[Qgis-psc] Crowd source review of blog post for Gerona Hackfest

[Tim Sutton]

Hi

On 29 Jun 2016 13:28, "Yves Jacolin" <yjacolin at free.fr> wrote:
>
> Hi Tim,
>
> Just two feedbacks:
>
> * Patrick's lastname is Valsecchi not Valsecc :)
>

Thanks!

> * Any way to add a few notes on documentation? We really need more
> contributors and so this is important to show that there is some work
done.
>
> FYI, we have only ~25 issues still open (more than 45 last week). We are
> working hard to close most of the ticket this week and the next one.
>

Yes sure... I didnt really sit in on the docs discussion so any other info
you could give me would be great.

Regards
Tim

> Thanks,
>
> Y.
> On Wednesday, June 29, 2016 13:06:15 Tim Sutton wrote:
> > Hi All
> >
> > Please find below my draft blog post for the Gerona hackfest. Sorry it
has
> > taken so long for me to write - it is rather long and there is a lot
going
> > on at the moment so I've struggled to find the spare time to work on it.
> > Please let me know if you would like to add/remove/amend anything. I'd
like
> > to post it tomorrow morning.
> >
> > ---
> >
> > Time flies when you are having fun! It seems like only yesterday that
> > I was writing
> > about
> > <
http://blog.qgis.org/2015/11/15/a-word-of-thanks-to-the-hosts-of-the-14th-q
> > gis-hackfest-in-gran-canaria/> the
> > 14th Hackfest in Gran Canaria. At the end of May 2016, we held the 15th
> > QGIS hackfest! QGIS has been on an incredible journey since the project
was
> > started by Gary Sherman 14 years ago, and the fact that the hackfest was
> > held in tandem with the 2nd QGIS International User conference is a
> > testament to the growth and strength of the project.
> > 2nd International QGIS Conference
> >
> > Isn't it amazing - we just held the *second *international QGIS User's
> > Conference! We really need to give credit to the amazing team who ran a
> > totally seamless operation to organise the event: Gemma Pons, Toni
> > Hernández, Josep Sitjar, Alexandre Busquets, Ferran Orduña, Rosa
Olivella,
> > Laura Olivas, & Lluís Vicens
> >
> > [image: Girona Organising Team]
> > <
https://qgisblog.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/screen-shot-2016-06-20-at-00-2
> > 1-31.png>
> >
> > We would like to give a special thank you to the University of
> > Gerona's Director of GIS Service (SIGTE) - Gemma Boix who helped to
> > organised the event as well as ensuring the institutional support for
the
> > event. In case I have missed mentioning someone by name, our thanks to
all
> > the other volunteers and the sponsors of the conference. OSGeo
> > <http://osgeo.org> also supported the hack fest for which we are
extremely
> > grateful. Not only did the conference team host the conference event,
they
> > also covered a large part of the costs of the hackfest that followed the
> > conference - for which we can't thank them enough!
> >
> > The conference team also extends their thanks to the attendees and
> > presenters, instructors and developers who also actively participated on
> > the event!  For those interested in viewing the various talks at the
> > conference, here are some handy links:
> >
> >    - Sides from all talks
> >
> > <
http://www.sigte.udg.edu/jornadassiglibre/en/international-qgis-user-and-d
> > eveloper-conference/conferencia-qgis/> - Videos for conference
presentations
> > <https://vimeo.com/sigteudg/albums>
> >
> >
> > State of QGIS
> >
> > The QGIS.org project is in a very healthy state right now. For my talk
> > <https://qgisblog.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/qgisgironahackfesttalk.pdf>
at
> > the user conference (video here
> > <http://diobma.udg.edu/handle/10256.1/4292>) I got some fresh download
> > stats from our servers and the numbers are quite astounding: QGIS 2.8
LTR
> > (release Feb 2015) has been downloaded over 679, 000 times for the
Windows
> > Standalone installer (which includes all bug fix releases). Even after
> > controlling for overestimates (from bot downloads, multiple downloads
per
> > user, "try and don't use") and underestimates (single downloads being
> > distributed to many users) it is clear that we have an extremely large
and
> > constantly growing user base. My apologies for not mentioning Gary
Sherman
> > (our project founder) by name at the start of my talk - that was totally
> > unintentional!
