[QGIS-Developer] MapAction MapExport plugin

[Ant Scott]

Hi all,

MapAction have developed a plugin (
https://plugins.qgis.org/plugins/mapexport/) which packages up a jpg, pdf
and XML metadata file of a defined metadata set into a zip which is passed
to our Map Catalogue for publishing (https://maps.mapaction.org/). We've
submitted this to the repository, and Paolo made the useful suggestion that
we should start a conversation with developers of other plugins which deal
with printing to see if there is scope for merging. and/or developing a
plugin with wider scope, hence this email (
https://github.com/mapaction/mapexport-qgis3/issues/2).

Our plugin borrows heavily from the MapsPrinter plugin (
https://plugins.qgis.org/plugins/MapsPrinter/ for which huge thanks), but
also adds some metadata creation and editing, with the values stored as
custom variables at an appropriate level (project, layout) before being
collected up for export to XML, and are also used to populate a standard
set of layout templates using expressions.

The functionality replicates a longstanding tool which we've developed for
Arc, with a goal of enabling QGIS to be used in deployments if required. So
while the requirements are MapAction-specific, there are elements which
could have a more generic application - specifically generating outputs for
a selected layout (which MapsPrinter already largely does), and creating
and generating editing UIs for custom variables.

Are there any thoughts on how this could be taken forward, and is there any
interest in doing so? To be honest my limited dev skills are not going to
be a big asset in this, but I really like the ability to use custom
variables, and the area where I see most scope for development is the
ability to specify a set of metadata items in config which could generate
variables, UI widgets in an editing dialogue, XML output etc, so as to
allow easy customisation.

Interested to hear reactions/questions on what we've done.

many thanks
Ant


-- 

Antony Scott

MapAction
+44 7866 455515
http://www.mapaction.org
T: @antscott
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