for sponsoring this exciting capability.
Notable improvements
A couple of refinements during this development cycle are worth mentioning. If you ever wished for QField to directly open a selected project or reloading the last session on app launch, you’ll be happy to know this is now possible.
For heavy users of value relations in their feature forms, QField is now a tiny bit more clever when displaying string searches against long lists, placing hits that begin with the matched string first as well as visually highlighting matches within the result list itself.
Finally, feature lists throughout QField are now sorted. By default, it will sort by the display field or expression defined for each vector layer, unless an advanced sorting has been defined in a given vector layer’s attribute table. It makes browsing through lists feel that much more natural.
A brand new version of QField has been released, packed with features that will make you fall in love with this essential open source tool all over again with a focus on capturing more while you are in the field. QField 2.7 nicknamed “Heroic Hedgehog” also includes a number of worthy fixes making it a crucial update to get.
New recording capabilities
The highlight of QField 2.7 is the new audio and video recording capability straight from the feature form. In addition to preexisting still photo capture, this functionality allows for video motion and audio clips to be added as attachments to feature attributes.
The audio recording capability can come in handy in the field when typing on a keyboard-less device can be challenging. Simply record an audio note of observations to process later.
The experience wouldn’t be complete without audio and video playback support, which we took care of in this version too. Playback of such media content within the feature form gives an immediate feedback and saves time. For those interested in full screen immersion, simply click on the video frame to open the attached in your favorite media player. We also took the opportunity to implement audio and video playback on QGIS so people can easily consume the fruits of their labor in the field at their workstation.
We would be remiss if we didn’t mention map canvas rotation functionality added in this version. This is a long-requested functionality which we are happy to have packed into QField now. Pro-tip: when positioning is enabled, double tapping on the lower-left positioning button will have the map canvas follow both the device’s current location as well as the compass orientation.
Finally – some would argue “most importantly” – QField is now equipped with a beautiful dark theme which users can activate in the settings panel. By default on Android and iOS, QField will follow the system’s dark theme setting. In addition to the new color scheme, users can also adjust the user interface font size.
Big thanks to Deutsches Archäologisches Institut who funded the majority of the new features in this release cycle. Their investment in making QField the perfect tool for them has benefited the community as a whole.
A ton of bug fixing across all platforms
Important stability improvements and fixes to serious issues are also part of this release. Noteworthy fixes include WFS layer support on iOS, much better Bluetooth connectivity on Android, and vertical grid improvement on Windows.
For users facing reliability issues with the native camera on Android, we have spent time supersizing the camera we ship within QField itself. During this development cycle, it has gained zoom and flash controls, as well as a ton of usability improvements, including geo-tagging.
It’s only been a few weeks into the new year, but we’ve got great news for you: a brand new QField 2.6 “Geeky Gecko ?” has been released with a focus on positioning improvements, including Bluetooth support for Windows. And with that, we are delighted to remove the ‘beta’ status from QField for Windows.
New positioning features
Let’s open with a bang: QField 2.6 now supports NMEA streaming from external GNSS devices over TCP, UDP, and serial ports, in addition to preexisting Bluetooth connectivity. This new functionality means that QField is now compatible with a much larger range of GNSS devices out there.
These new receivers unlock NTRIP-driven centimetre accuracy for devices that use the Bluetooth connection to a manufacturer’s application to connect to NTRIP servers. In this scenario, QField could not initiate a Bluetooth connection since it was already taken. With the new TCP and UDP receivers – provided the manufacturer’s application offers NMEA streaming over either of those Internet protocols – QField can connect and consume high-accuracy positioning.
The presence of a serial port receiver provides support for external GNSS devices using Bluetooth on Windows via the virtual serial port created by the operating system. The lack of Bluetooth support on Windows was a long-wanted enhancement from QField users on that platform and was the last blocker for the ‘beta’ status to go away.
In addition, QField 2.6 allows users to pick from half a dozen metrics a value to attach to the measure (M) dimension of geometries being digitized when locked to the current position. This functionality is available to both users digitizing and the positioning tracker. The measurement values available as of 2.6 are timestamp, ground speed, bearing, horizontal accuracy and vertical accuracy, as well as PDOP, HDOP and VDOP values.
Growing Continuous Integration (CI) testing framework now covers positioning
Starting with version 2.6, QField ships with increased quality assurances thanks to the addition of tests covering positioning functionalities in its growing CI framework.
Practically speaking, this means that every single line of QField code changed is now being tested against positioning-related regression, significantly decreasing the risks of shipping a new version of QField with broken functionality in the area of antenna height, vertical grid shift, and ellipsoidal height adjustments.
We would like to commend Deutsche Bahn for funding the required work here. This could not have come in soon enough as more and more people are opting for QField and relying on it for their crucial day-to-day fieldwork.
QField is a community-driven open-source project. It is free to share, use and modify and it will stay like that. The very essence of a community is to help and support each other. And that’s where YOU come into play. To make it work we need your support!
