[Qgis-user] creation of .gpx is not straightforward

[Blumentrath, Stefan]

+1 for a more user-friendly export to GPX!

If I am not mistaken, export to GPX does not necessarily require
GPX_USE_EXTENSIONS=YES
GPX_EXTENSIONS_NS=YES
options...

The GPX format is indeed sensitive to field names and types, but these names and types should be supported by default:
Name		Data type
name		Text
ele		Double
symbol		Text
comment	Text
description	Text
source		Text
url		Text
(Where "ele" stands for elevation...)

So I think you need the "GPX_EXTENSIONS" only if you want to have other columns/fields... (Correct me if I am wrong).

Maybe the different GPS-units a user might have also allow for different fields in the GPX.

So there would be quite some things to consider in a "Save as" dialog...
Some users might possibly also struggle with the fact that not all geometry types are supported by the format.

Long post, short message, Andre`s idea realizing this as a plugin might be the most practical solution for the time being...

In such a plugin, table names could be mapped to GPX-namespace, possibly geometry-types changed, or the GPX_EXTENSIONS activated if necessary, as well as CRS changed to WGS 1984... The plugin could then go into the GPS-Tools menu...

Cheers
Stefan


-----Original Message-----
From: qgis-user-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [mailto:qgis-user-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Bernd Vogelgesang
Sent: 13. juni 2013 11:19
To: qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [Qgis-user] creation of .gpx is not straightforward

+1 for a bit more user-friendly save as...-dialog in general.

The problem with the creation options does not only apply to GPX (which might be one of the most common formats), but also for KML, CSV, you name it.

Once a user understood what the data source and layer fields are meant for and where to search for additional infos, the tool is really powerful.

But i fear that 90% of the users get lost on the way:
First a user has to realize that he needs those creations options when something does not work as expected.
Then he has to click on the Help-Button to get the general informations which he is not looking for.
Then he has to scroll down to find the tiny link telling about the supported OGR vector formats: http://gdal.org/ogr/ogr_formats.html
There he has to search for the desired format and click the link (for GPX
http://www.gdal.org/ogr/drv_gpx.html)
There he has to scroll down some screens to find the creation options (called Creation Issues there) Finally, he has to understand what the fuzz is all about, what is necessary and what is just optional etc etc.

Because most people wont use that on a daily basis, they will just forget about the procedure and have to start the exploration from the beginning when facing problems.

I fear there is no easy way of presenting the options, otherwise our ingenious developers would have already introduced something.

IMO work on this topic is really needed, cause not knowing the caveats of these procedures causes many frustrations, troubles and bizarre workarounds to get things done while under the hood, a powerful machine is waiting ...

Cheers
Bernd


Am 13.06.2013, 08:01 Uhr, schrieb Andre Joost <andre+joost at nurfuerspam.de>:

> +1 from me. Output CRS should be set to EPSG:4326 by default as well.
>
> I think this could be an easy way to start writing an own plugin, but 
> I currently wait for the next QGIS version for that. There were some 
> greater changes announced for the plugin API (and I don't have any 
> knowledge in python programming yet).
>
> Greetings,
> André Joost



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