Qfield Presentation

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# QFIELD PLUGIN FRAMEWORK 🚀

## Exploring the possibilities

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# THE ISSUE 🤔

- QField has nearly 400,000 active devices on Android alone, not every functionality justifies rolling out to all users
- QField’s commitment to delivering a lean UI also means certain UXs are not a good fit by default

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# THE ANSWER: PLUGINS 🧩

- A plugin framework to fulfill those niche needs by the growing number of QField users 
- Aligns with a core value promoted by OPENGIS.ch and the QField project: freedom
- Plugin development and release not bound to cadence of QField releases

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# TYPES OF QFIELD PLUGINS 🔠

- The QField framework offers two types of plugins:
 - App-wide plugins, activated upon app launch until exit
 - Project plugins, enabled while a given project is being consumed

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# QFIELD VS. QGIS PLUGINS 🔍

- Python powers QGIS’s plugins with Qt widgets for the GUI
- QML & Javascript powers QField’s plugins with QtQuick items for the GUI
- QField's project plugins can be understood as QGIS project macros

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# APP-WIDE PLUGINS ✨

- Installed via the plugin manager by providing a URL pointing to a zipped plugin content
- The plugin manager provides a quick way to enable/disable/configure plugins
- Permission will be asked prior to activating a plugin

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# PROJECT PLUGINS 🗃️

- Served as a sidecar file to the QGIS project file
- Often the easiest way to deploy plugins to users as they are bundled with projects and do not require additional steps to obtain
- Permission will also be asked prior to activating a plugin
- Pro-tip: rely on QFieldCloud to conduct remote distribution and update of project plugins to a fleet of QField devices

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# WEATHER PLUGIN ☀️

- Leveraging positioning context to provide relevant information
- XMLHttpRequest support unlocks a wide range of web services
- https://github.com/opengisch/qfield-weather-forecast/blob/main/main.qml

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# OSRM ROUTING PLUGIN 🚗

- Rely on QField items to overlay georeferenced geometries</b. on top of the map canvas
- Did we mention XMLHttpRequest yet?
- https://github.com/opengisch/qfield-osrm

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# SEARCH BAR PLUGINS 🧐

- The plugin framework enables integration with QField's search bar
- Under the hood, QGIS' locator classes power the functionality
- https://github.com/opengisch/qfield-nominatim-locator 
- https://github.com/opengisch/qfield-geomapfish-locator

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# VOCAL POINT PLUGIN 🗣️

- Leverage smartphone capabilities into exciting new UX to digitize features
- Fantastic way to do quick prototyping
- https://github.com/SeqLaz/vocalpoint-qfield-plugin

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# TIPS FOR DEVELOPERS ⚡

- Qt documentation: https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/qml-tutorial.html 
- QField documentation: https://docs.qfield.org/reference/plugins/
- Developing on Windows/Linux using QField by adding/changing files in the plugins directory

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# WARNING ⚠️

- Documentation remains a work in progress, and at the moment developers will need to go through less than ideal means to identify available items, objects, properties and invokable functions

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# AVAILABLE QML MODULES 📦

- WebSocket
- Quick3D
- Charts
- Sensors

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# LAST WORDS & THANKS 🙏

- For now, GitHub’s topics page offers an overview of most available plugins: https://github.com/topics/qfield-plugin
- If you are developing a plugin of your own, use the #qfield-plugin topic and let us know!
- What to know more? Contact us: info@opengis.ch