We Need Your Feedback on QGIS Documentation!

Changelog for QGIS 3.24

image1

Release date: 2022-02-18

In Memorium: This release is named 'Tisler' after a small Norwegian island that was a favourite visiting place of Håvard Tveite who passed away in May 2021. Håvard was a very active member of the QGIS community, providing valuable input to the documentation, developing numerous plugins, and taking care of the QGIS Resources Sharing Repository to name just a few of his contributions. The map on the QGIS 3.24 splash screen is an orienteering map that Håvard has created. He liked spending some time each year map-making at Tisler.

We would also like to extend a big thank you to the developers, documenters, testers, and all the many folks out there who volunteer their time and effort (or fund people to do so) to make these releases possible. From the QGIS community, we hope you enjoy this release! If you wish to donate time, money, or otherwise get involved in making QGIS more awesome, please wander along to QGIS.ORG and lend a hand!

For a whirlwind tour of all the new functionalities introduced, you can view the highlight reel video on youtube at https://youtu.be/gVgR4Oxqtkk

QGIS is supported by donors and sustaining members. A current list of donors who have made financial contributions large and small to the project can be seen on our donors list. If you would like to become an official project sustaining member, please visit our sustaining member page for details. Sponsoring QGIS helps us to fund our regular developer meetings, maintain project infrastructure, and fund bug fixing efforts. A complete list of current sponsors is provided below - our very great thank you to all of our sponsors!

Flagship

Large

Medium

Small

QGIS is Free software and you are under no obligation to pay anything to use it - in fact, we want to encourage people far and wide to use it regardless of what your financial or social status is - we believe empowering people with spatial decision-making tools will result in a better society for all of humanity.

User Interface

Feature: Retrieve map extents directly from layout maps and bookmarks

This is a handy time-saver! The extent widget in QGIS now allows you to directly retrieve and match the extent of maps from bookmarks and layouts in your project.

image3

This feature was developed by Mathieu Pellerin

Feature: Easier creation of custom coordinate reference systems

We've added a new option when selecting a Coordinate Reference System (CRS) which allows you to just directly enter a custom CRS definition (from proj or WKT strings), instead of requiring you to specifically add these custom CRS to the projection database first.

It's much friendlier when you just want to define a custom projection for a single-purpose use, e.g. an overview map with a projection designed for a particular latitude and longitude location.

image4

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Symbology

Feature: Marker/hash line: offsets along line by "percent" of line length (and negative offsets!)

You can now specify the offset along line in percentage for both marker and hash line symbol layer types. (These offsets are treated as percentages of the overall line length).

Additionally, when the offset along line setting for a marker or hash line symbol layer is longer than the size of a closed ring, QGIS will now treat the offset as continuing to loop around the ring. For example, setting the offset to 150% results in the offset being treated as 50% of the length of the closed ring.

Lastly, we also made it possible to specify a negative offset along line for a closed ring. Negative offsets are calculated backwards along the ring.

image5

This feature was funded by North Road, thanks to SLYR

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Feature: Control whether first/last vertex placements apply to every part of multi-part geometries

This new symbology option for the Marker and Hash line symbol types allows you to control whether the First and Last Vertex placement options should apply to every part of a multi-part line (or polygon) individually, or only the very first and last vertex in the whole multi-part geometry.

image6

This feature was funded by North Road, thanks to SLYR

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Feature: Marker/hash line "on vertices" placement option replaced by "on inner vertices"

The new On Inner Vertices mode places the symbols on all inner vertices only (i.e. all vertices except the first or last vertex).

Previously, the old "Vertex" mode put symbols on the first and last vertex as well as all inner vertices, making it basically impossible to style a line with a different marker on the first or last vertex to the rest of the line's vertices. With the new On Inner Vertices option it's easy to create a style where a line has a different marker on the first or last vertex vs the rest of the vertices!

(This change is paired nicely with the switch to using checkboxes for the placement options -- to get a marker to show on all vertices, just make sure the first, last and inner vertices options are checked).

image7

This feature was funded by North Road, thanks to SLYR

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Feature: Placement options in marker and hash line symbol layers are now checkboxes instead of mutually exclusive buttons

This improvement makes it considerably easier to create marker (or hash) lines with the markers on both the first and last vertex (amongst other useful combinations!)

