[Qgis-developer] WMS Server plugin

[Barry Rowlingson]

On Tue, Apr 16, 2013 at 12:08 PM, Andreas Neumann <a.neumann at carto.net> wrote:
>  Hi Barry,
>
>  The use case of generating reports should not require running QGIS
>  server. I think that QGIS desktop should first offer such functionality
>  that maybe later on could be exposed in QGIS server as well.
>
>  Did you look at the Atlas serial printing functionality that was
>  introduced in QGIS master? You can iterate over either map sheets or
>  features. It may already cover the basics of your reporting needs.
>  Combined with the ability to include web-frames and tables in a layout
>  and to use expressions and attribute fields in text labels should be a
>  good foundation of a reporting system in QGIS.

 Maybe 'report writing' means different things to different people!

 In R, using knitr, you can create an entire typeset PDF document
driven by the data including graphics (and animations...).

 You write a text document with embedded code chunks delimited by
<<>>=/@ tags. Eg

\documentclass{article}
\author{Barry}
\begin{document}

This is a data analysis.

<<read>>=
data = read.csv("datafile.csv")
@

We can plot the data on a graph

<<plot>>=
plot(data$x,data$y)
@

\end{document}

Now knitr can embed python code, and plots created using matplot.
Wouldn't it be nice if that embedded code could be creating map images
in the document from Qgis' wonderful cartographic rendering system?
One way would be for the code to just grab a rendered image from a WMS
server, the other might be to render to an Image using qgis-python in
code chunks of the document.

>  We in Uster, as well as other Swiss QGIS users have a strong interest
>  in such reporting functionality. Are you coming to the QGIS hackfest in
>  Brighton in September? It may be a good place/time to discuss such a
>  reporting system.

 I'll probably be running around doing Foss4g stuff - hopefully see
people in Nottingham!

Barry