[Ottawa_users] Buidling Plugins in QGIS

Fri Jan 27 13:13:04 EST 2012

Warning, brain dump ahead. Perhaps we have a couple of starting points.

1. What do we want to cover in such a tutorial
Some ideas include
* Resources for building plugins
* Choosing a language (Python should be easy, Native plguins are C and
out of scope of my knowledge base)
* Creating the appropriate directory structure
* Creating the GUI
	* Using QT toolkit
	* separating logic from UI
	* building interfaces
	* using QT Builder
* Licensing issues
	* python license
	* QT License
	* Then your own if possible
* Classic "HELLO WORLD" plugin
* Configuration file
* Packaging and distribution of plugin
(http://hub.qgis.org/projects/quantum-gis/wiki/Python_Plugin_Repositorie
s)
* target audience
* related materials, resources and tutorials

2. What type of plugin might we want to create
Some ideas:
* consuming data from a pupolar API like Googel Fusion Tables
* Consuming data from RESTful ATOM based API
* Updating an older plugin VS creating something new
* Some specific use cases or user stories might help (KEEP IT SIMPLE)

3. What if the final output
* a PDF, a web page or maybe a moddle based resource
(http://moodle.org/). It would be great for OSGEO to host a moodle site
and the community collaborates on contributing tutorials
* keeping tutorial up to date is a challenge (ask Scott).

4. I can provide SVN access to the plugin project I set up if I can find
the password. Versioning the code will be benificial to illustrate the
steps.

Thouhgts?

-----Original Message-----
From: ottawa_users-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
[mailto:ottawa_users-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Regie Alam
Sent: January 27, 2012 12:19
To: Ottawa (Canada) Local Chapter List
Subject: Re: [Ottawa_users] Recap of last weeks meetup

   I am interested in this as well. I can definitely help
compiling/organizing some sort of documentations/guide. I believe there
are some documentations from the QGIS website but I think it would be
better if those notes come from actual use cases.

   I learned that from delving into raster suport for PostGIS. There are
so many documentations scattered all over the web that it takes a while
to compile the ones that actually work.

   This was actually brought up because an organization was soliciting
for interest in a regular (introductory) QGIS workshop. We thought it
would be better to have a workshop on how to create plugins instead.

Regie

On 1/27/12, richard burcher <drownedfrog at gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks David,
>
> Thanks for posting, some really great stuff. I am very interested to 
> head down this road and would like to work together to get something 
> going. I'm certain others would join along in this.
>
> Cheers
>
> On 25 January 2012 09:09, Sampson, David
> <David.Sampson at nrcan-rncan.gc.ca>wrote:
>
>> **
>> I can help advise on creating QGIS plugins. I created a GeoRSS and 
>> CSW plugin a couple of years back and demo'd for local OSGEO group. 
>> They are probably broken now requiring version upgrades. By no means 
>> am I a pro but I went through the hard knocks.
>>
>> The plugins were both done in python (2.x) and using QT library. As I

>> am now using python 3.x for all new python projects (where possible) 
>> I wonder if QGIS can use python 3 now, it has been a while
>>
>> Community Plugin Project page here:
>>
>> http://sourceforge.net/projects/qgiscommunitypl/
>>
>>
>> So I can help someone put some material together however between 
>> work, running a ski school (http://freeheelers.net/) and a community 
>> non profit
>> (http://computersforcommunities.ca/c4c/) I have no spare cycles to 
>> put together a quality tutorial.
>>
>> Let me know if you want to venture down this route and we can work 
>> together. I have a couple of pending QGIS plugin projects in my brain

>> I might be able to collaborate on.
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>>  ------------------------------
>> *From:* ottawa_users-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [mailto:
>> ottawa_users-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] *On Behalf Of *richard burcher
>> *Sent:* January 24, 2012 20:24
>> *To:* ottawa_users_list_osgeo
>> *Subject:* [Ottawa_users] Recap of last weeks meetup
>>
>>  Apologies for not getting to this sooner. I have been quite busy 
>> with my new project work.
>>
>> I want to first thank all those that attended. We had a great turn 
>> out and hope to see many more people next time:)
>>
>> Just want to give a quick overview (if I've forgotten anything please

>> add to the list) for the folks who could not attend of what was 
>> discussed, covered and bantered around the table:
>>
>> - Some pictures courtesy of Andrew's very slick Android phone will be

>> hitting the wiki page in the near future. Would like to get some 
>> newer media up there.
>>
>> - On Andrews phone, he mentioned an incredible multi-day battery 
>> life, installed upgraded battery. Would like to know were he got this
from.
>>
>> - I gave a half-successful overview of my initial forays into using 
>> PostGIS raster and some R raster modules for visualization.Live demos

>> always seem to never work.
>>
>> - Questions raised about the FOSS4G-NA (North American) conference. 
>> Which we know is April 10 to 12 in Washington DC.
http://foss4g-na.org/about/.
>> There is only ~300 spots open. Sign up and hope to see you there!
>>
>> - Scott offered use of his GIS lab, which is great. Thanks!. So 
>> hopefully down the road we can make use of that facility for some
hands on stuff.
>>
>> - There was interest in getting some intro walk throughs around the 
>> QGIS application & a bit more advanced usage in building a Python 
>> plugin. Would anyone be interested in a short ~2-3hr intro and/or an 
>> intro to build a simple plugin? If so let me know and we can pursue
further with the list.
>>
>> - I put forth the idea of looking into changing the current meet up 
>> venue (Fox & Feather) & putting it to the group to decide. Scott was 
>> saying this has been looked into in the past and the feedback from 
>> the group was that the venue is not that bad. Through it would be 
>> nice to have WiFi. I have not had time to look into this at moment 
>> due to a recent family injury. I will keep you posted on this.
>>
>> - I put the idea out of a monthly weekend coffee get together to drop

>> by and talk geo. I hope to announce the first one next month.
>>
>> If I have forgotten or missed anything, please add it to the list.
>>
>> Have a great night folks.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Richard
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> Ottawa_users at lists.osgeo.org
>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/ottawa_users
>>
>>
>
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