[Qgis-developer] New Plugin - Edit Any Layer

[Alister Hood]

Hi,

> Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2012 16:39:01 +0100
> From: Rob Nickerson <rob.j.nickerson at gmail.com>
> To: qgis-developer at lists.osgeo.org
> Subject: [Qgis-developer] New Plugin - Edit Any Layer
> Message-ID:
>         <CAK4yQTm9ZxSYkA8Mveh+khHNFrs0zrCOsc9ozSZbPHYyQsgX-g at mail.gmail.com>
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> 
> Hi All,
> 
> It seemed a little bit odd to me that QGIS is able to open many file types
> but you can only edit a couple of them. Being new to the world of GIS and
> therefore not understanding any of its history, this seemed as odd as
> photoshop being able to open but not edit jpeg files!
> 
> In part of my work looking at adapting fTools / SEXTANTE to write to memory
> layer / any ogr format, I have created a standalone plugin that converts
> any vector layer to a memory layer (and therefore allows you to edit the
> layer). This plugin is hosted at [1], if you like I will move it to a more
> permanent location.
> 
> Notes:
> 
> * Filters for just vector layers (but could be further filtered to vector
> layers that cannot be edited in their current format).

Please don't restrict it like that.  It is useful to be able to make a memory layer copy of even a layer that is writeable.  You might even consider renaming it to reflect that - "Copy as memory layer" perhaps?

What would be useful is an option to only copy the selected features.  And it should work even with no selected features - this would provide a quick way to create an empty memory layer with the same attribute columns.

> * No progress bar at the moment (at 1000's of features the plugin can take
> a little while so will add a progress bar at a later date).
> 
> [1] http://ubuntuone.com/3Zl1ojo3ZMUJxMqj2kcZaX
> 
> Regards,
> Rob

Nice plugin - good work!
Alister