As a former (Q)GIS administrator for a Danish municipality with:
* Ca. 100 QGIS users, some experienced and some total newbies
* Several hundred different spatial data layers in both MS-SQLServer,
PostgreSQL and some file based formats.
* Most of the layers read-only but a significant number of layers
editable.
I'll suggest:
* Don't use WFS for local connections. The added layer of complexity
will make the complete system much slower, more unstable and more
difficult to administer.
* Use .qlr files to present the individual layers from the databases
for users with symbology and without them having to use the
database connection tabs in the Data Manager.
* You can save all the different .qlr files in a common network based
directory that can be accessed by all users. And make this directory
a "favourite" directory in the QGIS Data Manager. This will make
data access easy and uniform for every type of data.
* You can group the .qlr files in logical groups using a directory
structure under the main directory. And give the qlr files some
easily understood names.
* Use the database access systems to control the individual user
access rights.
* If you're in a Windows domain based system with windows pc's and
postgres servers running on windows, take a look at the SSPI access
method. This will give you a "Integrated security" like access to
Postgres.
Med venlig hilsen / Kind regards
Bo Victor Thomsen
Den 06-01-2021 kl. 16:48 skrev Paul Wittle:
Hi Alessandro,
I guess the key is ease of data discovery. So if all your geodata is on one
database then it is all easy enough but if you have multiple database types /
instances then you are relying a lot on users being able to find the right
database / instance and then having potentially different login mechanisms for
each database.
This is why the idea of WFS seems appealing because we can authenticate at
access to the WFS server using a single method; expose all the accessible
datasets in a single list and in theory potentially employ greater consistency
to the method of updates.
We have found that the SQL issued by each database driver can vary in terms of
the SQL optimisation because each one is developed independently of others
(i.e. the Oracle data access is not necessary developed with much reference to
the Postgres or SQL database data access clients). Whilst fundamentally the SQL
statements are still in effect translated into the appropriate SQL for each
database type the original statement should in theory be more consistent?
In terms of speed; I suspect you are definitely correct hence my asking the
question really.
The comments above are really to simply flesh out the question as to whether or
not using a database is really simpler though.
That said; we may also use something like a custom plugin or GeoNetwork as a
data discovery tool which is another way of helping users add the right layer
without needing to know which database it comes from.
I hope that clarifies the question a little better?
Cheers,
Paul
-----Original Message-----
From: Alessandro Pasotti <[email protected]>
Sent: 06 January 2021 15:11
To: Paul Wittle <[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Qgis-user] Best practice, database vs WFS
Hi Paul,
if you want to share geodata within your organization on a private network a
database is the best solution: faster and simpler. The constraint is that you
will need an application (like QGIS) to access your data..
WFS is a web service standard for interoperability, it is ideal for sharing
data on the internet over HTTP, there is no need for a particular application
to use the service: any HTTP client is able to do that.
Regards
On Wed, Jan 6, 2021 at 3:43 PM Paul Wittle <[email protected]>
wrote:
Hi,
As I’m sure is clear from the number of posts I’ve done of late we are
currently looking at how we use QGIS within our business. I thought I’d ask a
question here to see if others are considering it as I can’t find too much chat
online about it but I wondered if perhaps there should be some.
We have concluded that in theory the WFS and WFS-T protocols are an OGC
standard (https://www.ogc.org/standards/wfs) and that using an OGC compliant
server they can be used to front various data source formats; i.e. Postgres,
Oracle, SQL Server etc. In theory that means that if you use WFS and WFS-T in
QGIS it should mean that user experience becomes more consistent for the people
using those layers in QGIS.
That all sounds great, but I can’t seem to even get my WFS to load correctly in
QGIS at present and it doesn’t seem to be something that is recommended online.
Given that both WFS and direct database access both return full details (vector
geometries and attributes) to QGIS; would you expect performance of WFS to be
similar or significantly slower?
Is the use of OGC compliant WFS something that you personally feel is something
we should be aspiring to use more widely at the local / network level in QGIS
or do you favour just loading directly from databases?
I’m honestly very interested to hear what others think on this as theoretically
you would think the creation of an OGC standard would have this sort of
aspiration but I’m increasingly concluding that this kind of use of WFS is very
limited. It seems to me that the most common use case is just for occasional
layers where you need to work with others over the internet.
To ensure we are talking about the same thing; I’m thinking that the access to
WFS in this context would be locally within your own network or device as
clearly going over the internet will add a significant overhead and potential
for delay.
Feel free to message me back directly or message the group if you think it is a
worthwhile discussion but as I say I’d love to hear what others think.
Cheers,
Paul
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not accept service of documents by fax or other electronic means. Virus
checking: Whilst all reasonable steps have been taken to ensure that this
electronic communication and its attachments whether encoded, encrypted or
otherwise supplied are free from computer viruses, Dorset Council accepts no
liability in respect of any loss, cost, damage or expense suffered as a result
of accessing this message or any of its attachments. For information on how
Dorset Council processes your information, please see
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