To install the HelloWorld example plugin for testing the servers, you firstly have to create a directory to hold server plugins. This will be specified in the virtual host configuration and passed on to the server through an environment variable:
$ sudo mkdir -p /opt/qgis-server/plugins
$ cd /opt/qgis-server/plugins
$ sudo wget https://github.com/elpaso/qgis-helloserver/archive/master.zip
# In case unzip was not installed before:
$ sudo apt-get install unzip
$ sudo unzip master.zip
$ sudo mv qgis-helloserver-master HelloServer
To be able to use server plugins, FastCGI needs to know where to look. So, we have to modify the Apache configuration file to indicate the QGIS_PLUGINPATH environment variable to FastCGI:
FcgidInitialEnv QGIS_SERVER_LOG_FILE /tmp/qgis-000.log
FcgidInitialEnv QGIS_SERVER_LOG_LEVEL 0
FcgidInitialEnv QGIS_PLUGINPATH "/opt/qgis-server/plugins"
Moreover, a basic HTTP authorization is necessary to play with the HelloWorld plugin previously introduced. So we have to update the Apache configuration file a last time:
# Needed for QGIS HelloServer plugin HTTP BASIC auth
<IfModule mod_fcgid.c>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Authorization} .
RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]
</IfModule>
Then, restart Apache:
$ sudo a2ensite 001-qgis-server
$ sudo service apache2 restart
Vihje
If you work with a feature that has many nodes then modifying and adding a new feature will fail. In this case it is possible to insert the following code into the 001-qgis-server.conf file:
<IfModule mod_fcgid.c>
FcgidMaxRequestLen 26214400
FcgidConnectTimeout 60
</IfModule>
Test the server with the HelloWorld plugin:
$ wget -q -O - "http://localhost/cgi-bin/qgis_mapserv.fcgi?SERVICE=HELLO"
HelloServer!
You can have a look at the default GetCapabilities of the QGIS server at: http://localhost/cgi-bin/qgis_mapserv.fcgi?SERVICE=WMS&VERSION=1.3.0&REQUEST=GetCapabilities