3.0.0
- Refactored to be compatible with QGIS v3.
- Added automatic batch map image (or PDF) generation via composer
for the biological records tool. (Previously this required manual
intervention - a button click - to produce each map.)
- Major improvements to NBN tool including exposing metadata from
NBN downloads (e.g. data providers), adding a new species list
filter option and ability to filter on multiple selected taxa.
Also several other minor usability enhancements to this tool.
- Added automatic saving of current style in QML style file
when generating permanent shapefiles from temporary shapefiles
in biological records tool.
- Added help buttons on individual tools to link directly to
relevant help web pages.
- Added a button on each tool to go directly to GitHub repository
where issues can be raised.
- Fixed some minor reported bugs.
2.8.0
- Complete replacement of NBN Tool with NBN Atlas Tool. The former
depended on NBN Gateway web services which were retired at the end
March 2017 when the NBN switched from the Gateway to the new Atlas
architecture, completely replacing the web services API when they
did so. The new NBN Atlas Tool is modelled on the old NBN Gateway
Tool but there are a number of differences. The two main functions,
1) quickly creating WMS layers for different taxon and 2)
downloading raw records, remain at the core of the new tool.
- Fixed a problem with circle generation - from both the point and
buffer utility in the NBN Tool and creating atlas maps with circles
in the Biological Recording Tool - that, under some circumstances,
created circles with 'invalid' geometry.
2.7.4
- Fixed a bug with the handling of non-standard alphabetic
characters in taxon names. See GitHub
issue #6.
2.7.0
- Fixed a bug with handling of non-alphabetic characters in
taxon names (e.g. brackets and periods) - GitHub issue #4.
- Added the ability to offset user-defined grids (OSGB Tool)
and atlas maps (BioRec Tool) - GitHub issue #5. Offsets are
specified in the environment file (see online documentation
www.fscbiodiversity.uk/qgisenvoptions).
2.6.2
- Fixes a problem with date filters not working and causing error.
2.6.1
- Fixes a problem with using the NBN tool from behind a proxy
server. You can now set proxy-server settings in the QGIS
network options and these will be used by the tool when
connecting to NBN web services. Note that for downloads,
you should set the timeout to be something greater than
the default of 60 seconds, otherwise downloading of large
datasets will time out.
- Adds a warning to the interface about a likely interruption
to the availability of the NBN tool when the NBN changes
it's architecture from NBN Gateway to NBN Atlas at the
end of March 2017.
2.6.0
- Fixes a problem with the #name# tag used in composers when
automatically creating output for multiple TEMP_ layers
created with biological records tool ('TEMP_') was left
in the text).
- Adds new functionality to the automatic composer output
generation in biological records tool. Additional tags
(other than '#name#') can now be used, e.g. #CommonName#.
The name of any special tag used must match a column header
in a CSV file opened in QGIS. The name of the taxon (as used
for the #name# tag) must be specified in this CSV file under a
column called 'Taxon'. The value used to replace the special
tag - e.g. #CommonName# - will be the values corresponding
to the column (e.g. CommonName) and row for the taxon.
2.5.0
- Adds the following new functionality.
* Added new online help system with link button from tool.
* Ability to use existing point layers in the Biological
Records tool.
* Ability to select an image for Map Mashup from anywhere
on the file system.
* Ability to use map composers for output of altas maps
generated by the Biological Records Tool.
* Ability to batch save Biological Records Tool memory
layers as shapefiles or GeoJSON files.
- The following changes were also made:
* CSV import now handled through QGIS core functionality
meaning numeric attributes now preserve numeric data type.
* Removed 'sub-layers' option from NBN grid maps generation
(only available with V2.0 of QGIS)
* Increased minimum QGIS requirement to version 2.8.
* Removed auto-generate of taxon tree in Biological
Records Tool.
* Explicit marking of memory layers with the 'TEMP' prefix
in Biological Records Tool.
* Updated Biological Records Tool to use custom QGIS widgets
where appropriate.
2.0.10
- Same as 2.0.9 but with minimum QGIS installation corrected
to 2.8 because it uses new custom QGIS QT widgets.
2.0.9
- Several updates to the Biological Records tool.
* Temporary layer names now prefixed with 'TEMP' to make
it clear that they are not saved by default.
* Added options to allow the saving of layers created by
the tool as Shapefiles or GeoJSON as well as the default
image option.