For those who don’t know much about the concept of open source projects, a bit of background. Investing in open-source projects is a technical and ethical decision for OPENGIS.ch. Open source is a technological advantage, as we receive input from many developers worldwide who are motivated to work out the best possible software. It prevents our customers from vendor lock-in and allows complete ownership and control of the developed software. And finally, not only financially independent businesses and people should benefit from professional software but also those who might not have the financial means to pay for features, and licences.
You are not a developer, but you still like to use QField and support it? Good news. You don’t have to be a developer to use, contribute or recommend the app. There are plenty of things that need to be done to help QField to remain the powerful software it is right now and become even better. Here are a few suggestions on how you can give something back.
Let the world know about it! It doesn’t matter if you’re on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram or any other social media platform. Show and tell about where QField helped you. We appreciate every post and we promise to like, share and comment.
Write about your experience and please let us know. Be it in your blog or as a new success story. Insights into field projects are extremely valuable. It helps us to make the app even more efficient for your work, and it helps others to understand the range of applications for QField.
Register for a paid QFieldCloud account. QFieldCloud allows to synchronize and merge the data collected in QField. QFieldCloud is hosted by the makers of QField and by getting an account you help QField too.
Do you want to do something that is more hands-on and directly linked to the app? No problem.
Help with the documentation. You can document features, or improve the documentation in English. Read the how-to guide to get started.
Become a beta tester and be the first to report a bug! When something doesn’t work properly it might be a bug. The quicker we know about it, the faster it can be resolved.
If you are a developer and you want to get involved in QField development, please refer to the individual documentation for QField, QFieldCloud and QFieldSync.
And now finally for those of you who have the financial means, you can either sponsor a feature or subscribe to one of the monthly sponsorships. By doing so you help get freshly baked QField versions straight to everyone’s devices.
Nothing in it for you? In that case, just drop by to say thank you or have a hot or cold beverage with us next time you meet OPENGIS.ch at a conference and you might make our day! Want to know more about the idea of community-driven open-source projects and the QGIS project in particular? Check out Nyall Dawson’s blog post about how to effectively get things done in open source!
Our ninjas have been so busy that less than a month after we released QField 2.4, we find ourselves with so many new features we simply can’t wait any longer to present to you the latest version of QField: 2.5 “Fancy Flamingo ?”.
Exciting new features
QField’s main new feature of this 2.5 release cycle is its brand new elevation profiling functionality which has been added to the measuring tool. Users are now able to dynamically build and analyze elevation profiles wherever they are – in the field or on their desktop – by simply drawing paths onto their maps and projects.
This is a great example of QField’s capability at bringing the power of QGIS through a UI that keeps things simple and avoids being in your way until you need it. Oh and while we’re speaking of the measuring tool, check out the new azimuth measurement!
This new version also brings multi-column support to feature forms. QField now respects the number of columns set by users in the attributes’ drag and drop designer while building and tweaking projects in QGIS. The implementation will take into account the screen availability and on narrow devices will revert to a one-column setup. Pro tip: try to change the background color of your individual groups to ease understanding of the overall feature form.
Another highlight of this release is a brand new screen lock action that can be triggered through QField’s main menu found in the side dashboard or in the map canvas menu shown when long pressing on the map itself. Once activated, QField will become unresponsive to touch and mouse events while keeping the display turned on. When locked, QField also hides tool buttons which results in a more complete view of the map extent.
Stability improvements
As with every release, our ninjas have been spending time hunting nasty bugs and improving stability and QField 2.5 is no exception. In particular, the feature form should feel more reliable and even more polished.
What a night it was. The “Best of Swiss Apps Awards” took place in Zurich yesterday, November 2, 2022. We were also nominated with QField. And in the enterprise category, the app was so convincing, that it was awarded the highest possible price. So it brought the award “Best of Swiss Enterprise App” home to Graubünden. And as cherry on the cake: QField was also nominated as finalist in the UX/UI category!
We are extremely proud and happy about the received award. And even more when we look at the contendants that won in the other categories. We’re talking companies like SBB, Swiss Life, Switzerland Tourism and, yes, Rivella ?.
If you are interested in more details, we released a press release in German and in English.
QField is an open source mobile app. The app is designed to use and edit geographically referenced data. In urban environments with 5G connectivity, but also with offline data. The mobile GIS app combines minimal design for simplicity with sophisticated technology for a versatile range of uses to bring data conveniently from the field to the offices. The app was started in 2011 and received a major rebuild in 2022.
It offers a seamless QGIS integration and is GPS-centric, with offline functionality, synchronisation options and desktop configuration. QField is designed for fieldwork: simple, but uncompromising. The app is used internationally and is the first choice for mobile GIS projects. In the city, in the countryside and in the forest.
Soon, QFieldCloud will also be launched. QFieldCloud is a cloud service integrated into QField that enables the remote provision and synchronisation of geodata and projects.
And here some moments of the award night. It was a blast!
Michael Quade enterprise jury chair congratulates on the winone of the BOSA2022 trophy360° QField projections!Happy chappiesand formally happy Laudatio
Starting with QField 2.2, users can fully rely on animation capabilities that have made their way into QGIS during its last development cycle. This can be a powerful mean to highlight key elements on a map that require special user attention.