This feature was funded by North Road, thanks to SLYR

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Feature: Control the color model used when interpolating gradient ramps

When rendering a gradient ramp some combinations of gradient colors will cause the ramp to pass through murky grey mid-tones if the interpolation is performed using red/green/blue channels independently. An alternative approach is to instead interpolate colors via their hue/saturation/lightness or value channels. This approach can avoid these desaturated mid tones, resulting in more visually pleasing gradients.

We now allow the color specifcation to be set per stop in a multi-stop color gradient to give users control over which interpolation technique to use. There's also an option to control the direction which interpolation should follow for the Hue component of a HSL/HSV color spec interpolation,m which can help avoid unwanted interpolation through the entire rainbow hue spectrum in some circumstances!

This video shows the difference in mid-tones of a color ramp, where the RGB interpolation results in murky colors, while the HSL/HSV interpolation remains nice and vibrant.

This feature was funded by North Road, thanks to SLYR

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Feature: Resizable thumbnails in the style manager dialog

We've added a new slider to control the size of thumbnails shown in the style manager dialog, because sometimes these thumbnail sizes are just too small to get a good representation of a symbol!

image8

This feature was funded by North Road, thanks to SLYR

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Feature: "Lineburst" symbols

We've added a brand new "Lineburst" symbol layer type, which renders a gradient along the width of a line (as opposed to the Interpolated Line renderer, which renders a gradient along the length of a line). It's just like the Shapeburst fill symbol type, but for lines!

image9

This feature was funded by North Road, thanks to SLYR!

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Feature: "Raster Line" symbols

We're super-excited to bring you this brand new line symbol type, which allows you to render a raster image following a line feature's shape. This symbol type opens a whole new realm of possibilities for QGIS symbology, and is especially useful when creating maps in a hand drawn or painted style.

Options are available to control:

  • the picture path (including data defined path)
  • line width
  • opacity
  • line join and cap styles

image10

This feature was funded by North Road, thanks to SLYR

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Feature: Choice of clipping behaviour for line pattern fills

You can now control how lines in a line pattern fill symbol are clipped to polygon shapes. The available options include:

  • Clip During Render Only: lines are created covering the whole bounding box of the feature which are then clipped while drawing. The line extremities (beginning and end) will not be visible (this is same behaviour as older QGIS releases).
  • Clip Lines Before Render: lines are clipped to the exact shape of the polygon prior to rendering. The line extremities (including cap styles, start/end marker line symbols, etc) will be visible, and may sometimes extend outside of the polygon (depending on the line symbol settings).
  • No Clipping: no clipping at all is done - the lines will cover the whole bounding box of the feature

image11

This feature was funded by North Road, thanks to SLYR

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Feature: Improved rendering of line pattern fills

When exporting to a vector format (e.g. PDF or SVG) or when a line subsymbol has dynamic (data defined) properties, we now automatically switch to a line-by-line based approach to render the fill. (Previously, a tiled pattern approach was always used, which often resulted in undesirable artefacts and visible seams in the pattern).

Some of the many benefits of this change include:

  • Smaller PDF/SVG output file sizes -- the line pattern fills aren't stored as raster images in the output so the overall file size will often be much smaller
  • PDF/SVG exported files are easier to modify in external applications (such as Inkscape or Adobe Illustrator) for post production, as each individual line in the pattern can be modified.
  • Better quality PDF/SVG outputs, since the fill isn't DPI dependent and looks pixel perfect regardless of how far in you zoom
  • No visible artifacts at certain angles, distances or with certain line symbol styles

And even more excitingly, it opens the door for a range of new symbol styles, for example:

  • line patterns where the individual lines change color/width/dash/ etc.
  • line patterns with marker line symbols on center point/etc
  • geometry generator effects per line, e.g. wavy line patterns, hand drawn line styles, etc

image12

This feature was funded by North Road, thanks to SLYR

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Feature: Rotation angle for point pattern fills

Now you can specify an optional rotation angle for point pattern fills, which causes the entire point pattern to be angled. This can be extremely useful when overlaying multiple point pattern fills!

image13

This feature was funded by North Road, thanks to SLYR

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Feature: Randomized point offsets for point pattern fills

This (optional) setting allows each point in a point pattern fill to be randomly shifted up to the specified maximum distance in the x or y direction. You can specify the maximum offset in millimeters, points, map units, or even "percentage" units (where percentage is relative to the pattern width or height).

