[Qgis-user] Migrating legacy QGIS instance

Tue Aug 11 06:13:32 PDT 2020

Depending on your end goal, you might be more suited to leaving things as they are and using  some sort of content explorer to organize the existing data.  Then worry about migrating to different formats as needed.

We’ve been using GeoMoose for this purpose.  It can connect to just about any data source on the back end, such as SHP, Postgres, and GeoPackage to name a few, but also can connect to proprietary services as well.  Because it can use Mapserver as a display engine and data query tool, it lends itself to online exploration of the data without the need for a full blown GIS tool.  This allows for wide spread use by non-GIS pros.  The datasets can still be managed by you with QGIS and/or in Postgres/postgis, or whatever you prefer for that purpose.  The Mapserver setup allow for connecting to just about any type of service behind the scenes, and with the right configuration, you can also enable each dataset in the GeoMoose catalog as a WMS/WFS data source, thee standard for open data format access and publishing.

Bobb

From: Qgis-user <qgis-user-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> On Behalf Of Walt Ludwick
Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2020 7:45 AM
To: qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [Qgis-user] Migrating legacy QGIS instance

Think Before You Click: This email originated outside our organization.

I'm on MacOS -and not so very comfortable with command line scripting- so it looks like i might have to go the drag&drop way to import these .shp files. Will take some time, but at least that way i can be sure about what i've put where, and in what form.

But i do wonder about the (a) "stick multiple shps into a single gpkg" OR (b) "create one per feature" decision, since i'm not experienced enough to have a clear preference about this.  Can you say anything about pros & cons of going one way vs the other?

On Tue, Aug 11, 2020 at 11:45 AM Charles Dixon-Paver <charles at kartoza.com<mailto:charles at kartoza.com>> wrote:
Easiest way for me is to use the GDAL ogr2ogr<https://gdal.org/programs/ogr2ogr.html> command using a bash script or cmd batch to traverse your directories (depending on how you installed QGIS this should be on your path). I don't know what environment you're running though.

You can either stick multiple shps into a single gpkg or create one per feature as you prefer. ogr2ogr can also push shp files directly into PostGIS. When you want to consolidate or migrate data (between gpkgs or from gpkg to PostGIS) you can simply select the feature layers you want and use drag and drop from the QGIS 3 Browser panel to copy multiple features to a target location.

Others might have different approaches though.

Regards

On Tue, 11 Aug 2020 at 12:24, Walt Ludwick <walt at valedalama.net<mailto:walt at valedalama.net>> wrote:
I've inherited a legacy GIS, built up over some years in versions 2.x, that i'm now responsible to maintain.  Being an almost complete n00b (did take a short course in QGIS a good few years ago, but still..), i could really use some advice about migration.

i've created a new QGIS instance in version 3.14, into which i am trying to bring all useful content from our old system: oodles of shapefiles, essentially, plus all those other files (each .shp file appears to bring with it a set of.shx, .dbf, .prj, qpj  files, plus a .cpg file for each layer, it seems).  This is a significant dataset- 14gb, >1000 files -and that is just base data, not counting Projects built on this data or Layouts used for presenting these projects in various ways. Some of this is cruft that i can happily do without, but still:  i've got a lot of porting-over to do, without a clear idea of how best to do it.

The one thing i'm clear about is: i want it all in a non-proprietary database (i.e. no more mess of .shp and related files) that is above all quick & easy to navigate & manage. It is a single-user system at this point, but i do aim to open it up to colleagues (off-LAN, i.e. via Internet) as soon as i've developed simple apps for them to use.  No idea how long it'll take me to get there, so...

Big question at this point is: What should be the new storage format for all this data?  Having read a few related opinions on StackOverflow, i get the sense that GeoPackage will probably make for easiest migration (per this encouraging article<https://medium.com/@GispoFinland/learn-spatial-sql-and-master-geopackage-with-qgis-3-16b1e17f0291>, it's a simple matter of drag&drop -simple if you have just a few, i guess! [1]), and can easily support my needs in the short term, but then i wonder: How will i manage migration to PostGIS when i eventually put  this system online with different users/ roles enabled?

[1] Given that i need to pull in some hundreds of .shp files that are stored in a tree of many folders & subfolders, i also wonder: is there a simple way that i can ask QGIS to traverse a certain directory, pull in all the .shp files -each as its own .gpkg layer, i suppose?

Any advice about managing this migration would be much appreciated!
_______________________________________________
Qgis-user mailing list
Qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:Qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org>
List info: https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user
Unsubscribe: https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/qgis-user/attachments/20200811/18f62ac0/attachment-0001.html>