> >
> > Something else that is clear from the make up of the talks, workshop
topics
> > and attendees at the user conference and hackfest:* QGIS is increasingly
> > moving from single user environments to large multi-user deployments.*
This
> > 'edge of network effect' is a common phenomenon in FOSS and is largely
how
> > Linux came to be such a lynchpin in the dev-ops world. Sys admins and
(in
> > the case of QGIS) GIS power users, test out the software on their own
> > devices, see the potential for it in their workplace and start
integrating
> > it into their workflows in the office until eventually it has become a
> > mission critical piece of software for an organisation.
> >
> > One thing my slides probably do not make clear is that there is a huge
> > amount of investment being made into QGIS and plugins for QGIS to
fulfil a
> > wide variety of needs. *These investments are largely external to the
> > project* (i.e. not factored into the financial figures I mentioned in
the
> > talk) and happen in direct client-to-developer relationships completely
> > bypassing (from a financial sense) the upstream  QGIS.ORG project. This
is
> > a really good model since we do not need to deal with contract delivery,
> > competing interests etc.
> >
> > If we do a simple calculation based on direct QGIS.org revenue for
> > 2015/2016 (around EUR 69, 000) to downloads, the average revenue per
> > download of QGIS 2.8.x was around EUR 0.10. All of the money we receive
> > into the project goes into improving the QGIS, maintaining
infrastructure
> > and funding travel and accommodation for hackfests. I mention these
numbers
> > both because they are interesting and because it is good to emphasise
how
> > incredibly grateful we are to each and every one of our sponsors and
donors
> > that support the project. We really do run on a shoe-string budget and
we
> > have audacious goals and a vision to put spatial decision making tools
into
> > the hands of everyone on the planet who wants to use them. Your
sponsorship
> > and donations are a key enabler to making this vision a reality!
> >
> > Ok you probably are more interested in the part below than the part
above
> > right? What actually happened at the hackfest? Lets dig in and find out!
> > Cool stuff from the QGIS Hackfest
> >
> > I am only going to focus on the hackfest here because the videos from
the
> > talks at the QGIS User Conference have been posted online (see above),
so
> > you can take in all the QGIS goodness you like from those. There was a
lot
> > going on at the hackfest, so these are only the nuggets I managed to
> > cherry-pick from the talks.
> > Give processing some love[image: Screen Shot 2016-06-12 at 22.13.15]
> >
> > During the hackfest and user conference, Victor Olaya (lead developer
for
> > the QGIS processing framework) really did a great job of promoting the
idea
> > of writing processing plugins rather than 'normal' plugins. His
argument is
> > that most plugins that are intended to provide single purpose analytical
> > capabilities (we are looking at you geeks about to write the 300th
buffer
> > plugin!) would  be better off implemented as processing plugins:
> >
> >    - the plugin author would not need to spend valuable time writing
user
> >    interfaces, input validators and so on.
> >    - users of the plugins could chain the tool into complex workflows
> >    easily, rather than only being able to use it on a once off basis.
> >    - we would grow the amount of options available in the processing
> >    toolbox while at the same time reducing the sometimes overwhelming
amount
> > of choice in the QGIS Plugin Manager.
> >
> > ILWIS processing tools coming soon
> >
> > Also on the topic of plugins, Bas Restsios from the ILWIS Project
> > <http://www.ilwis.org> gave a demo of the ILWIS software in order for
QGIS
> > developers to be more aware of its capabilities. Although currently
Windows
> > only, the ILWIS developers are in the process of porting the software
to be
> > based on the Qt5 framework, which means us Linux and OSX users will get
to
> > enjoy using it too soon. ILWIS is Open Source and does its rendering
using
> > OpenGL. Because of their smart rendering system, everything draws
lightning
> > fast. ILWIS packs in many remote sensing tools and raster analysis tools
> > and should be on anyone's radar if they are interested in FOSSGIS. The
best
> > part (from my point of view) is that Bas and his team members are also
busy
> > creating a set of processing plugins for QGIS that call out to ILWIS's
> > command line tools. This means you can expect a huge leap forward in the
> > number of raster based analysis functions you can do with QGIS in the
near
> > future.
