|LS| Serving WMS =============================================================================== The data used for this exercise are available in the :file:`qgis-server-tutorial-data` subdirectory of the :ref:`training data ` you downloaded. For convenience and to avoid possible permissions problems, we will assume that these files are stored in :file:`/home/qgis/projects` directory. Hence, adapt the following instructions to your path. The demo data contains a QGIS project named :file:`world.qgs` that is already prepared to be served with QGIS Server. If you want to use your own project or you want to learn how a project is prepared see the :ref:`Creatingwmsfromproject` section. .. note:: This module presents the URLs so that the audience can easily distinguish the parameters and parameters values. While the normal format is: :: ...&field1=value1&field2=value2&field3=value3 this tutorial uses: :: &field1=value1 &field2=value2 &field3=value3 Pasting them into Mozilla Firefox works properly but other web browsers like Chrome may add unwanted spaces between the ``field:parameter`` pairs. So, if you encounter this issue you can either use Firefox or modify the URLs so that they're in one line format. Let's make a WMS GetCapabilities request in the web browser or with curl: .. code-block:: bash http://qgisplatform.demo/cgi-bin/qgis_mapserv.fcgi ?SERVICE=WMS &VERSION=1.3.0 &REQUEST=GetCapabilities &map=/home/qgis/projects/world.qgs In the Apache config from the previous lesson the ``QGIS_PROJECT_FILE`` variable sets the default project to :file:`/home/qgis/projects/world.qgs`. However, in the above request we made use of the **map** parameter to be explicit and to show it can be used to point at any project. If you delete the **map** parameter from the above request QGIS Server will output the same response. By pointing any WMS client to the ``GetCapabilities`` URL, the client gets in response an XML document with metadata of the Web Map Server’s information, e.g. what layers does it serve, the geographical coverage, in what format, what version of WMS etc. As QGIS is also a :ref:`ogc-wms` you can create a new WMS server connection with the help of the above GetCapabilities url. See the :ref:`wms-services` or the :ref:`ogc-wms-servers` section on how to do it. By adding the ``countries`` WMS layer to your QGIS project you should get an image like the one below: .. figure:: img/qgis_getmap_request.png :align: center QGIS Desktop consuming the QGIS Server countries layer WMS service .. note:: QGIS Server serves layers that are defined in the :file:`world.qgs` project. By opening the project with QGIS you can see there are multiple styles for the countries layer. QGIS Server is also aware of this and you can choose the style you want in your request. The ``classified_by_population`` style was chosen in the above image. Logging ------- When you're setting up a server, the logs are always important as they show you what's going on. We have setup in the :file:`*.conf` file the following logs: * QGIS Server log at :file:`/logs/qgisserver.log` * ``qgisplatform.demo`` Apache access log at :file:`qgisplatform.demo.access.log` * ``qgisplatform.demo`` Apache error log at :file:`qgisplatform.demo.error.log` The log files are simply text files so you can use a text editor to check them out. You can also use the ``tail`` command in a terminal: ``sudo tail -f /logs/qgisserver.log``. This will continuously output in the terminal what's written in that log file. You can also have three terminals opened for each of the log files like so: .. figure:: img/terminal_tail_log.jpg :align: center Using the ``tail`` command to visualise QGIS Server logs output When you use QGIS Desktop to consume the QGIS Server WMS services you will see all the requests QGIS sends to the Server in the access log, the errors of QGIS Server in the QGIS Server log etc. .. note:: * If you look at the logs in the following sections you should get a better understanding on what's happening. * By restarting Apache while looking in the QGIS Server log you can find some extra pointers on how things work. GetMap requests ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In order to display the ``countries`` layer, QGIS Desktop, like any other WMS client, is using ``GetMap`` requests. A simple request looks like: .. code-block:: bash http://qgisplatform.demo/cgi-bin/qgis_mapserv.fcgi ?MAP=/home/qgis/projects/world.qgs &SERVICE=WMS &VERSION=1.3.0 &REQUEST=GetMap &BBOX=-432786,4372992,3358959,7513746 &SRS=EPSG:3857 &WIDTH=665 &HEIGHT=551 &LAYERS=countries &FORMAT=image/jpeg The above request should output the following image: **Figure: simple GetMap request to QGIS Server** .. figure:: img/getmap_simple_request.jpg :align: center Qgis Server response after a simple GetMap request |moderate| |TY| Change the Image and Layers parameters ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Based on the request above, let's replace the ``countries`` layer with another. In order to see what other layers are available you could open up the :file:`world.qgs` project in QGIS and look at its contents. Keep in mind though that the WMS clients don't have access to the QGIS project, they just look at the capabilities document contents. Also, there's a configuration option so that some of the layers existing in the QGIS project are ignored by QGIS when serving the WMS service. So, you could look at the layer list when you point QGIS Desktop to the ``GetCapabilities`` URL or you could try yourself