The example below demonstrates a scenario where animated raster markers are used to highlight active fires within the visible map extent. Notice how the subtle fire animation helps draw viewers’ eyes to those important markers.
The second example below showcases more advanced animated symbology which relies on expressions to animate several symbol properties such as marker size, border width, and color opacity. While more complex than simply adding a GIF marker, the results achieved with data-defined properties animation can be very appealing and integrate perfectly with any type of project.
You’ll quickly notice how smooth the animation runs. That is thanks to OPENGIS.ch’s own ninjas having spent time improving the map canvas element’s handling of layers constantly refreshing. This includes automatic skipping of frames on older devices so the app remains responsive.
Good things take time (and sponsors), and we wanted our Apple users to enjoy the same solid and seamless experience as our Android users. So we took the time needed and ran beta testing of QField for multiple months. Thanks to all the community feedback and to the uncountable work hours put in by our development team, today we released QField on the iOS Appstore.
Following the naming scheme for the 2.X series, we decided to name QField 2.4 Ecstatic Elk (Cervus Canadensis), honouring “the land of maple leaf ??”, the home country of Mathieu (QField lead UX designer) and origin of some recent funding.
New features, improvements and demo projects
Releasing for iOS is the main news for QField 2.4, but we also added some new features as well as fixed some annoying bugs we had.
New demo projects showing many new QField features. We merged the Bee simple and Bee advanced projects into one bees project and added a wastewater management project that comes with beautiful dark and light themes.
The new features include atlas-driven print layouts that can now be printed through the main menu’s print to PDF item and dragging files onto an iOS device via USB Cable with iTunes support.
Some more UX improvements can be noticed when sending or exporting datasets via the project folder. All sidecars will now be considered so that, for example, you can send your edited shapefiles via your favourite email or messenger app.
Finally, QFieldCloud’s projects are better sorted, and its community tab is now functional.
Bugfixes
During the last sprint, we greatly improved QField’s automated testing framework, greatly decreasing the risks of regressions slipping into future releases. We also ensured that QGIS-shipped SVG markers will now render properly within QField.
Finally, we fixed freehand toggling when using a stylus and ensured the changelog popup doesn’t overlap with the OS’ status bar.
Best of Swiss Apps Nomination
We put a lot of effort into ensuring that QField, is of the highest possible quality, so being nominated as a finalist for the BestOfSwissApps award was even sweeter ???
Beginning of November, we’ll know more about the outcome of the votes ?
QFieldCloud
QFieldCloud has been in Free BETA for half a year now. Thanks to the precious help of the many early adopters (we already have over 30K users), we were able to identify and fix plenty of issues. In the last months, our service status page has been consistently looking super-green
We are extremely happy with how the system is behaving and are even happier with the feedback we are receiving!
As of today, we’ve implemented all the functionality that we want to have for the GA release. All we are missing is finishing testing the billing and payment system and rolling the drums ?
We put a lot of effort into ensuring that QField, is of the highest possible quality and invest a lot of developer time in QField, QFieldCloud and QGIS. Plenty of it is sponsored by OPENGIS.ch because we believe in giving back to the OS geo community; part is sponsored by the clients that ask us to develop features, and part is financed through our support contracts that come with a sustainability initiative.
Let’s not paraphrase it, QField 2.0 is here and it is taking professional GIS fieldwork to a completely new level.
TL;DR
After an intense development and testing period, we are ready, QField 2.0 is out.
QField 2.0 is packed with new features that will make your professional fieldwork even more efficient. You can get a taste of all you will be getting with this major update on QField’s changelog. Be aware, it will blow your mind…
Survey and digitise data in no time. QField is the professional mobile app for QGIS, allowing users to deploy their existing QGIS projects to the field.
Edit your data on the go. The seamless integration with QFieldCloud allows your team to work on your projects anywhere anytime.
Open a wide range of spatial data formats, connect to industry-leading spatial databases and consume standardised geowebservices.
The looks out of the and sees lots of
For Android, iOS and Windows tablets and mobiles. But also for Linux, macOS and Windows laptops and desktops.
QField can be installed basically anywhere and can help thanks to its simplicity even on desktop work. If you do not have it yet, get it now!
What mountain is Arctic Fox?
If you have been following QFields development, you might remember that we named each release after a mountain. We are very outdoorsy and this was a sort of tribute to the places we love. With each release, we had great fun looking for places that would be meaningful for us and our community. From beautiful mountains outside our window to the remotest island mountain on Earth and even further.
After Elbrus (0.5), Finsteraarhorn (0.6), Gonnus Mons (0.7), Hiendertelltihoren (0.8), Jungfraujoch (0.9), Kesch (0.10), Lucendro (0.11), Matterhorn (1.0 – 1.2), Ben Nevis (1.3), Olavtoppen (1.4), Piz Palü (1.5), Qinling (1.6), Rockies (1.7), Selma (1.8), Taivaskero (1.9) and Uluru (1.10), we decided to change the subject and for the 2.X series we’ll name the releases after cool animals that reflect different characteristics of QField.