> > GeoPackage, JPEG2000, WFS improvements
> >
> > It was really great to have Even Rouault (maintainer of GDAL/OGR)
present
> > at the hackfest. Even recently received core committer rights to the
QGIS
> > code repository and has been making great contributions by adding
support
> > for the OGC Geopackage <http://www.geopackage.org> format (death to
> > shapefiles!). The shapefile format is long in the tooth and doesn't
serve
> > the GIS community well as a *de facto* standard for GIS data
interchange.
> > It also doesn't make a good format for intermediate  representation of
data
> > processing outputs (e.g. when using multi algorithm processing models).
> > Even has also been working on improvements to WFS
> > <https://github.com/qgis/QGIS-Enhancement-Proposals/issues/53> support
in
> > QGIS which many will appreciate.
> >
> > Not directly related to QGIS, but Even also mentioned he has been giving
> > the GDAL driver <http://www.gdal.org/frmt_jp2openjpeg.html> for JPEG2000
> > <http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/gmljp2> some love - gaining
good
> > performance increases. This gives me some hope that there will be a
viable
> > open format alternative to ECW and MrSid in the future - something which
> > QGIS will benefit from greatly. One of the interesting things that GDAL
> > supports is embedded vectors - you can write the raster with
gdal_translate
> > and then during creation pass a shapefile or GML stream to the
> > gdal_translate. I look forward to the day (not currently on the roadmap)
> > where we can ship JP2 images with embedded vector masks and use them
> > seamlessly in QGIS.
> > Planning for 3.0 release
> >
> > We did some planning for the 3.0 release of QGIS and in particular fine
> > tuned the plans for how we will manage the transition from QGIS 2.x to
3.x.
> > In February 2016 I posted an outline
> > <http://blog.qgis.org/2016/02/10/qgis-3-0-plans/> of the general
approach
> > we planned to follow. Some developers felt that we would be better off
> > having the core of the 3.0 transition work happening on the master
branch
> > of QGIS so that it has more attention and testing focussed on it. I
guess
> > there are two main interest groups to consider here, so I will break
down
> > the outcome between take-home points for developers and general users:
> >
> > *For developers:*
> >
> >    - 2.16 gets released off master.
> >    - After 2.16 we create a 2x branch and the 2x branch will be in
> >    caretaker mode.
> >    - Support for Qt4 and Py2 will be discontinued in master and we do
> >    packaging only against Qt5 and Py3.
> >    - Packages may not be immediately available on master as we need to
get
> >    the packaging systems update.
> >    - After 2.16 is released API breaking changes are allowed in master
(but
> >    code must build and packaging not broken, plugins will be broken).
> >    - All API breaking changes should be annotated by means of a Doxygen
> >    page patch to indicate what changes were made.
> >    - We target the API change window to end in Feb 2017 so that we can
have
> >    a 3.0 release in March 2017.
> >    - We may do a 2.18 release off the 2x branch  if there have been
> >    substantial changes in the 2x branch. If there are no substantial
changes
> > in the 2x branch, we will not do a 2.18 release.
> >    - In January 2017 we will have a review to establish if all the API
> >    breaking changes are complete. If someone has specific implementation
> > plans that are in progress and they need more time, we will (under
> > agreement from the dev community) extend the API breaking window and
push
> > out the release date.