* Improved the generation of point layers so that the field
types for imported CSV files are retained in layer
(previously they were all converted to text).
2.0.8
- Accounted for minor bug in image generation with biorec
that affected Linux OS. Thanks to Paul Tyers for assisting
with this. Also dealt with a minor NBN login bug.
2.0.7
- Dealt with an introduced bug preventing NBN login.
2.0.6
- Re-packaged missing info file for NBN tool.
2.0.5
- Bug fixes. Stopped crash on atlas map without taxa. Cope
with grid references with trailing spaces.
2.0.4
- Added ability to store environment options in a file that
is external to the plugin folder. The 'internal' environment
options folder gets deleted/replaced whenever the plugin is
updated, so this is to overcome that problem. Added support
for NBN username and password environment options. Fixed a
bug with generation of values for 'taxa' column of atlas
maps.
2.0.3
- Added facility for the Biological Records tool to generate
two extra attributes for atlas layers - 'richness' and 'taxa'.
Richness is a count of the number of taxa which contribute to
the records and 'taxa' is a string of all taxa names separated
by the hash symbol. The latter allows you to use QGIS categorical
styling to create coincidence maps for biological records.
2.0.2
- Accounted for a problem that caused new layers from biological
records tool to fail to load if a previous layer generated
by the tool is manually removed from the map. This can be
fixed clearing all layers using tool's button, so a new
error trap and associated message added to indicate this.
2.0.1
- Fixed bug which prevented NBN data download if a data
provider could not be located. Incorporated a warning to
user if style file applied by biological recording tool
when a point layer is generated.
2.0.0
- Added comprehensive NBN record download facilities which
include the ability to select records based on a taxon,
dataset, known site (e.g. LRC, VC or NNR boundary),
user-defined polygon or grid reference. Also includes a
convenience tool for generating a polygon
from a point and buffer (user specifies grid reference or
easting/northing plus a buffer radius) which can then
be used to select records for download.
1.6.0
- Added functionality to display NBN grid maps showing
species density distribution by dataset and designation.
Also modified various elements of the NBN tool interface
to accommodate these changes.
1.5.0
- Added filtering by dataset, date and presence/absence to
NBN mapping tool.
1.4.4
- Modified the environment options dialog so that users can
see example environment option values. The example option
values file is updated whenever new options are added to the
plugin. So now users can always easily check if new options
have been added whenever the tool is updated.
1.4.3
- Now able to provide access to NBN maps via the NBN WMS
as a logged in user so NBN-registered users with greater
than public access can see all the data they have access
to. Many thanks to Chris Johnson (CEH) and Matt Debont (NBN)
for their help in sorting this out.
1.4.2
- Enhancement to Map Mashup to allow image to be pasted from
a file instead of the clipboard. Also to allow the application
of a style file to the registered raster image.
1.4.1
- Bug-fix to improve processing for CSV files with many taxa.
1.4.0
- Updated the Biological Records tool with two main enhancements.
1. Allows maps to be generated from X & Y values stored in any
CRS. Specify grid sizes directly - must be specified in the map
units used by the output CRS.
2. Improved internal handling of Comma Separated Value records
files which means performance improvements and ability to handle
much larger files.
1.3.4
- Updated the OSGR tool so that it supports non-UK based coordinate
reference systems and allows generation of grids at user-specified sizes,
whatever coordinate reference system is used (including OSGB).
1.3.3
- Incorporated changes to make better use of the new multi-threaded
rendering (MTR) model. This should improve the performance of batch
atlas map layer and image generation in most circumstances.
1.3.2
- Made changes to speed up generation of layers and batch images when
large rasters or WMS are used for a backdrop.
- Updated tool info files and tool metadata.
1.3.1
- Fixed issue with backward compatibility with version 2.
1.3.0
- Incorporates major change to Biological Records tool to cope with the new
rendering mechanism (MTS) introduced with version 2.4 of QGIS. This
replaces the workarounds introduced in version 1.2.0. The information
file (invoked from the options tab) gives a bit of information on using
the new interface.
1.2.1
- Incorporates a few bug fixes, better information for problems and
workarounds.
1.2.0
- Workaround for issue with batch map image generation in Biological Records
tool.
1.1.0
- Workaround for issue with 'auto' layer in NBN tool in newer versions of QGIS.
1.0.2
- Addresses problems with initialising environment variables.