Notice I didn’t say QGIS 3.0 – I’ve been playing with 2.99 and it’s not ready for prime time – so don’t start working with it then go “But Randy you wrote about it! So I downloaded it to use in production and sometimes it doesn’t work and everyday there are updates”. That’s because it’s 2.99 and Not 3.0.
Post FOSS4G I’ve had some itches to scratch. Part of that has been diving into some technical things I’ve been wanting to work with. I’ve done a slight dive into Docker. I’ve been reading up on R. I’ve been working with PDAL.
The other thing I’ve been doing is jumping back into QGIS. I’ve been distracted with a lot of other things with work like “paper work”. The good news is I won’t be going to jail for tax evasion or screwing up client’s work. The bad news is you are stuck with me a bit longer and I feel like typing.
One of the things I remember from the intro to QGIS class is “button pushing” – as in “How do I add data?”. ArcGIS Desktop has the one all-knowing button. QGIS has 12 buttons if I don’t count the Virtual Layer button. When I first started using qgis back in 1.8 it was a bit annoying. It grew on me. I will admit it’s a bit overwhelming for some people.
There is a button for vector, raster, postgis, spatialite, ArcGIS Mapserver Layers, etc. It seems about once or twice a year a discussion would start in the QGIS community of “We need one button to add data”. Emails would be exchanged and I assume some of the developers would talk amongst themselves.
Guess what?
Behold the “One Button”. That one button now opens the Data Source Manager. The data source manager combines everything (including the browser) into one menu. When I first started using it it was a tad annoying. I like it now. Plus it’s going to be a bit easier to explain “Open the Data Source Manager” vs “Click on the arrow next to WMS and Look for Add ArcGIS Mapserver Layer.” You can add data as you normally would or drag and drop it in using the browser.
QGIS 2.99 is still under heavy development – so I wouldn’t dive into it just yet. Just know that changes are coming – and they are pretty awesome.