> >    - Following the release of 3.0 we will implement API freeze again and
> >    polish up the codebase for an LTR release based on 3.2
> >    - 2.14 LTR support will be extended until 3.2 is ready
> >    - *Note:* for QGIS 3.x, a minimum of Qt 5.5 is recommended
> >    - *Note:* for QGIS 3.x a minimum of Python 3.4 is recommended
> >    - *Note:* We are looking for a volunteer to set up a  windows build
> >    system using vagrant on win 7 so that we can test and build
> > automaticallyl
> >
> > *Public messaging*
> >
> >    - 2.18 release is not guaranteed
> >    - We are planning a 3.0 release in March 2017
> >    - *This release date may be postponed* - we will do a review in
January
> >    to establish whether we are on track for the release date
> >    - The 3.0 release will break your plugins - we will publish a
migration
> >    guide and tools to help you migrate your plugin to the new platform
> >    - If you have any queries about the process please feel free to
contact
> >    us
> >
> > Style repository
> >
> > Akbar Gumbira, our Google Summer of Code (GSOC) student joined us at the
> > hackfest. For his GSOC project, Akbar is working on a unified way to
share
> > styles <https://github.com/qgis/QGIS-Enhancement-Proposals/issues/58>,
> > symbols, ramps and markers in QGIS. The idea will be very similar to the
> > QGIS plugin repository, where users can host their favourite
cartographic
> > elements for everyone else to enjoy. There was quite a lot of technical
> > discussion about the exact mechanisms to use for hosting shared
symbology
> > with the key elements of the debate about whether to use git as a
hosting
> > system, simple zip files or some other mechanism. If you wish to chat to
> > Akbar about his work, visit this chat room
> > <https://gitter.im/akbargumbira/qgis_symbology_sharing> or comment on
the
> > QEP <https://github.com/qgis/QGIS-Enhancement-Proposals/issues/58>.
> >
> > *OSX Packaging and Building*
> >
> > QGIS is an attractive proposition for OSX users since the big commercial
> > vendors typically don't support OSX. Since QGIS is built on cross
platform
> > technologies, this does not pose a huge limitation for us, but there are
> > few OSX developers in the QGIS developer team and the platform
requirements
> > and constraints are pretty complex. Larry Shaffer has been doing awesome
> > work to cut through the various issues and simplify the installation
> > process - both for end users and for developers. It's finally pretty
easy
> > to get a development environment up and running on a Mac now. Using
brew (a
> > package manager for OSX) you can install all the needed dependencies and
> > get  QGIS compiling in Qt Creator with full debugging support. The next
> > challenge is going to be supporting this under Qt5 for QGIS 3.0 and
Larry
> > has been doing a bunch of great work to make that happen.
> > Lizmap!
> >
> > There are several web client frontends for QGIS out there. Lizmap
> > <http://www.3liz.com/en/lizmap.html> is probably the most feature rich
of
> > them. Michaël Douchin (@kimaidou on twitter) showed off the latest
version
> > of Lizmap. If you are doing any web mapping, you really should check it
out!
> > QField
> >
> > Marco Bernasocchi showed off the work they have been doing on QField
> > <http://www.opengis.ch/android-gis/qfield/> - an Android app for your
> > mobile device. The workflow for using QField is simple: Create a QGIS
> > project on your desktop, copy it over to your device's SD Card or
internal
> > storage, then open the same project on your device. Since it uses the
same
> > QGIS 2.14 backend as you are probably running on your desktop, all the
> > cartographic elements from your desktop are supported - including the
new
> > 2.5D rendering. The main use case for QField is field data collection
and
> > new in QField is the ability to capture point data and edit / update
> > feature attributes. This opens many possibilities. During the hackfest I
> > did some testing using a PostGIS layer in a project with the data coming
> > from a remote QGIS server - and it works (assuming you have internet
> > connectivity). I also did some testing using BTSync to create a
> > synchronised file system between my mobile device and my desktop. Edits
to
> > layers on the desktop and the mobile device can easily be pushed back
and
> > forth, making it very very easy to push out maps and new data to
workers in
> > the field. Marco also shared some roadmap plans for QField including
> > broader support for form elements (especially value maps) and support
for
> > digitising lines and polygons. I am eagerly looking forward to seeing
how
> > QField develops!
> > Underwater autonomous vehicles & QGIS
> >
> > [image: Natalia]
> >
> > (With apologies for using the colloquial term 'drone' which I know
Natália
> > does not like). One of the really cool things we did at the hackfest was
> > take a little side trip to visit the Computer Vision and Robotics
Institute
> > <http://cirs.udg.edu>. Natália Hurtós (who works for the institute)
kindly
> > gave a bunch of us QGIS geeks a tour. The work they are doing building
> > [relatively] cheap underwater autonomous vehicles is really awesome and
> > inspiring - all the more so because Natalia is planning to build the
> > mission planning tool in using the QGIS libraries!