The arctic fox is an incredibly hardy animal that can survive frigid Arctic temperatures as low as –50°C in the treeless lands where it makes its home. It has furry soles, short ears, and a short muzzle—all-important adaptations to the chilly clime. Arctic foxes live in burrows, and in a blizzard, they may tunnel into the snow to create shelter.
Like an Arctic Fox, QField is perfectly adapted to the outdoors and helps you get your data in the most efficient way possible.
Obviously, the big news in QField 2.0 is the integration with QFieldCloud BETA, but besides that, we’ve added a lot of new features and fixed plenty of bugs. If you are interested in all the details, you should go to the changelog page and check out all the new goodies. If you just want the major additions, here you go:
– Support for the opening of projects and datasets directly from your favourite messenger app, browser, etc. on Android.
– Support for opening ZIP compressed projects on Android.
– Support for remote datasets via GDAL’s /vsicurl/ URIs
– Greatly improved scale bar overlay
– Incremental improvements to the user interface all across QField
Cloudy with a chance of meatballs
QFieldCloud’s unique technology allows your team to focus on what’s important, making sure you efficiently get the best field data possible. Thanks to the tight integration with QField, you will be able to start surveying and digitising data in no time.
You can register directly from QField 2.0 or simply head to qfield.cloud and create your free account now.
What is QFieldCloud?
Seamless synchronisation
QFieldCloud is a synchronisation platform, that we offer as a service, which takes the pain out of syncing data from multiple data collectors. Thanks to seamless synchronization, your surveyors will be able to push their work anytime they want. Working in the wild? Your team can continue working with no limitations and sync back their changes once back in town.
Team management
QFieldCloud’s fine-grained permissions system allows you to efficiently define who can collaborate with you on your projects and what operations they are allowed to perform. You can for example add a junior surveyor as a reporter, a senior one as a project manager and you can even add users with read-only permissions.
Hosted or in your own cloud – open source
QFieldCloud perfectly integrates and extends your QGIS based geodata infrastructure, you can either subscribe for a worry-free Swiss-made solution hosted on Swiss data centres or contact us for your private cloud instance.
QFieldCloud code is open source so you can see what is actually happening to your data.
Known issues
Please note that on older AMRv7 architectures, some devices are suffering from a crash at launch. As such, we have not yet updated QField to 2.0 for these devices. If you own one such device and want to manually download and install QField, please visit the release page on GitHub.
Also, since November 2021, Google has enforced new storage access limitations for apps published on its Play store which prohibits direct storage access on Android 11 and above forcing QField to adapt and rely on importing projects and datasets to access those. As part of the enforcement of these new policies, Google came up with an arbitrary mechanism to whitelist some apps which allows those to retain full storage access given the user explicitly allowed for it. We here at OPENGIS.ch believe QField had ample justifications to be whitelisted, however, Google’s appeal process judged otherwise after a series of email exchanges detailing our reasoning. While we have so far lost this argument with Google, we will continue fighting for our users and for their freedom to choose. If you are interested in more details, read our blog post about it.
Join the effort
QField is an open-source project. It is free to share, use and modify and it will stay like that. We are very happy if this app helps you in whatever creative way you may use it. If you found it useful, we will be even happier if you could give something back. You can easily sponsor QField, contribute some help or ask us to develop a new feature.
While OPENGIS.ch’s GeoNinjas are busy getting QFieldCloud ready for primetime, it has not kept them away from concocting a brand new feature-packed QField 1.10 “Uluru”. Most users will find something to fall in love with in this release. From an improved feature form to new digitizing functionalities and quality of live updates.
QField’s feature form has received lots of attention during this development cycle. Its user interface and stability have greatly improved, and there are simply too many individual changes to list here.
On the new functionality front, the feature form has gained:
An ordered relation editor widget allowing users to re-order the children features of a relationship
A complete-as-you-type mode for value relation editor widget
A new UUID generator editor widget
Support for “live” default expression value to be on feature update
Speed up workflow with new duplicate and move feature(s) actions
QField 1.10 brings in a pair of new useful actions: the duplicate feature(s) and move feature(s). This can speed up work in the field for many surveyors by avoiding potentially lengthy digitizing and attribute filling processes in favour of quickly duplicating what’s already done whenever possible.
Vertex digitizing logger
Conducting quality assurance (QA) reviews from work done in the field with QField has just gotten a lot better thanks to the brand new vertex digitizing logger. When enabled, each vertex entered while digitizing new features or editing preexisting geometries are logged as point features onto a ‘digitizing logs’ layer. Each point feature added has access to snapping result context, position context including horizontal and vertical accuracy, and more. This allows for data reviewers to get a fuller picture of how geometries were built.