You can set an optional random number seed to avoid the symbol patterns "jumping" around between map refreshes. Data defined overrides are also supported.

The main difference between this new setting and the existing random marker fill symbol type is that the random offset with a point pattern allows for quasi-"regular" placement of markers -- because the points in the pattern are effectively constrained to a grid, this allows creation of semi-random fills which don't have empty areas or overlapping markers. (As opposed to the random marker fill, which will always place points completely randomly... sometimes resulting in visual clusters of points or unwanted empty areas).

image14

This feature was funded by North Road, thanks to SLYR

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Feature: Coordinate reference mode setting for line pattern and point pattern fill symbol layers

Line pattern and point pattern fill symbol layers have a new coordinate reference mode setting to tweak the anchoring of the patterns. Practically speaking, this allows for patterns to nicely align across adjacent and overlapping features.

relief

image16

This feature was developed by Mathieu Pellerin

Feature: Control marker clipping for point pattern fills

This new option gives you control over how markers are clipped in a point pattern fill. The available options include:

  • Clip to shape: markers will be clipped by the boundary of the shape, so "cut off" markers may be visible (same behaviour as previous QGIS versions)
  • Marker centroid within shape: markers will be drawn only if their centroid falls within the shape, and markers will not be clipped to the shape boundary
  • Marker Completely Within Shape: markers will only be drawn if they fit completely within the shape
  • No clipping: whole marker symbols will be drawn if any part of the marker falls within the shape

image17

This feature was funded by North Road, thanks to SLYR

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Feature: Expression functions for creating triangular/square/curved waves

We've added some new expression functions which produce "wavy lines" along geometry boundaries. Multiple wave shapes are available, including:

  • Wave (sine-like)
  • Triangular
  • Square

In addition, expressions functions have also been added for creating waves in a regular fashion or with randomization.

When used with geometry generators, these expressions can be used for some very advanced cartographic effects!

image18

This feature was funded by North Road, thanks to SLYR

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Labelling

Feature: "Percentage" units for text buffer size, shadow offset and blur radius

We now allow the sizes for text buffer, shadow offset and shadow blur radius to be set as a percentage of the font size. This is desirable as it allows the creation of text formats where the components nicely scale as the text size is changed, instead of having fixed buffer/shadow sizes that need to be independently adjusted when the text size changes.

image19

This feature was funded by North Road, thanks to SLYR

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Feature: Data defined label positions by point geometries

You can now set the data defined placement of labels to be bound to a point geometry field or expression. (Previous QGIS versions only allowed data defined placement to be set via two separate numeric x and y fields).

This change also allow you to use the Move Label tool to change the position of a label which is bound to a point geometry field, causing the new label position to be stored as a point geometry in that attribute.

image20

This feature was funded by Swiss QGIS user group

This feature was developed by Damiano Lombardi

Feature: Stretched text for labels and text formats

This improvement allows your text to be horizontally stretched or condensed by a percentage factor. It's often handy for tweaking the widths of fonts to fit a bit of extra text into labels (when used sparingly, that is... you can certainly abuse font stretching with some horrendous results!)

Note: This improvement requires Qt 6.3+ or KDE's 5.15 fork. (On other builds the stretch options are hidden and can't be set)

This feature was funded by North Road, thanks to SLYR

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Rendering

Feature: Rendering layers as groups

This is another exciting cartographic enhancement which opens up a whole new arena of symbology and map visualisation in QGIS!

Prior to this improvement, QGIS supported grouping layers within the layer tree as a means of structuring projects, but these groups had no impact on how the component layers were rendered. In QGIS 3.24 we've introduced a new option allowing these layer groups to "Render as Group", which causes all the component layers to be rendered as a single flattened object during map renders.

This option is available within the layer styling dock whenever a group layer is selected. This panel also allows you to control the appearance of the group as a whole, with options for the overall group opacity, blend mode, and layer effects!

Additionally, when a layer is contained in a group which has the new Render as Group option activated, new blending modes will be available which perform "clipping" style operations during the render. These allow you to achieve some very powerful results, such as clipping the render of one layer's content by the content in a second "mask" layer!

image21

This feature was funded by Andrew Fletcher.

