Outdated documentation

The latest documentation was moved to docs.qfield.org

Development and support

License

QField is released under the GNU Public License (GPL) Version 2 or above. Developing QField under this license means that you can inspect and modify the source code and guarantees that you will always have access to a QGIS based field data collection app that is free of cost and can be freely modified.

You can find the sourcecode on github

Support

You can ask your questions on gis.stackexchange

You can use the user mailing list

We also provide commercial support, contact us

Make it grow, make it yours

This is a list of features which we think are very useful for a nice user experience and an effective workflow.

Edit widgets

Edit widgets are a core part of efficient field work. Entering attributes on a touch device is one of the jobs that takes the most time and keeping this task as easy as possible is key for pleasuring work.

Some important edit field widgets are already available but much more is possible for example in QGIS.

Legend

To properly interpret the contents of a map, a legend is a very useful tool. It gives a user the required context to understand the semantic meaning of colors, shapes, strokes and other visual coding.

It can also be used to access additional meta data of individual layers or chose which layer to work on.

Connection based on-/offline synchronization

Data collection is one of the domains where QField can help a lot. The final destination of data is normally not on the device itself but somewhere on a database. Currently it is possible to directly work on the database but since network access is often unreliable when in the field, it boils down to manual synchronization on a desktop computer.

It would be great to have a synchronization process running on the devices where data will be synchronized automatically with a server when the network is available and cache data locally whenever no network connection is available.

This may be combined with GeoGIG or other server components like a database.

Improved coordinate precision

Computers work mostly with two different datatypes for storing decimals (floating point numbers) internally. Single and double precision. With single precision only the first 6 digits of a number are significant and can be trusted, with double precision the first 15 digits can be trusted. This takes all digits (before and after the decimal point) into account.

When working with coordinates this is very important when a high accurracy is required. Only having 6 significant digits often means having a maximum accurracy around one meter but depends on the CRS and location on the earth surface.

Some parts of QField currently treat coordinates with single point precision. It would be a very good improvement to be able to use the full precision of accurate positioning devices by fixing this shortcoming.

Saving GPS status information into attributes

Positioning devices offer more information than just latitude and longitude. They are also able to estimate the precision which they are currently able to provide. This information can be a radius calculated from variables like the number of satellites but also additional flags for parameters like the RTK status.

Editing geometries

QField offers to digitize new geometries, edit existing attributes or delete features. What it lacks is the feature to edit existing geometries.

This can be split into different pieces like moving points, moving other features, editing vertices, moving edges…

Search functionality

Locating features with the help of a search field is something that can really help to work more efficient. In general this can be split into two categories:

Attribute based search
Search results are provided based on the attributes of features on layers within the project. Either a local database for searching is available. The data inside is based on the customized data you work with or the layers are queried directly for features with attributes in question.
Geocoding
Search results are provided based on real world addresses. Services like Nominatim can be accessed via a web interface and convert real-world addresses to locations on a map. Just try the link.

External measurement devices

Are you working with external devices with sensors? Air pressure, temperature, slope, carbon monoxide concentration, you name it… Wouldn’t it be great to not having to read the information from your external device and manually typing it again? We would love to make life easier for you by adding support for directly connecting your external measurement device to QField.

Record Audio

Ever wondered how you would write a lot of text when out in the field with a touch screen?

Just don’t!

It would be amazing to have the possibility to have audio integration just like image integration. When back in the office, you could just type in the information on a regular keyboard.

Open QGS files on click

Simply open a QGIS project in QField by clicking on it in your file manager.

[Your favorite feature]

You probably have plenty of ideas for other nice features. Please contact us and we can discuss the best approach to integrate this idea into QField or a derived app.

Funding

The following oranizations have contributed to make QField what it currently is. We would like to warmly say: Thanks a lot!

SIGE Schweizerische Vogelwarte Géoconseils SA
hydro safety srls Ville de Vevey Ville de Morges
ibW Höhere Fachschule Südostschweiz

Credits

QField is developped by OPENGIS.ch. OPENGIS.ch does consulting, development and training for open source software including QField and QGIS.

OPENGIS.ch

API stability

QField is currently not considered API stable.