Quality of life improvements
Quite a few improvements have landed in QField 1.10 which should improve users’ experience. To list a few:
To save battery, QField will now automatically dim the screen backlight after a period of inactivity, allowing users to conduct longer tracking sessions before running out of power
Tracking settings are now remembered and sub-meter minimum distance constraint allowed
The map scale bar now avoids degrees and instead automatically converts units into meters
Opening an individual point dataset will automatically setup and show feature labels; for other geometry types, users can show labels via a new checkbox in the layer item properties panel
QField speaks many languages
Thanks to community efforts, QField has been translated into a growing number of languages. However, the user interface language adopted by QField was until now hard-coded to match that of the device onto which QField was running.
Starting with QField 1.10, users are able to customize the language used by going to the settings panel.
Updates to foundational libraries
Time was spent during this development cycle to update a large number of libraries powering up QField, which is now running against QGIS 3.22, gdal 3.3.2, PROJ 8.1.1. This has resulted in increased stability as well as speed gains in a number of scenarios.
The Future is almost here
We are working hard to get QFieldClour open to the public, we currently have more than 2/3 of our waiting list actively using it. In the next 2-3 weeks we will invite all waiting users and then open up Beta registrations to the public.Meanwhile, we have also been working on fully supporting iOS, Windows and Linux. Simply go to https://qfield.org/get and start using QField immediately on your favourite device.
Today, on QField’s 10th anniversary, we’re extremely proud to publish the results of over 18 months of development and give you the source code of QFieldCloud to go and make your awesome adaptations, solutions, and hopefully contributions
If you want to quickly try it out, head to https://qfield.cloud where our hosted solution is running and secure yourself a spot in the beta program.
QFieldCloud’s unique technology allows your team to focus on what’s important, making sure you efficiently get the best field data possible. Thanks to the tight integration with the leading GIS fieldwork app QField, your team will be able to start surveying and digitising data in no time.
What a journey it was and what plans do we already have… It has now been 10 years since I pushed the first scripts to build Quantum GIS for Android and it is incredible what we’ve been able to achieve thanks to a vibrant community, sponsors and especially our fantastic team.
At OPENGIS.ch we strongly believe in giving back. We live from open-source projects and are deeply committed to sustaining their technological and economicwell-being. We also believe everyone should have access to the best possible tools and knowledge. By committing ourselves to develop open-source applications, we give everyone access to powerful tools to plan, review and mitigate geospatial issues.
That is why we are even more thrilled to have created and open-sourced a professional data and team management solution for the best QGIS fieldwork app and would like to share a bit of the history of how we revolutionised field work by creating QField for QGIS.
Prehistory – QGIS for Android is born
Stone-, bronze-, iron-age, you get it, the beginnings of field mapping in the QGIS world were pretty rough around the edges. It all started thanks to me being accepted in the Google Summer of Code 2011 programme with the “QGIS mobile” submission. In the following 3 months, I’d try, with the help of my mentors Pirmin Kalberer and Marco Hugentobler, to get Quantum GIS to run on my tablet.
The first start
Hi all, it is a pleasure to announce that I finally got Quantum GIS to start on an android (3.2) tablet (Asus transformer). I tested as well on a Samsung Galaxy phone with cyanogen mod 7 RC1 and it works well (with the obvious screen size limitations). Qgis still doesn’t load many elements, but the GUI is there and the rest should be only minor issues. I’ll post more as soon as I make further developments. Meanwhile, if you want to test the apk, you can download it from my GitHub here. For building your own, have a look at qgis wiki
See my last posts. In short, I managed to get qgis packaged as an APK and to properly run with only one major problem. The map canvas is always black. I’ll investigate this till Tuesday. Cheers
After 3 months of intensive work, QGIS for android finally has a a proper GUI
Blazing fast startup
Hi, I just managed to create an APK with all the resources needed by qgis …
The only inconvenience at the moment is that at the first startup the app shows a black screen while it’s copying the files for about 30 to 60sec so just be patient and remember that the whole app will take up to 230MB (it installs on external storage by default)
I still remember the feeling that day when after almost 3 months, of fighting with shell scripts, patching of build systems, debugging via ADB, writing C++ in Java wrappers and so on, my Quantum GIS test project was suddenly running on my tablet… I Was so happy I just went running in the mountains :).
Just a quick screenshot to show that qgis on android is now a working reality. Tomorrow I’ll make a video and so on. The major missing thing now is reading SHP files ad maybe spatialite… maybe tomorrow. Now it’s Sunday
At the end of the Google Summer of code, I received my MSc in geoinformatics and left for 3 Months to Indonesia working as a consultant/developer for the World-bank Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery.
So, it is over, after 3 months of working on QGIS for android as a Google Summer of Code project it is now time to wrap up what I did and didn’t do. First of all a QGIS android app exists now and it has many features including: – reading/writing projects – raster support – spatialite support – WMS support – (apparent – untested) WFS and Postgres support – partial shape files support (string attributes still crash the app) – Fully functional GUI (SymbologyV2 doesn’t work yet) – (all?) core C++ plugins beside globe (any takers? ) Furthermore, I created a series of build scripts that make it easier to set up a dev environment. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to implement live GPS tracking and a larger GUI optimisation, but all in all, I’m very happy with the results and seeing that few peoples are already testing it. Soon ill publish a video. cheers
Quantum GIS for Android was a reality and I was fully committed to keeping working on it. Turns out I wasn’t wrong
A commitment is a commitment
Classical – QGIS for Android grows
The Next Era of QGIS for android is what could be seen as the time of great knowledge enhancement, philosophical musings and the rise of the first great features including:
The dark ages, times of instability, change and some setbacks. Sounds terrifying, it was not at all, on the contrary it was a very formative period that apexed with the fantastic release of QGIS 2.0 for android.
