Getting Started¶

Apache¶

Install the Apache server in a separate virtual host listening on port 80. Enable the rewrite module to pass HTTP BASIC auth headers:

$ sudo a2enmod rewrite
$ cat /etc/apache2/conf-available/qgis-server-port.conf
Listen 80
$ sudo a2enconf qgis-server-port

This is the virtual host configuration, stored in /etc/apache2/sites-available/001-qgis-server.conf:

<VirtualHost *:80>
 ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
 DocumentRoot /var/www/html

 ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/qgis-server-error.log
 CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/qgis-server-access.log combined

 # Longer timeout for WPS... default = 40
 FcgidIOTimeout 120
 FcgidInitialEnv LC_ALL "en_US.UTF-8"
 FcgidInitialEnv PYTHONIOENCODING UTF-8
 FcgidInitialEnv LANG "en_US.UTF-8"
 FcgidInitialEnv QGIS_DEBUG 1
 FcgidInitialEnv QGIS_SERVER_LOG_FILE /tmp/qgis-000.log
 FcgidInitialEnv QGIS_SERVER_LOG_LEVEL 0

 ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
 <Directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin">
     AllowOverride All
     Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +FollowSymLinks
     # for apache2 > 2.4
     Require all granted
     #Allow from all
 </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Now enable the virtual host and restart Apache:

$ sudo a2ensite 001-qgis-server
$ sudo service apache2 restart

NGINX¶

You can use QGIS Server with nginx.

On Debian based systems:

apt-get install nginx fcgiwrap

Introduce the following in your nginx server block configuration:

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  location ~ ^/cgi-bin/.*\.fcgi$ {
      gzip           off;
      include fastcgi_params;
      fastcgi_pass   unix:/var/run/fcgiwrap.socket;

      fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME /usr/lib/cgi-bin/qgis_mapserv.fcgi;
      fastcgi_param  QGIS_SERVER_LOG_FILE /logs/qgisserver.log;
      fastcgi_param  QGIS_SERVER_LOG_LEVEL 0;
      fastcgi_param  QGIS_DEBUG 1;
  }

As you can see from lines 6-9 you can add parameters in your location block in the form of fastcgi_param param_name param_value, e.g. fastcgi_param  DISPLAY ":99";.

The include fastcgi_params; is important as it adds the parameters from /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params:

fastcgi_param  QUERY_STRING       $query_string;
fastcgi_param  REQUEST_METHOD     $request_method;
fastcgi_param  CONTENT_TYPE       $content_type;
fastcgi_param  CONTENT_LENGTH     $content_length;

fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_NAME        $fastcgi_script_name;
fastcgi_param  REQUEST_URI        $request_uri;
fastcgi_param  DOCUMENT_URI       $document_uri;
fastcgi_param  DOCUMENT_ROOT      $document_root;
fastcgi_param  SERVER_PROTOCOL    $server_protocol;
fastcgi_param  REQUEST_SCHEME     $scheme;
fastcgi_param  HTTPS              $https if_not_empty;

fastcgi_param  GATEWAY_INTERFACE  CGI/1.1;
fastcgi_param  SERVER_SOFTWARE    nginx/$nginx_version;

fastcgi_param  REMOTE_ADDR        $remote_addr;
fastcgi_param  REMOTE_PORT        $remote_port;
fastcgi_param  SERVER_ADDR        $server_addr;
fastcgi_param  SERVER_PORT        $server_port;
fastcgi_param  SERVER_NAME        $server_name;

# PHP only, required if PHP was built with --enable-force-cgi-redirect
fastcgi_param  REDIRECT_STATUS    200;

WMS capabilities¶

In the WMS capabilities section, you can define the extent advertised in the WMS GetCapabilities response by entering the minimum and maximum X and Y values in the fields under Advertised extent. Clicking Use Current Canvas Extent sets these values to the extent currently displayed in the QGIS map canvas. By checking CRS restrictions, you can restrict in which coordinate reference systems (CRS) QGIS Server will offer to render maps. Use the button below to select those CRSs from the Coordinate Reference System Selector, or click Used to add the CRSs used in the QGIS project to the list.

