[Qgis-user] Intended work-flow for joining table to layer?

Tue Aug 19 14:34:16 PDT 2014

Hi Andreas,

well, I'm not very funny as well, cause dealing with this subject really  
made me crazy.
I agree, QGIS should get rid of shapefiles as soon as possible.

But I can't see a trace of that so far. At least there are no feasible  
solutions for beginners like my colleagues.
Me personally I'm trying to find a work-flow to migrate all my stuff to  
Spatialite, using the DB manager, qspatialite and the Spatialite_GUI cause  
there is no smooth working tool handling everything yet (Or I simply do  
not understand where the searched functions are).

The brilliant Processing Toolbox e.g. produces tons of ... shapefiles. The  
ftools in vector menu exclusively produce ... shapefiles.
So why is the processing of this prominent format crippled that way just  
within the joins???

I do not have the fantasy to imagine what complicated stuff you database  
guys do with the joins function that you need the prefixes there, while  
you could always use sql-magic behind the scenes and do not relate on such  
primitive gui stuff in the layer properties.

But maybe a simple checkbox in the joins dialog that would just use the  
old mechanism without prefixes would be a solution for those handicapped  
that still use ... shapefiles.
Or if it would use the alias for prefixing and leave the field name as it  
is?

Cheers
Bernd

Am 19.08.2014, 21:34 Uhr, schrieb Andreas Neumann <a.neumann at carto.net>:

> Hi Bernd,
>
> And for how many centuries should be cripple QGIS just because of these
> stupid Shape-file limitations?
>
> I know - I am not very funny. But for the rest of the world, that does
> not have to deal with ESRI Shapes the table prefix in the column names
> is really very useful.
>
> Maybe there should be a special mechanism in the ESRI shape export
> dialog that allows some intelligent magic to shorten field names - not
> holding back the rest of QGIS. Something like a regular expression
> substitute mechanism for column renames where you can define the rules
> for column renames - e.g. replacing prefix names or taking the first 4
> and the last 3 characters.
>
> In my opinion this would be much more useful than crippling QGIS into
> short column names.
>
> Andreas
>
> Am 19.08.2014 09:44, schrieb Bernd Vogelgesang:
>> Hi,
>>
>> since some versions, the once  "trivial" task to join tabular data to a
>> layer became very annoying and time consuming.
>>
>> We have a normal point shape and an excel file which we want to join.
>> Export xls to csv, import through the wizard, no deal.
>>
>> But using the joins from the properties is changing the field names by
>> adding the table name in front of the original field name.
>> This may be intended to prohibit confusion with the origin of the field,
>> but its causing a lot of work, cause even if you keep your table name as
>> short as it can be to be still meaningful, the combination with my still
>> short field names plus the table name completely destroys the field name
>> when saved as shape again.
>>
>> table name  = join
>> field names: FIELDA, FIELDB, FIELDC etc
>>
>> Result after save:
>>
>> join_FIELD, join_FIE_1, join_FIE_2
>>
>> Even with such short names, all information is destroyed, so we have to
>> go to the table manager (which a lot new user will not know for sure!)
>> and rewrite the field names completely. For 20+ fields that's no fun at
>> all.
>>
>> The second alternative to join data is through the processing toolbox
>> "Join attribute table".
>> This works great for combining to layers without that field name
>> hokuspokus, but at least in V2.0 on Windows (my collegues computer is
>> not updated yet), you can only select layers, tables can't be selected,
>> so you can't join them.
>>
>> I had the very same issue on another dataset with 2000 items some days
>> ago (on Win7, V2.4): The "normal" join took ages and produced unreadable
>> field names, the Toolbox join didn't work, so in the end I fiddled
>> myself into Spatialite to be able to join those darn data sets.
>>
>> I will stick to the Spatialite approach, but for my collegues, this is
>> completely beyond the scope.
>>
>>
>> Can anyone share their work-flows for joining data which is doable by
>> normal dudes too?
>>
>>
>> Cheers
>> Bernd
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Qgis-user mailing list
> Qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user

-- 
Bernd Vogelgesang
Siedlerstraße 2
91083 Baiersdorf/Igelsdorf
Tel: 09133-825374

Am 19.08.2014, 21:34 Uhr, schrieb Andreas Neumann <a.neumann at carto.net>:

> Hi Bernd,
>
> And for how many centuries should be cripple QGIS just because of these
> stupid Shape-file limitations?
>
> I know - I am not very funny. But for the rest of the world, that does
> not have to deal with ESRI Shapes the table prefix in the column names
> is really very useful.
>
> Maybe there should be a special mechanism in the ESRI shape export
> dialog that allows some intelligent magic to shorten field names - not
> holding back the rest of QGIS. Something like a regular expression
> substitute mechanism for column renames where you can define the rules
> for column renames - e.g. replacing prefix names or taking the first 4
> and the last 3 characters.
>
> In my opinion this would be much more useful than crippling QGIS into
> short column names.
>
> Andreas
>
> Am 19.08.2014 09:44, schrieb Bernd Vogelgesang:
>> Hi,
>>
>> since some versions, the once  "trivial" task to join tabular data to a
>> layer became very annoying and time consuming.
>>
>> We have a normal point shape and an excel file which we want to join.
>> Export xls to csv, import through the wizard, no deal.
>>
>> But using the joins from the properties is changing the field names by
>> adding the table name in front of the original field name.
>> This may be intended to prohibit confusion with the origin of the field,
>> but its causing a lot of work, cause even if you keep your table name as
>> short as it can be to be still meaningful, the combination with my still
>> short field names plus the table name completely destroys the field name
>> when saved as shape again.
>>
>> table name  = join
>> field names: FIELDA, FIELDB, FIELDC etc
>>
>> Result after save:
>>
>> join_FIELD, join_FIE_1, join_FIE_2
>>
>> Even with such short names, all information is destroyed, so we have to
>> go to the table manager (which a lot new user will not know for sure!)
>> and rewrite the field names completely. For 20+ fields that's no fun at
>> all.
>>
>> The second alternative to join data is through the processing toolbox
>> "Join attribute table".
>> This works great for combining to layers without that field name
>> hokuspokus, but at least in V2.0 on Windows (my collegues computer is
>> not updated yet), you can only select layers, tables can't be selected,
>> so you can't join them.
>>
>> I had the very same issue on another dataset with 2000 items some days
>> ago (on Win7, V2.4): The "normal" join took ages and produced unreadable
>> field names, the Toolbox join didn't work, so in the end I fiddled
>> myself into Spatialite to be able to join those darn data sets.
>>
>> I will stick to the Spatialite approach, but for my collegues, this is
>> completely beyond the scope.
>>
>>
>> Can anyone share their work-flows for joining data which is doable by
>> normal dudes too?
>>
>>
>> Cheers
>> Bernd
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Qgis-user mailing list
> Qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user

-- 
Bernd Vogelgesang
Siedlerstraße 2
91083 Baiersdorf/Igelsdorf
Tel: 09133-825374