The QML app experiment
From the beginning on, the idea behind QGIS for android was to eventually ditch the GUI and build a dedicated one for touch devices. The code for the future.
UX mockup for the first QML based app
UX mockup for the first QML based app
UX mockup for the first QML based app
Screenshots of the first QML based UI
The Python failure
Probably the major setback in QGIS for android’s history was the non-completion of the Python support. I got really close to it multiple times but unfortunately never managed to tame the snake. Maybe something we’ll look into in future, who knows.
The pivotal point of the Middle Ages was definitely 20.09.2013, when Tim Sutton presented to a full auditorium the shiny new QGIS 2.0. And along with it it introduced the general availability of QGIS 2.0 on android. The first real QGIS version for mobile devices was finally available for the broad public.
Tim Sutton announcing QGIS 2.0
Tim Sutton announcing QGIS 2.0 for Android
QGIS 2.0 general availability for Android
After the launch followed a very active time of keeping QGIS for Android on pair with the desktop versions leading to a regular release of updates on the playstore between 2013 and late 2014. This is also when Matthias Kuhn started committing to the QGIS for Android repository.
Early Modern – QField for QGIS is here
Humanism, Renaissance and Enlightenment are what we saw happening in the period between 2015 and early 2019. Field users were put at the centre of the design process, new ideas were explored and a new name was chosen to reflect the main goal of the application: Make fieldwork as efficient as possible.
Early 2015 was also when Matthias Kuhn and myself decided to join forces in OPENGIS.ch LLC.
The rebranding
The project never had a clear name, at times it was called QGIS for Android at times QGIS mobile, we felt that to clearly convey what we were building we needed a clear, simple and poignant name.
Beginning of 2015 saw the last rebranding
It is with great pleasure that we want to announce the new name for what was briefly known as QGIS mobile.
Please welcome QField for QGIS!
After long thinking about various names and variants including QGIS mobile, QTouch, OPENGIS.ch QGIS mobile, QWork, and many more, we felt that QField represents best what we want to archive. A field data capture and management app fully compatible with QGIS.
QField Experimental is out, after a couple of months of requirements gathering, private early alpha testing and foremost tons of emails requesting access to the testes group we decided today to put the current BETA version in the playstore.
Since the beginning of QGIS for android, to distribute the needed Qt libraries, we used a project called “ministro”. This was interesting because it allowed to download the libraries only once but on the other hand, it was a very painful experience for the user that needed to install a second app before getting QField to start. Around the end of 2015 it was so far, we finally managed to get rid of that dependency and make the installation process as streamlined as possible.
It’s done, finally we managed to get rid of Ministro so that we finally can say, QField runs on any android from 4.0.3 (ICS). This makes as of today (according to google) 96% of the android installations worldwide.
In these 3.5 years, a continuous, mainly volunteer-driven iterative process led by Matthias Kuhn made QField grow to the point where we felt confident it was time to launch QField 1.0.
After a series of release candidates with lots of feedback from the community, we felt it was time to move into a New Era.
It was a long and winding road but we are very excited to announce the general availability of QField 1.0 Release Candidate 1.
Packed with loads of useful features like online and offline features digitizing, geometry and attributes editing, attribute search, powerful forms, theme switching, GPS support, camera integration and much more, QField is a powerful tool for those who need to edit on the go and would like to avoid standing in the swamp with a laptop or paper charts.
We are incredibly pleased and proud of just having released such a jewel and are convinced that thanks to all its features and conscious design choices, QField will make your field digitizing work much more efficient and pleasant.
In the last 2 years the development pace increased tremendously, the sponsored featured grew as never before, QField rating skyrocketed to 4.7 we currently have 100’000 active users and we’re getting around 500 new users every day.
Our QField core team grew more and now thanks to David Signer’s lead and Mathieu Pellerin keen eye for UX we’re pushing QField even further.
Going into all releases would be so much information that this post would turn into a 3 volumes classic, and since starting from QField 1.0 we’ve documented each new release, we’re just going to link them: https://www.opengis.ch/category/qfield/highlights/
The future is cloudy – ehm sunny of course
Yesterday we published QField 1.9.6, which is going to be the last 1.X release and will put QField 2.0 into the beta channel so that every beta tester can start using QFieldCloud without having to use the developer version.
But that is a different story and you can read all about it in our latest newsletter…
From unlocking selective atlas layout export to opening individual datasets and creating GeoPDFs, QField 1.9 is all about giving even more power to its users. The release also comes with significant user experience improvement, such as faster rendering and restoring the last viewed map extent.
