[Qgis-developer] A feature Request: referencing layers or groups from other .qgs files

[Andreas Neumann]

Hi,

I would like to discuss the feasibility of implementing a referencing 
technique in QGIS.

The idea is that in many .qgs projects one would like to share common 
layer definitions or group structures. As an example, almost all of my 
.qgs projects contain a number of basic cadastral data layers (a base 
map). I have to redo all settings again and again, including all the 
labeling settings, etc. If I want to do changes in the base map, I have 
to do it in almost 30 different .qgs projects. This becomes tedious.

Ok - some would now suggest: why don't you use a WMS layer for the base 
map? The reason is that I would like to use them as symbolized vectors. 
I would like to be able to snap to vertices and edges and query attributes.

So, the idea would be to offer a linking functionality from one .qgs 
file to another. A central .qgs file could hold all the definitions of 
the base map. Other projects could reference individual layer 
definitions, or whole groups. I think that XML already offers linking 
technology - so maybe we could use a similar mechanism?

What would be the complicated bits of such a linking idea? Would it be 
implementable with reasonable efforts?

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this.

Andreas