[SoC] Week 4: Web API plugin for QGIS Desktop

[Kevin Stadler]

This week's commits are again split between the QGIS plugin:
https://gitlab.com/qgisapi/networkapi/commits/master
and the R package:
https://gitlab.com/qgisapi/rqgisapi/commits/master

The R package is now also in a testable state so will be sending out
some more detailed instructions to the QGIS-dev list later today.
Pointers to all relevant documentation is already summarised on the
Wiki: https://gitlab.com/qgisapi/networkapi/wikis/home


1. What did you get done this week?

- plugin config dialog is now hooked up to a QSettings object, port
and logging configurable

- refined documentation delivery through '/api' path in browser, added
documentation to some more functions

- much improved the request handling of the R package and implemented
the first functions, dev versions of which are now available from
https://gitlab.com/qgisapi/rqgisapi

2. What do you plan on doing next week?

- implement vector data readout (in arbitrary formats) using the
QgsVectorFileWriter

- extend R package to cover all currently implemented paths of the plugin

- start working on the first use cases. the R package closely mimics
the function names and signatures of the PyQGIS API, so there should
be very little overhead in developing notebooks for both R and Python
in parallel.

- fix and test /addRasterLayer

3. Are you blocked on anything?

- under some (reproducible) circumstances, QgsGeometry's
exportToGeoJSON() causes a Segmentation Fault, so I've had to postpone
implementation of geodata readout. Implementing this feature using the
more bulky QgsVectorFileWriter instead should pay off though, since it
will also allow users to request data in all available QGIS driver
formats.