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…

If you do not have it yet, get it now!

Work efficiently – Be anywhere – Open anything

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.

Ah yes, and they seem to be pretty good navigators and tech-savvy too: https://www.space.com/arctic-fox-epic-journey-satellite-tracking.html

Packed with new functionalities

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.

Some of you may already have been part of the closed BETA testing phase. THANKS!
For all the others, great news, QFieldCloud is now officially in open BETA.

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.

For once, it’s not an app from the Silicon Valley, but from Laax in the Swiss Alps that made the news. By publishing QField as an open-source app, OPENGIS.ch allows companies, organisations and even countries without the necessary financial means to have the opportunity to benefit from this important data collection app. And it is being used: Over half a million downloads have already been achieved. Now, since the volcanic eruption in Tonga on 15 January 2022, the app of the small Laax-based company is playing a not-unimportant role in disaster response planning. 

We’ve only been around for seven years. We could almost pass for a start-up. But OPENGIS.ch is already a household name when it comes to field data collection. OPENGIS.ch makes its field mapping tool QField available without restrictions (i.e. open-source) so that companies or even nations can collect their geographical data. In this way, data is brought from the field to the office and provides important insights for future decisions.

This was also the case for Tonga’s volcanic eruption. There, in December 2021, many relevant agricultural datasets were captured with “QField” and “QFieldCloud”. This currently helps the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, Forests, and Fisheries to analyse the damage after the volcanic eruption and the subsequent tsunami and plan the response.

Swiss software in use for Tonga

It is a technical and ethical decision for me. I want not only the privileged nations to benefit from our work.

Marco Bernasocchi, CEO

Co-founder Marco Bernasocchi’s credo is to focus on further developing the product (QField). OPENGIS.ch makes it freely available, so that nations like Tonga, with little financial means, can use professional software and invest their financial resources in reconstruction. “It is a technical and ethical decision for me. I want not only the privileged nations to benefit from our work. We are always developing the product and generate income mainly from support, paid developments and custom solutions. Our product, however, is publicly accessible”. This strategy is successful: the company is 90% financed by Swiss customers but the app is used all over the world. “Open source is a technological advantage for me. This way we get the input of many developers worldwide who are motivated to work out the best possible software. This leads to a superior product and is particularly valuable to me.,” adds Matthias Kuhn, co-founder of OPENGIS.ch.

This way we get the input of many developers worldwide who are motivated to work out the best possible software.

Matthias Kuhn, CTO

John Duncan, project manager at the University of Western Australia, who is working on the project in support of Tonga, explains the work done in December like this: “the workflow uses QField to map the extent of landscape features including agricultural fields and cropped holdings, recording detailed attributes about each feature’s farming system. QFieldCloud was used to support large teams of data collectors tasked with surveying every tax allotment across Tonga. The initiative has resulted in the detailed mapping of cropping and livestock systems for over 11,000 farms across Tonga’s three main island groups. These datasets provide actionable information for short-term decision making around food security, agricultural planning, and disaster response, and are a valuable resource for longer-term monitoring of agricultural and environmental changes in these climate-vulnerable locations.“

The data was originally intended for food security and agricultural planning. But now they suddenly have acquired enormous value and can be used for disaster response planning. 

John Duncan, University of Western Australia

Further information on QField in connection with Tonga: 

• https://livelihoods-and-landscapes.com/use-case.html 
• https://www.aciar.gov.au/project/asem-2016-101 

Media articles

• https://www.suedostschweiz.ch/aus-dem-leben/buendner-software-im-einsatz-fuer-tonga
• https://www.inside-it.ch/buendner-open-source-app-nuetzt-der-katastrophenhilfe-in-tonga
• https://epaper.somedia.ch/issue.act?issueMutation=wzbw&issueDate=20220302#Redaktionell
• https://www.chilitalk.ch/schweiz/technologie/katastrophenhilfe-aus-laax/
• https://www.business-geomatics.com/2022/02/03/katastrophenhilfe-fuer-tonga-mit-open-source-loesungen-qfield-und-qfieldcloud/
• https://www.presseportal-schweiz.ch/pressemeldungen/weltweit-fuehrendes-buendner-unternehmen-liefert-wichtige-feld-datenerfassungs-app

About OPENGIS.ch

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

About the OPENGIS.ch product “QField” application

“QField” is an open-source app developed for efficient fieldwork in real-time in urban areas, with 5G connection or with offline data. The mobile GIS app combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to conveniently bring data from the field to the office. Seamless QGIS integration, GPS centred, offline functionality, synchronisation capabilities, desktop configurable: “QField” is designed for fieldwork – simple but uncompromising. Link: https://qfield.org

About the OPENGIS.ch service “QFieldCloud“

“QFieldCloud” is a spatial cloud service integrated into “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

Serving as a pragmatic community conciliator – collecting thoughts from people with differing opinions and trying to find the high road through difficult issues – I want to focus my and the community’s energies on our core product, QGIS.

Marco Bernasocchi · QGIS.org Chair

OPENGIS.ch has always been dedicated to sustaining QGIS’ technological and economical well-being, supporting it with endless hours of internally funded QA, infrastructure works and developments.

Today we are very proud to announce that our commitment has grown even more as one of our founders and CEO Marco Bernasocchi was elected Chair of the QGIS.org association.

With over 15 years of involvement with QGIS (he started working with QGIS 0.6) and two years serving as vice-chair, Marco will serve for the next two years as Chairperson of the QGIS.org association.

Understanding the importance of the role trusted him, Marco would like to thank the QGIS community for the trust and appreciation. Marco is looking forward to intensifying work with the PSC and the fantastic QGIS community to push QGIS even further.

We wish Marco and the rest of the elected PSC two very successful years full of QGIS awesomeness.

Rock on QGIS! – read more at QGIS Annual General Meeting – 2020

Marco’s vision for QGIS.org:

I want to help QGIS and it’s community thrive under the value proposition of:

Making the most amazing opensource GIS that provides users with value and that meets their needs by providing great functionality and usability, being cost-effective whilst being actively supported by a vibrant and knowledgeable community.

Sharing our work under an open-source license is part of the approach by which we achieve that value proposition as it allows broad collaboration with our developers and users community.

I see FOSS as a very socially responsible way to develop software, but even more, I see the immense technological advantage that writing open-source code brings. This is why I want our focus to be on allowing both pragmatic and ideological views to respectfully coexist and enrich each other.

One of my main motivations to be part of the PSC and to make myself available as project Chair is to help QGIS keep this incredible growth rate by being even more attractive to new community members, sponsors and large/corporate users. To achieve this, the key is maintaining the right balance between sustainable processes (that guarantee the great quality QGIS has been known for) and an interesting and motivating grassroots project to ensure that QGIS remains an attractive project for volunteers to contribute to and help QGIS and its community to grow to become even more the reference [Open Source] GIS project.