> > Testing
> >
> > There were lots of interesting things going on for those interested in
> > testing. Alessandro Pasotti showed off some really cool stuff he has
been
> > working on for running python tests directly in QGIS instead of using a
> > mock QGIS iface object. There are huge benefits to doing this since your
> > tests run in  a 'real' QGIS environment. He also showed off how they are
> > testing QGIS plugins in Docker <http://docker.com> using the above
> > mentioned technique.
> >
> > If you do need / want to use an mock iface object, Matthias Kuhn has
been
> > promoting the use of the new qgis.testing python module improvements
which
> > includes an iface object which is comprehensive in terms of API stubs.
> >
> > *from qgis.testing import start_app, unittest *
> >
> > He has also created a unittest subclass that you can use which includes
> > nice goodies like letting you do asserts that geometries match.
> >
> > Matthias Kuhn, Nyall Dawson and others have really been leading the
charge
> > to build a more comprehensive test suite in QGIS and there were lots of
> > other interesting tips and tricks been shown like how to make your
travis
> > tests run against multiple versions of QGIS - which can be very handy
for
> > plugin authors.
> >
> > Victor Olaya also showed off the tester plugin
> > <https://github.com/boundlessgeo/qgis-tester-plugin> - for automated GUI
> > testing based on recorded interaction sequences.
> >
> > *Nice things for developers*
> >
> > Martin Dobias showed off some of the tools they have been developing
> > including:
> >
> >    - The report plugin <http://plugins.qgis.org/plugins/report/> (see
> >    http://plugins.qgis.org/plugins/report/
> >    <https://github.com/lutraconsulting/qgis-report-plugin>) that lets
you
> >    trap python exceptions and send a bug report directly to a github
issue
> >    tracker.
> >    - Martin also showed of the First Aid plugin
> >    <http://plugins.qgis.org/plugins/firstaid/> which lets you capture
> >    tracebacks in a more elegant way and also debug your plugin, stepping
> >    through the code and execute python instructions in the current run
> >    context. The First AID plugin makes a great alternative to using
remote
> >    debugging from an IDE which is time consuming to set up and
technical for
> > less experienced developers to do.
> >
> > *Training plugin*
> >
> > Victor Olaya showed of a plugin (the Lessons plugin) they are working
on to
> > facilitate interactive training in QGIS. It uses a simple dock
interface to
> > guide the user through a series of activities. Interestingly you can
ask it
> > to play recorded macros (saved as python code) of the active being
> > explained so that you can see how it is done if you can't figure it out
> > yourself. Their authoring system also allows you to record these
macros.
> >
> > *Docker*
> >
> > Docker is increasingly becoming a useful building block for those
wishing
> > to deploy QGIS in server side contexts. Patrick Valescc and Stéphane
> > Brunner did some really awesome work refactoring the QGIS Server docker
> > image - you can get a preview here
> > https://github.com/pvalsecc/QGIS/tree/docker (read the README
> > <https://github.com/pvalsecc/QGIS/tree/docker/docker> for usage notes).
We
> > would like to eventually merge this into the upstream QGIS repo so that
we
> > have a versioned docker build set up for each QGIS release.
> >
> > *Crayfish*
> >
> > Martin Dobias showed off the Crayfish plugin
> > <http://plugins.qgis.org/plugins/crayfish/>. Crayfish includes some
really
> > awesome multi temporal visualisation tools - really useful if you have
time
> > slice data in NetCDF or similar formats and you want to view layers
> > sequentially as animations. It also has cool symbology additions to show
> > flow / directionality arrows over your raster.