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Feature: Support for "Line pattern" when converting Mapbox GL vector tile layer styles

Making use of the brand new raster line symbol layer, QGIS 3.24 now properly renders Mapbox GL line pattern styling for newly-added vector tile layers.

image22

This feature was developed by Mathieu Pellerin

Feature: Support background styles for Mapbox GL-styled vector tile layers

We now correctly render any predefined background styling present in Mapbox GL-styled vector tile layers. This dramatically improves the appearance of vector tile layers with dark styles!

image23

This feature was developed by Mathieu Pellerin

3D Features

Feature: Respect Z ordering when rendering point clouds in 2D

We've added an option to render point clouds according to their Z-order in 2D map views. With the new bottom-to-top ordering option enabled, points with larger Z values will cover lower points -- resulting in the appearance of a true orthographic photo. There's also an option for reverse sorting (top-to-bottom), where the scene appears as if viewed from below.

image24

This feature was funded by Crowdfunding: Enhancing elevation data and point clouds in QGIS

This feature was developed by Stefanos Natsis (Lutra Consulting)

Feature: Dock/Undock 3D views

We've been aware that using dock widgets for 3D maps can be inconvenient, and in many situations these are frustrating to resize and move as they are prone to re-dock as you adjust their sizes! With QGIS 3.24 we added the ability to switch 3D maps from a dockable widget to a top-level window (and back to a dock widget), so that these map views can now be managed, resized and moved just like a standard application window.

image25

This feature was funded by Crowdfunding: Enhancing elevation data and point clouds in QGIS

This feature was developed by Nedjima Belgacem (Lutra Consulting)

Feature: 3D map view manager

Previously, if you closed a 3D map view and then saved your project, the 3D map view and all its settings would be lost when you reopen that project. So in QGIS 3.24 we've added a "3D map view manager" that takes care of listing, removing, renaming and duplicating 3D map views in your projects!

We've also added a new "3D Map Views" menu, which contains all your created 3D map views for easy access!

image26

This feature was funded by Crowdfunding: Enhancing elevation data and point clouds in QGIS

This feature was developed by Nedjima Belgacem (Lutra Consulting)

Feature: Improved camera navigation

The default navigation mode in earlier versions of QGIS would sometimes behave strangely when moving around, rotating or zooming in/out. A lot of effort went into improvements of the camera control, so since QGIS 3.24 the camera navigation's behavior should feel more natural and similar to other 3D mapping software.

For more details, see Fixing terrain and camera issues in 3D

This feature was funded by QGIS.org grant (2021)

This feature was developed by Nedjima Belgacem (Lutra Consulting)

Feature: Full text rendering capabilities for layout text labels

In older QGIS releases you had to revert to hacky tricks like using HTML and CSS to add effects like drop shadows to text in your map layouts. Hack no more! In 3.24 we now allow you to use the familiar properties from the labeling text options for text on layouts too! This means you can now add shadows, text buffers, backgrounds, letter and word spacing, etc. all on the text items in your layouts.

image27

This feature was funded by North Road, thanks to SLYR

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Expressions

Feature: geometry_type function

The new geometry_type function returns the high-level type of a geometry (i.e. 'Point', 'Line' or 'Polygon').

image28

This feature was funded by North Road, thanks to SLYR

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Feature: Overlay intersects sort by intersection size

We have added further enhancements to the overlay_intersects function. The change adds two new optional arguments to the existing function:

  • return_details: only valid when used with an expression, set this to true to return a list of maps containing (key names in quotes) the feature 'id', the expression 'result' and the 'overlap' value, the 'radius' of the maximum inscribed circle is also returned when the target layer is a polygon.
  • sort_by_intersection_size: only valid when used with an expression, set this to true to return the results ordered by the overlap value in descending order.

image29

This feature was funded by Kanton Solothurn, Amt für Geoinformation

This feature was developed by Alessandro Pasotti

Feature: Show all layer field names when building expressions

As a handy time-saver, we now make a list of all field names from all layers in your project available directly in the expression builder. If you double-click any of these field names, they'll be added to your expression as string values ('field_name').

image30

This feature was funded by ARPA Piemonte

This feature was developed by Alessandro Pasotti

Feature: represent_attributes function

This new function returns a map with all attribute (field) names as the keys and the configured representation values as values. The representation value for the attributes depends on the configured widget type for each attribute.

