[QGIS-Developer] Support to loading GIS projects from an extended OWC geopackage in the QGIS core

[Richard Duivenvoorde]

On 14-12-17 13:59, Alessandro Pasotti wrote:
> Hi Joana,
> 
> I think this would be a great addition to QGIS.
> 
> Big +1 from me, and thanks for the proposal.
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, Dec 14, 2017 at 1:49 PM, doublebyte <joana at doublebyte.net
> <mailto:joana at doublebyte.net>> wrote:
> 
>     Hello,
> 
>     Maybe some of you are aware of the  "geopackage" plugin
>     <https://eos.geocat.net/gitlab/joana.simoes/foss4g_gpkg/blob/master/foss4g_gpkg.pdf
>     <https://eos.geocat.net/gitlab/joana.simoes/foss4g_gpkg/blob/master/foss4g_gpkg.pdf>>
>     .The initial goal of this plugin was to enable users to save their QGIS
>     projects, including style and associated resources
>      in a extended geopackage -  the qgis geopackage extension
>     <https://github.com/pka/qgpkg/blob/master/qgis_geopackage_extension.md
>     <https://github.com/pka/qgpkg/blob/master/qgis_geopackage_extension.md>> 
>      -,
>     and load it onto another QGIS installation; on this approach, the
>     project is
>     encoded as qgs, in a database table. Later the plugin was forked to
>     support
>     a different geopackage exension -  the owc geopackage extension
>     <https://github.com/pka/qgpkg/blob/master/owc_geopackage_extension.md <https://github.com/pka/qgpkg/blob/master/owc_geopackage_extension.md>> 
>      - ,
>     which is standards-based; in this  approach
>     <https://www.geocat.net/announcing-the-extended-geopackage-qgis-plugin/
>     <https://www.geocat.net/announcing-the-extended-geopackage-qgis-plugin/>> 
>     ,
>     the style is encoded as OGC:SLD and the project as OGC:OWS context.
>     The goal
>     of this approach is to support the migration of GIS projects, as we can
>     implement this extension in any desktop or server side GIS (e.g.: ArcGIS
>     Desktop).
> 
>     The fork was merged in August this year, and the latest release of the
>     plugin <https://plugins.qgis.org/plugins/QgisGeopackage/
>     <https://plugins.qgis.org/plugins/QgisGeopackage/>>   already contains
>     both extensions, covering both use cases of porting QGIS projects and
>     migrating GIS projects. Recently, it was added  support in the core
>     to the
>     "qgis geopackage extension"
>     <https://github.com/qgis/QGIS/blob/master/src/providers/ogr/qgsogrprovider.cpp#L762
>     <https://github.com/qgis/QGIS/blob/master/src/providers/ogr/qgsogrprovider.cpp#L762>>
>     , in the qgsogrprovider class. This means that if a user loads a
>     geopackage
>     which was encoded using the "qgis geopackage extension", it will
>     automatically load the QGIS project from it. We think that it makes
>     sense to
>     also add the  "ows geopackage extension" to the core; in that case,
>     users
>     could load projects exported from other GIS software seamlessly, without
>     having to load the plugin. The mechanism would be very similar to
>     what was
>     already implemented for the  "qgis geopackage extension".
> 
>     Before preparing any Pull Request, we would like to understand first
>     what is
>     the general feeling of the community about this feature; is this
>     something
>     which seems useful and interesting to add to the QGIS core? If yes,
>     we would
>     also appreciate any comments regarding any details the implementation.
> 
>     Looking forward to hearing your feedback :-)

Yes, please! I think there was an issue about not being able to load an
extended gpkg:

https://issues.qgis.org/issues/17698

so it looks like fixing a bug

:-)

R