finding other layer names in the ``GetCapabilities`` XML response. One of the layer names that you could find and works is ``countries_shapeburst``. You may find others but keep in mind some may not be visible at such a small scale so you could get a blank image as response. You can also play around with others parameters from above, like changing the returned image type to ``image/png``. |moderate| |FA| Use Filter, Opacities and Styles parameters ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Let's do another request that adds another layer, some of the :ref:`extra-getmap-parameters`, **FILTER** and **OPACITIES**, but also uses the standard STYLES parameter. .. code-block:: bash http://qgisplatform.demo/cgi-bin/qgis_mapserv.fcgi ?MAP=/home/qgis/projects/world.qgs &SERVICE=WMS &VERSION=1.3.0 &REQUEST=GetMap &BBOX=-432786,4372992,3358959,7513746 &SRS=EPSG:3857 &WIDTH=665 &HEIGHT=551 &FORMAT=image/jpeg &LAYERS=countries,countries_shapeburst &STYLES=classified_by_name,blue &OPACITIES=255,30 &FILTER=countries:"name" IN ( 'Germany' , 'Italy' ) The above request should output the following image: .. figure:: img/getmap_filter_opacities.jpg :align: center Response to a GetMap request with FILTER and OPACITIES parameters As you can see from the above image, among other things, we told QGIS Server to render only **Germany** and **Italy** from the countries layer. |moderate| |FA| Use Redlining ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Let's do another GetMap request that makes use of the :ref:`qgisserver-redlining` feature and of the **SELECTION** parameter detailed in the :ref:`extra-getmap-parameters` section: .. code-block:: bash http://qgisplatform.demo/cgi-bin/qgis_mapserv.fcgi ?MAP=/home/qgis/projects/world.qgs &SERVICE=WMS &VERSION=1.3.0 &REQUEST=GetMap &BBOX=-432786,4372992,3358959,7513746 &SRS=EPSG:3857 &WIDTH=665 &HEIGHT=551 &LAYERS=countries,countries_shapeburst &FORMAT=image/jpeg &HIGHLIGHT_GEOM=POLYGON((590000 6900000, 590000 7363000, 2500000 7363000, 2500000 6900000, 590000 6900000)) &HIGHLIGHT_SYMBOL=HighlightSymbol%233a093a11.6 &HIGHLIGHT_LABELSTRING=QGIS Tutorial &HIGHLIGHT_LABELSIZE=30 &HIGHLIGHT_LABELCOLOR=%23000000 &HIGHLIGHT_LABELBUFFERCOLOR=%23FFFFFF &HIGHLIGHT_LABELBUFFERSIZE=3 &SELECTION=countries:171,65 Pasting the above request in your web browser should output the following image: .. figure:: img/getmap_redlining_selection.jpg :align: center Response to a request with the REDLINING feature and SELECTION parameter You can see from the above image that the countries with the 171 and 65 ids were highlighted in yellow (Romania and France) by using the **SELECTION** parameter and we used the **REDLINING** feature to overlay a rectangle with the **QGIS Tutorial** label. GetPrint requests ----------------- One very nice feature of QGIS Server is that it makes use of the QGIS Desktop print layouts. You can learn about it in the :ref:`server_wms_getprint` section. If you open the :file:`world.qgs` project with QGIS Desktop you will find a print layout named ``Population distribution``. A simplified ``GetPrint`` request that exemplifies this amazing feature is: .. code-block:: bash http://qgisplatform.demo/cgi-bin/qgis_mapserv.fcgi ?map=/home/qgis/projects/world.qgs &SERVICE=WMS &VERSION=1.3.0& REQUEST=GetPrint &FORMAT=pdf &TRANSPARENT=true &SRS=EPSG:3857 &DPI=300 &TEMPLATE=Population distribution &map0:extent=-432786,4372992,3358959,7513746 &LAYERS=countries .. figure:: img/getprint.jpg :align: center Shows the pdf resulted from the above GetPrint request Naturally, it's hard to write your ``GetMap``, ``GetPrint`` etc. requests. `QGIS Web Client `_ or QWC is a Web client project that can work alongside QGIS Server so that you can publish your projects on the Web or help you create QGIS Server requests for a better understanding about the possibilities. You can install it like this: * As user ``qgis`` go to the home directory with ``cd /home/qgis``. * Download the QWC project from `here `_ and unzip it. * Make a symbolic link to the ``/var/www/html`` directory as it's the ``DocumentRoot`` that we've setup in the virtual host configuration. If you unzipped the archive under :file:`/home/qgis/Downloads/QGIS-Web-Client-master` we can do that with ``sudo ln -s /home/qgis/Downloads/QGIS-Web-Client-master /var/www/html/``. * Access http://qgisplatform.demo/QGIS-Web-Client-master/site/qgiswebclient.html?map=/home/qgis/projects/world.qgs from your Web browser. Now you should be able to see the Map as in the following figure: .. figure:: img/qwc.jpg :align: center QGIS Web Client consuming the world.qgs project If you click the Print button in QWC you can interactively create ``GetPrint`` requests. You can also click the ``?`` icon in the QWC to access the available help so that you can better discover the QWC possibilities. |IC| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You learned how use QGIS Server to provide WMS Services. |WN| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Next, you'll see how to use QGIS as a frontend for the famous GRASS GIS. .. Substitutions definitions - AVOID EDITING PAST THIS LINE This will be automatically updated by the find_set_subst.py script. If you need to create a new substitution manually, please add it also to the substitutions.txt file in the source folder. .. |FA| replace:: Follow Along: .. |IC| replace:: In Conclusion .. |LS| replace:: Lesson: .. |TY| replace:: Try Yourself .. |WN| replace:: What's Next? .. |moderate| image:: /static/common/moderate.png