For everyone working with spatial databases in QGIS there comes a time when “Add PostGIS/SpatiaLite Layer” and “RT Sql Layer” start to be annoying. You always have to retype or copy-paste your SQL queries into the user interface if you need to change the tiniest thing in the layer’s definition.
This is where “Fast SQL Layer” can be a real time saver. Fast SQL Layer is a new plugin for QGIS by Pablo T. Carreira. It basically adds an SQL console for loading layers from PostGIS/SpatiaLite into QGIS. And it even comes with syntax highlighting!
Installation
Fast SQL Layer comes with one dependency: Pygments, which is used for syntax highlighting.
On Ubuntu, all you have to do is install it with apt-get:
sudo apt-get install python-pygments
For Windows with OSGeo4W, @Mike_Toews posted this on gis.stackexchange:
I downloaded and extracted Pygments-1.4.tar.gz, then in an OSGeo4W shell within the Pygments-1.4 directory, type python setup.py build then python setup.py install
Usage
When you activate the plugin in plugin manager, a dock widget will appear which contains the console and some fields for specifying the database connection that should be used. Then, you can simply write your SQL query and load the results with one click.
Fast SQL plugin
In this example, I renamed “gid” to “id”, but you can actually edit the values in the drop down boxes to adjust the column names for id and geometry:
A second layer loaded using Fast SQL plugin
It certainly needs some polishing on the user interface side but I really like it.
