[QGIS-Developer] The need for intuitive complex feature edit support in QGIS 3+

[Rui Cavaco]

Hello list.

My name is Rui Cavaco, a supporter for OSGeo Portugal, and I see the need
for some future major changes in desktop GIS user interfaces in order to
facilitate complex features editing and querying.

GML and INSPIRE are about complex features but so are fiber optic networks.
Complex features could be also very productive in simpler cases like the
management of city road signs and indications and other municipality
themes.
In order to properly support complex features I think we need to go further
than the simple and old three-part GUI comprising TOC, map and attribute
table. For example, attribute and form views must have "drill down"
capabilities. As for the TOC, subdivding layers, as the GMLAS extension
does, is not enough. Something like tree-view windows showing object
hierarchies and complex objects' internal contents must exist. This is the
exact same as schematics / synoptic views provided by specialized "closed
source" GIS tools provided for telecom and other utilities management. Also
I think the TOC should be very interactive and adaptive, in order to make
possible to expose the intrincacies of sublayers without cluttering the
whole layer tree with details uneeded for the current user context.

Me and others discussing this subject in OSGeo-PT chat, we are convinced
that without a largely available and intuitive editing support for complex
features INSPIRE will soon be (some say already is) dead, despite all the
the EU legal obligations.

I suppose this is not a job for a single developer or a small team. I
imagine this might require some profound changes in QGIS. I don't think
that all these GUI changes mentioned could be "compacted" in just an
extension.

Funding for this effort could be raised from INSPIRE-interested EU
organizations and member state government agencies. Also telecom companies
and other utilities managers can be interested. Dedicated "closed source"
GIS solutions for utilities are so absurdly expensive that this can open an
opportunity window for Open Source based solutions.

I would like to join efforts with others sharing this vision in order to
help make it happen in future releases of QGIS.

Rui Cavaco
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