If you have print composers defined in your project, they will be listed in the GetProjectSettings response, and they can be used by the GetPrint request to create prints, using one of the print composer layouts as a template. This is a QGIS-specific extension to the WMS 1.3.0 specification. If you want to exclude any print composer from being published by the WMS, check Exclude composers and click the button below. Then, select a print composer from the Select print composer dialog in order to add it to the excluded composers list.

If you want to exclude any layer or layer group from being published by the WMS, check Exclude Layers and click the button below. This opens the Select restricted layers and groups dialog, which allows you to choose the layers and groups that you don’t want to be published. Use the Shift or Ctrl key if you want to select multiple entries.

You can receive requested GetFeatureInfo as plain text, XML and GML. Default is XML, text or GML format depends the output format chosen for the GetFeatureInfo request.

If you wish, you can check Add geometry to feature response. This will include in the GetFeatureInfo response the geometries of the features in a text format. If you want QGIS Server to advertise specific request URLs in the WMS GetCapabilities response, enter the corresponding URL in the Advertised URL field. Furthermore, you can restrict the maximum size of the maps returned by the GetMap request by entering the maximum width and height into the respective fields under Maximums for GetMap request.

If one of your layers uses the Map Tip display (i.e. to show text using expressions) this will be listed inside the GetFeatureInfo output. If the layer uses a Value Map for one of its attributes, this information will also be shown in the GetFeatureInfo output.

WFS capabilities¶

In the WFS capabilities area you can select the layers you want to publish as WFS, and specify if they will allow update, insert and delete operations. If you enter a URL in the Advertised URL field of the WFS capabilities section, QGIS Server will advertise this specific URL in the WFS GetCapabilities response.

WCS capabilities¶

In the WCS capabilities area, you can select the layers that you want to publish as WCS. If you enter a URL in the Advertised URL field of the WCS capabilities section, QGIS Server will advertise this specific URL in the WCS GetCapabilities response.

Fine tuning your OWS¶

For vector layers, the Fields menu of the Layer ‣ Properties dialog allows you to define for each attribute if it will be published or not. By default, all the attributes are published by your WMS and WFS. If you don’t want a specific attribute to be published, uncheck the corresponding checkbox in the WMS or WFS column.

You can overlay watermarks over the maps produced by your WMS by adding text annotations or SVG annotations to the project file. See the Annotation Tools section for instructions on creating annotations. For annotations to be displayed as watermarks on the WMS output, the Fixed map position checkbox in the Annotation text dialog must be unchecked. This can be accessed by double clicking the annotation while one of the annotation tools is active. For SVG annotations, you will need either to set the project to save absolute paths (in the General menu of the Project ‣ Project Properties dialog) or to manually modify the path to the SVG image so that it represents a valid relative path.

Serve the project¶

Now, save the session in a project file alaska.qgs. To provide the project as a WMS/WFS, create a new folder /usr/lib/cgi-bin/project with admin privileges and add the project file alaska.qgs and a copy of the qgis_mapserv.fcgi file - that’s all.

Now test your project WMS, WFS and WCS. Add the WMS, WFS and WCS as described in Loading WMS/WMTS Layers, WFS and WFS-T Client and WCS Client to QGIS and load the data. The URL is:

http://localhost/cgi-bin/project/qgis_mapserv.fcgi

Cascading OGC layers¶

A QGIS project can of course contain layers coming from remote OGC servers (regardless of the underlying OGC server software used). This way QGIS will effectively cascade those layers through its OGC (QGIS Server based) services.

If the external OGC layers are coming from services that make use of the HTTPS protocol you must take care of some extra QGIS Server configuration. Example for the Apache web server:

$ mkdir /srv/qgis/.qgis2
$ chown www-data:www-data /srv/qgis/.qgis2
$ chmod 774 /srv/qgis/.qgis2

This ensures that the web server is able to write in some user defined folder. Then add the following line to the Apache virtual host file to ensure that Apache will use such folder:

FcgidInitialEnv HOME "/srv/qgis"

Restart Apache.