The function can be used with zero, one, or more arguments:

  • If called with no parameters, the function will return the representation of the attributes of the current feature in the current layer.
  • If called with a 'feature' parameter only, the function will return the representation of the attributes of the specified feature from the current layer.
  • If called with a 'layer' and a 'feature' parameter, the function will return the representation of the attributes of the specified feature from the specified layer.

image31

This feature was funded by Kanton Solothurn

This feature was developed by Alessandro Pasotti

Feature: Optional minimum overlap area and circle radius for overlay_intersection

We have added two optional arguments to the overlay_intersection() expression function:

  • min_overlap: for polygons an optional minimum area in current feature squared units for the intersection (if the intersection results in multiple polygons the intersection will be returned if at least one of the polygons has an area greater or equal to the value), for lines an optional minimum length in current feature units (if the intersection results in multiple lines the intersection will be returned if at least one of the lines has a length greater or equal to the value)
  • min_inscribed_circle_radius: for polygons only an optional minimum radius in current feature units for the maximum inscribed circle of the intersection (if the intersection results in multiple polygons the intersection will be returned if at least one of the polygons has a radius for the maximum inscribed circle greater or equal to the value). Read more on the underlying GEOS predicate, as described in PostGIS ST_MaximumInscribedCircle function.

image32

This feature was funded by Kanton Solothurn

This feature was developed by Alessandro Pasotti

Feature: map_prefix_keys function

In QGIS 3.24 we've added a new map_prefix_keys function that takes a map and a prefix, the function returns a map with all keys prefixed by the prefix.

Example: map_prefix_keys(map('1','one','2','two'), 'prefix-')

returns: { 'prefix-1': 'one', 'prefix-2': 'two' }

image33

This feature was funded by Kanton Solothurn

This feature was developed by Alessandro Pasotti

Feature: densify_by_count and densify_by_distance functions

This functionality, which was previously only available through the Processing toolbox, is now available for use in expressions!

This feature was funded by North Road, thanks to SLYR

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Feature: Rotate parts of multi-part geometries independently with "rotate" expression function

The new "per_part" option for the "rotate" expression function allows you to rotate each part of a multi-part geometry around the center of each part (instead of the center of the geometry as a whole). This enhancement is designed to help out symbology when the rotate function is used as a cartographic tool as part of a geometry generator symbol layer.

image34

This feature was funded by North Road, thanks to SLYR

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Feature: apply_dash_pattern function

This exciting new expression function applies a dash pattern to a geometry, returning a MultiLineString geometry which is the input geometry stroked along each line (or ring) using a dashed line pattern.

Rules can be set to control how the dash pattern is adjusted at line endings. If you specify a start rule or end rule, then the "adjustment" option defines whether both dash and gaps, or only dash or gap sizes are adjusted to apply these rules.

You can also set an optional pattern offset to specify how far along the pattern the result should start at.

image35

This feature was funded by North Road, thanks to SLYR

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Feature: scale function

This new expression function allows you to scale (resize) a geometry. Just like the 'rotate' function, the function accepts an optional point position to apply the scaling from. If no anchor point is not specified then scaling is done from the center of the geometry's bounding box.

image36

This feature was funded by North Road, thanks to SLYR

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Feature: Filter by multiple attributes for get_feature function

We extended the get_feature function to allow multi-attribute filtering, by adding an option to pass an array of filter values to the input.

This feature was developed by Alex

Data Management

Feature: Multiedit support for relation editor

We've added a new multi edit mode for the relation editor, which allows the rapid addition of child features to multiple parent features. This improves efficiency for data management operations, such as the ability to select multiple trees and adding a maintenance item to all of them in one click.

image37

This feature was funded by QGIS Model Baker

This feature was developed by Damiano Lombardi, OPENGIS.ch

Metadata and Metasearch

Feature: Support for OGC API - Records in MetaSearch

We updated the MetaSearch tool to provide support for the OGC API - Records (OARec) standard. As part of the OGC API evolution, OGC API - Records is the successor to OGC:CSW (like OGC API - Features is to WFS, etc.).

The OGC API - Records standard is currently in development and the current timeline for a public RFC by OGC is Q1 2022. This we ask you to take note of the draft status of the specification so you are aware that the specification may change a bit more over the next few months. We still need to flesh out how actionable links are handled over the next few months (which should be a significant improvement compared to the CSW publish/find/bind workflow).

