QFieldCloud and large data on device
A
Andrea L.
We work with light data (as vector and geopackage files) and very heavy data (rasters, aerial orthophotos, etc...).
Heavy data are used as basemap and they don't need to be updated.
Light data are used from field workers, they are editable and they need to be updated on cloud.
It could be great to have a QfieldCloud project on device with different "file destination" data where:
- some data are copied in device (heavy rasters, etc...)
- some data are synchronized on cloud (editable files, field data, vectors, etc...).
L
Lorenz Meyer
This is exactly what localized datasets are:
https://docs.qfield.org/how-to/outside-layers/?h=localized#add-a-layer-outside-of-exported-project-folder
Tim Barnes
Lorenz Meyer I've never been able to get this to work.....should any data in your device-equivalent path just show up in your project? do you have to add it? If so, how? The help doesn't make it clear how to actually use this
L
Lorenz Meyer
Tim Barnes this works totally fine for me
- Set up QGIS (Add a Windows path as localized path where your rasterimage is)
- Drag&Drop that rasterimage from the localized path into your QGIS project
- Export QGIS project to your field device
- Manually copy the raster image into your devices' localized folder (for Android you can see the path in the documentation URL above, if you use QField on Windwos it is on C:\user\XXX\Documents\QField\basemaps
Tim Barnes
Lorenz Meyer Ok great. The part that's missing in the QField help documents is point 2 (Drag&Drop that rasterimage from the localized path into your QGIS project) so thanks for clarifying.
The next problem is the localised dataset, on a Android device, needs to be placed into a 'protected' area of the file system and there's no 'foolproof' way (i.e. write a simple instruction to let non-tech savvy people to do this) to move this data to the required folder from the device itself:
i.e. you need to be cable connected to the device (which doesn't work when trying to maintain QField devices out in the field).
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Lorenz Meyer
Tim Barnes nice to hear that it is working now for you!
Well yes, localized datasets are somewhat more static, but that is kind of the point of it? Prepare the project once with a nice basemap/rasters and then have your field workers collect data with cloud synchronisation.
The path where they need to be saved is not protected on my Samsung and Lenovo devices i had my hands on so far.
How would you send the localized dataset to them when in the field anyway? Via Mail/messenger? Then you could do it as well via QFieldCloud i guess
I think maybe we should move to the "Discussion" section of the github repository if there is something else to clarify :)