QField has long supported exporting print layouts to PDF, but now users are able to export atlas-driven layouts from selected features, all while being in the field. A new print action is now attached to the feature form and identified features list for all vector layers acting as atlas coverage layers in any of the print layouts present in a loaded project.
Oh, and did we mention exported PDFs from QField are now georeferenced?
Opening of individual datasets
Users in the field can find themselves in need of opening individual geospatial datasets not bound to a project: that KML file a colleague has just sent through via a messenger app or a new GeoPDF sitting in the inbox. QField 1.9 will seamlessly do that for you.
Out of the box, users will now be able to open vector and rasters datasets from their mobile devices. By default, an OpenStreetMap base map will be added as an underlying basemap to the opened dataset layer(s).
Geometry digitizing when adding child features to relationships
While QField has long allowed users to add new child features to predefined layers’ relationships, users were only able to add feature attributes. This changes with this new version of QField.
As of now, users will be able to digitize geometries alongside attributes for new child features. This is a significant user experience improvement and will surely ease field data entry in many cases.
A maturing search bar now with address searches
A new address search framework was added to QField’s search bar. In this new version, Finnish users will be able to search for street addresses and locations straight from QField. More coverage is planned in future releases.
If you want to sponsor a specific country, contact us.
User interface and experience improvements
While this new version of QField brings an exciting amount of new features, it also showcases countless refinements and improvements to its user interface and experience. Some noteworthy improvements include:
QField now remembers the last map extent for each project and dataset opened, allowing users to launch QField and pick things up where they left off.
QField now provides visual feedback when opening large projects so users don’t have to wonder what is happening to a frozen QField frame.
Significant attention was paid to improve the visual consistency of the feature form widgets, and users will be pleased to see project-set background colours for attributes are now reflected in the QField interface.
QField Cloud
We have also been working hard on improved methods for synchronizing data from field to the office. QField Cloud is looming around the corner to help you simplify processes and data integration. Don’t miss out and join the waiting list if you haven’t done so already!
That’s it! Thanks for reading and check out the complete changelog on our repository.
Get fieldwork smoothly and nimbly done despite the ice and snow outside. Collect accurate data with freehand digitizing and improved form widgets, use the data from your external GNSS receivers without any third-party apps and enjoy the pleasant usability of QField 1.8 Selma.
This year started off hi-speed for us. There’s been already a lot of coding, designing and teaching, and we’ve thrown ourselves into these things we love to do. And we published another QField release last week that I completely forgot to announce in this blog. But here it is. It’s QField 1.8, Selma. And it’s packed with cool features.
Let’s have a look.
Freehand drawing
This might be a feature that brings a lot of fun and professionalism to your work. The freehand digitizing mode allows the user to “draw” lines and polygons with the stylus pen. The mode is available for adding line/polygon features as well as for the ring tool of the geometry editor.
Together with the powerful options in the topological editing where you can snap to existing features and avoid overlaps, it’s very convenient to digitize complex shapes.
Zoom in and out
Speaking of fun. One day, a guy from the QGIS community asked us if we could implement the functionality to zoom in and zoom out like he is able to do with an app called Maps from a company named Google. I didn’t know what he meant, but he explained: Single finger double tap-and-hold zoom gesture (which allows you to zoom smoothly from anywhere on the screen). Wow! Didn’t know it before, but it’s super neat! So we made it available in QField as well.
If you are used to it, it’s quite easy. But for beginners it can be a bit difficult. So for people who are not that deft – and to keep the UX self-explanatory and simple – we also added two buttons + / – to zoom in and zoom out with just one finger. So now even a clumsy pirate with a hook instead of a hand can collect data with QField
Powerful Relation Reference Widget
Let’s be a little bit more serious and talk about how powerful the relation reference widget has become.
View and Edit selected feature
The intuitive eye icon next to the widget lets you open the form of the referenced parent feature to view and edit it.
Autocomplete mode
When auto-complete is enabled, you can easily perform a search in all available parent features.
With space-separated input, you can search for the beginning of multiple words in the display name of the parent features. So in this example searching for “Ma” will find the name “Mae” and “Marie” and using the second word “buck” it finds the Buckfast bees – so the entries containing both values will be listed on top.
Integration of external GNSS receivers
In case you wondered, why we did not release 1.8 Selma earlier? Because we wanted to have it feature loaded and rocket proof. And one of this cool feature is the integration of external GNSS receivers.
QField can receive and decode NMEA sentences received via Bluetooth from an external GNSS receiver (such as an EMLID Reach RS2) without the need for any third party app.
Search for paired Bluetooth devices in the device settings, connect to the external device and receive the GNSS information.
Select vertical grid shift files
In the QField settings, you can select a grid file on your mobile device by placing it in a directory named QField/proj in the main folder of the internal storage to increase the vertical location accuracy.
Postgres Config File
If you once started using PostgreSQL configuration files, you don’t want to live without them anymore. And when you use it on your PC, I’m sure you want to use it on your mobile device as well.
Define Postgresql services in a pg_service.conf file and use it on QField by placing it directly in a directory named QField in the main folder of the internal storage.