> >
> >
> > *Lightning talks*
> >
> > Here is also a quick-fire list of features that were shown off -that are
> > coming down the QGIS conveyor belt - mostly for QGIS 2.16 but also new
> > plugins and other efforts:
> >
> >    - *Style dock* in QGIS 2.16 with undo / redo - Nathan Woodrow
> >    - *Dynamic hillside rendering* - Nathan Woodrow
> >    - Awesome new *gradient editor* - Nyall Dawson
> >    - *D3 & Plotly* charting with chart interaction showing on the layer
-
> >    Matteo Ghetta and Michael Douchin
> >    - *Forms improvements*: the 'drag and drop' editor will support
multiple
> >    columns - Matthias Kuhn
> >    - Table view will be able to filter which columns to show (to let you
> > *hide unwanted columns*) - Matthias Kuhn
> >    - *Action widget columns in the attribute table*: you can place one
or
> >    more action widgets (and icons) into the attribute table making it
very
> >    easy to fire off an action (e.g. python script) for a particular
record -
> > Matthias Kuhn
> >    - Support for *changing column order* display in attribute table -
> >    Matthias Kuhn
> >    - In composer you can get have* JSON of all layer relations* that you
> >    can use in your html widget - Nyall Dawson
> >    - *Aggregation in expressions*. We will explain this more in the
visual
> >    changeling for the next release, but you will be able to compute
> > attribute aggregates (e.g. sum of areas) in your reports - Nyall Dawson
> >    - *Default values for fields* - Matthias Kuhn showed upcoming work to
> >    add support for field defaults in when adding a new record to a
vector
> >    layer.
> >    - *Transaction groups / cascaded editing mode* when you are editing a
> >    feature so that related tables get put into edit mode (project
property
> >    needs to be enabled) - again we will explain this more in the
upcoming
> > 2.16 changelog - Matthias Kuhn
> >    - *SectorPlot plugin:* a plugin to let you make 'pizza plots' of your
> >    data - Raymond Nijssen and Richard Duivenvoorde
> >    - Denis Rouzaud showed off work he has been doing to create a
*standard
> >    settings dialog* that you can use in your plugins. It has support for
> >    different input types and layer chooser etc. They provide a settings
> > dialog base class that you can derive from in your plugin which will
take
> > care of reading and writing your settings to Settings.
> >    - *User profiles plugin* - lets you create customised user interface
for
> >    different user categories - Alex Bruy
> >    - *Georeferenced PDFs and outputs from composer* (sorry not yet
GeoPDF)
> >    but you can use composer to create a  PDF - and then add that into
QGIS
> >    just like any other raster layer. Nyall Dawson
> >    - Nyall Dawson chatted about his work on *QGIS Task manager* - a
tool to
> >    let you easily create concurrent background tasks and show the
progress
> > of each task in a simple UI. I believe he is looking for funding to help
> > him get this finished, so if you are interested please contact him. -
> > *Bivariate legends plugin* (not published yet).  Thomas Gratier showed
off
> > work he is doing to support the creation of bivariate legends.
> >
> > *Albireo QGIS Fork*
> >
> > [image: albireo]
> >
> > Sandro Mani showed off an awesome new QGIS front end they have been
working
> > on at Sourcepole. Their implementation creates a brand dew ribbon based
UI
> > paradigm for QGIS (don't scoff, it's actually pretty cool!). They have
> > pared down the number of features and grouped functionality into
discrete
> > areas, both the menus and ribbon icons changing based on the context of
> > what you are doing. You can see the source code here:
> > https://github.com/sourcepole/kadas-albireo.  Here are some bullet
notes I
> > made while watching his presentation:
> >
> >    - 3D Globe updates
> >    - Redlining - you can sketch onto the map without saving those
> >    geometries in a specific layer.
> >    - Measuring & profile tools
> >    - 3d feature extrusion onto the globe (and they have been doing a
lot of
> >    work to get the QGIS Globe implementation ready for production use)
> >    - Shift-drag for zoom - just like you can do in OpenLayers and
Leaflet
> >    (Nyall then went and added this to QGIS for 2.16 - yay!)
> >    - Switch coordinate reference systems used for cursor position
display
> >    easily from the status bar
> >
> > There were many other cool features - some of all may make their way
into
> > the mainstream QGIS desktop. If you are looking to support users who
need a
> > simplified QGIS user interface, Albireo QGIS spin off is something to
watch.
> > Conclusion
> >
> > Girona was an absolutely awesome venue for the QGIS Conference and
> > Hackfest. I hope the participants of the conference gained good benefit
> > from the experience. The hackfest had around 50 participants and beyond
the
> > above notes, there was such a lot going on including work on the
> > documentation system, discussions on the proposed community voter system
> > (more on that in a follow up blog post) and many other things. I really
> > encourage you to attend these events if you want to keep track of the
> > leading edge of QGIS developers.
>
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