Adding this feature to QGIS is a huge win for easier search and will help both users and providers for the long term.

image38

This feature was developed by Tom Kralidis

Forms and Widgets

Feature: Form submit actions with HTTP POST

In QGIS 3.24 we added two new HTTP POST actions, similar to the existing Open action which uses an HTTP GET request.

The two actions differ in the way the form data are encoded:

  1. application/x-www-form-urlencoded
  2. multipart/form-data

In both cases, data are passed to the action in a URL encoded URL.

A new function url_encode(<map>) is provided to convert a dictionary (a map) to the encoded format.

The response from the submitted URL is opened by delegating to the operating system QDesktopServices::openUrl() after the payload has been stored in a temporary file.

image39

This feature was funded by Kanton Solothurn

This feature was developed by Alessandro Pasotti

Feature: New button to open attribute table on filtered features

We've added a new button to the attribute form (when in search mode) which enables you to open an attribute table filtered to only show the matching features.

image40

This feature was funded by ARPA Piemonte

This feature was developed by Alessandro Pasotti

Analysis Tools

Feature: Add roundness method to curve polygon

We added a "roundness" method to QgsCurvePolygon, allowing the calculation of the "roundness" of an area feature based on the formula Roundness = (4 * pi * Area) / Perimeter^2.

This includes the addition of a new expression and a processing tool for calculating roundness. The processing tool creates a new layer with the roundness of each feature in a new field.

image41

This feature was developed by Antoine Facchini

Processing

Feature: Extract labels algorithm

For 3.24 we added a new tool to QGIS' processing toolbox: "Extract labels". As its name hints at, this algorithm extracts label information from a rendered map at a specific extent and scale.

Extracted label information include its position (as point geometries), the associated layer name and feature ID, as well as label appearance properties such as rotation, text, alignment, font family, size, weight, etc.

The algorithm also generates a default symbol-less & labelled style for the output layer which allows for those saved layers to be drag and dropped into projects and have the label drawn exactly as they were exported.

If a map theme is specified when extracting labels, the exported labels will match the visibility and symbology of that theme. If left blank, the project's current visible layers will be used.

image42

This feature was funded by TEKSI

This feature was developed by Mathieu Pellerin

Feature: Optional output extent parameter for the GDAL Raster Calculator algorithm

When running against GDAL 3.3 or newer, QGIS processing toolbox's GDAL Raster Calculator algorithm now allows you to specify an optional "output extent" parameter. This can be quite useful when working with large datasets, often avoiding the need to create an intermediary clipped raster prior to running the calculator algorithm.

image43

This feature was developed by Mathieu Pellerin

Feature: Optional extent parameter for the GDAL clip raster by mask algorithm

We added an optional extent parameter to the GDAL "clip raster by mask" algorithm, which can come in handy when working with large raster datasets.

image44

This feature was developed by Mathieu Pellerin

Feature: Processing history rework

QGIS 3.24 includes a partial implementation of the framework described in QEP 130, and ports the Processing history log over to this framework.

This is a much more flexible approach to storing Processing history, as it allows us to store unlimited additional information about the executed tool (including all the input parameters, output results, and the full text log too!). The history log is now stored in a sqlite database instead of the text file previously used, which allows for more efficient storage/retrieval/filtering.

The new framework potentially extends to more than just Processing - it could also be used to store the history of other user operations, such as project edits, layout exports etc!

We'll be using this framework in future to further extend the Processing history dialog. For 3.24, we're using it to expose a number of helpful additions to the history dialog:

  • Right clicking an entry in the log has a new option to copy the execution parameters as a "qgis_process" command line equivalent, giving you a super-easy way to generate qgis_process commands for execution in a CLI.
  • Right clicking an entry also shows a new "Copy as JSON" option, which copies a JSON string of the input parameters and algorithm settings

image45

This feature was funded by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest, Flemish Govt

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Feature: Advanced actions in Processing dialogs

We have added new actions on the processing dialog including copy as qgis_process command, and copy/paste as JSON. Together these actions:

  • Allows for easy copying of the equivalent PyQGIS command to run the tool using the parameters defined in the dialog
  • Allow for easy generation of qgis_process commands via the QGIS GUI, including any tricky parameter values like GeoPackage outputs with specific layers
  • Provide a way for you to copy the settings defined in the dialog in a text format, so that you can store these easily and then restore them later by pasting the values.
  • Provides an easy way for you to copy the settings into the JSON format consumed by qgis_process, so that it is easy to see the expected format even for complex parameters (like TIN interpolation parameters).