Add reload data button
The layer properties have been polished and in addition, you will find a button to reload the layer data. This is especially useful if you use WFS layers from which you need to get updates.
Register extra fonts
Also, you can add TTF and OTF font files into a directory named QField/fonts at the main folder of the internal storage to use the nice fonts you like.
How beautiful is that!
Support of new raster file formats
By the way: Many new raster file formats are supported – most notably COG. While not yet supported as remote format streamed directly from the web, it is also a high performance format if used locally
What about the cloud?
You might be one of these people eagerly waiting and always receiving the same message: Keep calm, it’s coming soon. Sorry for that. But when we do something, we do it right. And we prefer to have a stable solution than to publish half baked stuff. We are still highly busy coding, testing and promoting QFieldCloud. It’s announced for this spring / early summer.
The Beta Testers are our secret heroes. They report bugs and inconveniences before the normal users are bothered with them. Thanks to the Beta Testers QField is so stable. And at this point we would like to say: Thank you, test heroes!
And what do the beta testers get in return? Well, they can be the very first to try out the great new features. This is exciting and fun. So don’t hesitate. Join the beta.
In the Play Store you should find this section under the “QField for QGIS” app listing. Enjoy the feature frenzy and report the problems at qfield.org/issues
And if you wondered…
… why this release is called “Selma”. It’s of course because of the Mount Selma in Australia… And because it’s the name of my beloved cat. That’s her – Selma Eulenkopf – staring at me while I’m coding QField.
Be ready for the cold weather with a smooth coordinate search, filters in the value relation widget, fancy new QML and HTML widgets, enhanced geometry editing functionalities and an expandable legend. Right when Autumn starts, QField 1.7 Rockies hits the stage.
The days are getting shorter and the wind blows colder. It’s always good to be in a good company outside while getting your mapping work done. QField will be your reliable companion.
We know, QField 1.6 Qinling has only been out two months and with its amount of new features and stability improvements, it would have deserved a longer primetime. But we just couldn’t withhold you all the new great stuff we’ve been building lately.
So let’s welcome QField 1.7 Rockies. And yes, we mean THE Rockies, where QField is looking for plenty of new buddies.
Let’s have a look.
Merging features
Splitting of a feature has been possible for quite some time. Now the merging of features of multipolygon-layer is possible as well. Select them and merge them – easy like that. The first selected feature gets the new geometry and keeps its attributes.
Filters in the Value Relation Widget
The value relation widgets provide an easy selection of a related feature. Often it’s used for lookup tables but sometimes the related tables contain a lot of entries and the list of the possible values is long.
Using filters in the value relation drop-down can increase the efficiency in selecting the correct value. It can be configured by expressions in QGIS, so it’s possible to have the content of the drop down depend on the values entered previously in other fields.
In the screenshot above there is a Map Value Widget with “forest” and “meadow” as values. On selecting “forest”, only the trees appear in the Field “Plant Species”. On selecting “meadow” there would be listed flowers instead.
Go to coordinates in the Search
The search has not only been improved in its appearance, but it’s handling is much more comfortable with a button to clear the text and easy opening and closing.
Additionally, we added the possibility to jump to coordinates. Searching a place you know the coordinates of is now super simple. And this means that digitizing that precise geometry with known coordinates is finally possible.
QML and HTML Widget
You might remember when we introduced the QML widget in QGIS. Now it’s in QField as well. And it’s not alone. HTML widgets are supported too.
This provides a lot of possibilities to display information with texts, images and charts and it even allows you interaction. Do you need help setting up complex forms? Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us!
Expandable legend icons
The legend items are now expandable and collapsible.
Wait a minute… Wasn’t this possible before? Yes. It was possible in earlier versions. But why it’s announced here as a new feature?
Some technical background: As you may be aware QField uses QGIS under the hood and QGIS uses Qt under the hood. Qt is currently used in version 5. Qt 5 is not that young any more and has a lot of functionality which is no longer supported by Qt. The old legend was based on the tree view, a deprecated module. Using it had some implications like the suboptimal support of HiDPI. Furthermore, these deprecated modules will disappear in the soon-to-come Qt 6.
As you can see, keeping QField at the quality we and you expect requires a lot of maintenance work. It is of utmost importance and only possible thanks to sponsoring since paying for fixing already existing features is less attractive for most people.
What will the future bring
In the last weeks, we have been highly busy on coding, testing and promoting QFieldCloud and we are very happy to be able to announce it very soon. So be prepared.
QField is an open source project. This means that whatever is produced is available free of charge. To anyone. Forever. This also means that everyone has the chance to contribute. You can write code, but you don’t need to. You can also help translating the app to your language or help out writing documentation or case studies or by sponsoring a new feature.
And now…
… enjoy QField 1.7 Rockies and have a nice autumn!
). We will also need the QFieldSync plugin in QGIS, which can be enabled through the QGIS plugin manager.
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– Be anywhere 
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looks out of the 
and sees lots of 
with a chance of meatballs
!
we currently have 100’000 active users and we’re getting around 500 new users every day.
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