Plugins in QGIS
This workshop is meant to extend basic knowledge of QGIS by exploring common plugins. Familiarity of the QGIS is therefore a prerequisite. By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to use plugins to
- Access dynamic basemaps hosted on web servers
- Query and download Open Street Map (OSM) data
- Geocode address data from a spreadsheet, and
- Create an interactive webmap from a QGIS project (see below for example)
Before the Workshop
- Download QGIS! QGIS can be downloaded from qgis.org’s Downloads page. In most cases, you’ll want to download and install the Long term release instead of the latest release - currently QGIS 3.34.6 ‘Prizren’. This will give you most of the functionality you’ll need, without encountering the software bugs of newly released versions. See here for further guidance.
- Familiarity with the QGIS interface is prerequisite for this workshop. Check out the Research Commons’ Map Production with QGIS and Tools and Workflows in QGIS workshops if you are new to GIS, or your background is in Esri ArcGIS products. You can also browse the QGIS Documentation’s Getting Started for a refresher. Familiarity with QGIS is prerequisite for this workshop. Although this workshop will entail making a web map powered by Leaflet, no prior knowledge of coding or webmapping is necessary. Indeed, the QGIS plugin you will be introduced to specifically circumvents the need to build a web map with code. However, understanding the way Leaflet works to power a web map may make your experience more interesting. If you’d like a gentle introduction to Leaflet, check out the Research Commons’ workshop: Introduction to webmapping with Leaflet.
GIS Resources at UBC:
- General Informational website for all things UBC GIS: gis.ubc.ca
- UBC Library’s guide for finding and working with GIS resources: guides.library.ubc.ca/gis
- UBC’s GIS Slack (create your own channel or lurk!): ubcgis.slack.com
- Archive of all Research Commons workshops
- Contact UBC Library’s Geospatial team:
library.gis@ubc.ca - Schedule a 1:1 consult with the geospatial team here
This workshop was authored by Lily Demet and reviewed by Alex Alisauskas.