# This file contains metadata for your plugin. Beginning
# with version 1.8 this is the preferred way to supply information about a
# plugin.

# This file should be included when you package your plugin.

#http://docs.qgis.org/testing/en/docs/pyqgis_developer_cookbook/plugins.html

# Mandatory items:

[general]
name=TomBio tools
qgisMinimumVersion=3.0
description=FSC QGIS Plugin for biological recorders.
about=This is a plugin for QGIS desktop GIS which is aimed primarily at 
    biological recorders. It streamlines many of the tasks commonly  
	required from GIS by biological recorders including viewing NBN  
	maps (via the NBN WMS), displaying biological records from CSV files, 
	working with UK OS grid references and registering raster map images  
	from the internet. Although originally designed for use in the the UK, 
	enhancements have been made to improved utility in any geographical 
	context.
version=3.1.1
author=Rich Burkmar, Field Studies Council
email=r.burkmar@field-studies-council.org

# end of mandatory metadata

# Optional items:
changelog=3.1.1
    - Bug fix (introduced with 3.1.0) whereby Irish GRs were causing
    biological records tool to crash. (Irish GRs currently ignored,
    but intending to add enhancement to deal with them in 2019.)
  3.1.0
    - This release made to deal with a bug that was introduced with a
    change to the QGIS API introduced with version 3.4.3 of QGIS which
    resulted in the biological records tool hanging.
    - Also includes a minor enhancement to the OSGR tool to allow users
    to plan to grid references OR zoom to them.
  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.

# tags are comma separated with spaces allowed
tags=biological records, NBN, OSGB, Ordnance Survey, UK Species Inventory

homepage=http://www.fscbiodiversity.uk/qgisplugin
tracker=https://github.com/burkmarr/QGIS-Biological-Recording-Tools/issues
repository=https://github.com/burkmarr/QGIS-Biological-Recording-Tools
icon=icon.png
# experimental flag
experimental=False

# deprecated flag (applies to the whole plugin, not just a single version
deprecated=False