image46

This feature was funded by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest, Flemish Govt

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Feature: Single file exports from Atlas to PDF algorithm

You can now export an atlas layout to a single (collated) PDF file using the "Export atlas layout as PDF" processing algorithm.

image47

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Feature: Project Models are shown in the Project menu

We added a new submenu to the "Project" menu, which will list any Processing models stored within the current project. This gives you a quick way to launch these project-specific models, in either a single or batch mode!

image48

This feature was funded by Kanton Solothurn

This feature was developed by Alessandro Pasotti

Feature: Add point cloud destination parameter and output to Processing

We have extended and improved point cloud support in Processing, namely by:

  • Fixing the filtering of point cloud layers in QgsProcessingMapLayerComboBox-based widget used for parameters
  • Adding a destination point cloud parameter type and point cloud output types with corresponding widgets. (Currently these are useful for 3rd party providers and plugins which create point cloud outputs.)
  • Exposing the newly added point cloud output and destination parameters to the algfactory wrapper

This feature was developed by Alexander Bruy

Feature: Array field support

In QGIS 3.24, we've made array field types first-class citizen in the Processing toolbox! The following algorithms have all been updated to support array fields:

  • Refactor algorithm;
  • Aggregate algorithm;
  • Add field to attributes table algorithm;
  • Field calculator algorithm; and
  • Advanced (i.e. python) field calculator algorithm

This feature was funded by SwissTierras Colombia

This feature was developed by Mathieu Pellerin

Application and Project Options

Feature: qgis_process --no-python argument

This new, optional command line parameter for the qgis_process command-line tool allows you to skip launching Processing with Python support when it is not required. This can result in a significant improvement in qgis_process startup times!

This feature was funded by North Road

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Feature: Suppress "bad layers" handler on startup

We've added support for a new command line flag for the qgis executable, which allows you to disable the default dialog which shows when opening a project with missing/broken layers:

[--skipbadlayers]       don't prompt for missing layers

Example invocation: ./qgis --skipbadlayers or ./qgis -B

The use case for this is that sometimes users have automation or other post-startup processes happen and do not want to have the startup process interrupted if there are bad layers present in the project. After startup, QGIS will ignore any missing layers, but they will still be marked as broken in the layers list.

This feature was suggested by Giuseppe Baiamonte during, and live coded on, the QGIS Open Day, 17 Dec 2021.

image49

This feature was developed by Tim Sutton

Feature: Parameter values for qgis_process can be specified as a JSON object via stdin

We now provide a mechanism to support complex input parameters for algorithms when running the qgis_process command line tool.

To indicate that parameters will be specified via stdin then the qgis_process command must follow the format

qgis_process run algid -

(with a trailing - in place of the usual arguments list).

The JSON object must contain an "inputs" key, which is a map of the input parameter values.

echo "{"inputs": {\"INPUT\": \"my_shape.shp\", DISTANCE: 5}}" | qgis_process run native:buffer -

Additionally, extra settings like the distance units, area units, ellipsoid and project path can be included in this JSON object:

{
    'ellipsoid': 'EPSG:7019',
    'distance_units': 'feet',
    'area_units': 'ha',
    'project_path': 'c:/temp/my_project.qgs'
    'inputs': {'DISTANCE': 5, ..... }
}

(Specifying input parameters via stdin implies automatically the --json output format for results.)

One big motivation behind this enhancement is to provide a way for the qgis_process R libraries to support parameter types such as aggregates!

This feature was funded by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest, Flemish Govt

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Feature: Run Python script algorithms directly via qgis_process

The qgis_process command-line tool now supports running a Python script algorithm directly by specifying the path to the .py file, in place of an algorithm ID or model file path!

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Data Providers

Feature: Friendlier errors from XYZ raster tiles, WMS and vector tiles

Server errors which occur during XYZ, vector tile or WMS network requests are now shown directly in the QGIS window via the message bar. We've made these error messages much more descriptive and helpful, by including the original response error text wherever possible!

image50

This feature was funded by MapTiler

This feature was developed by Lutra Consulting (Vincent Cloarec)

Feature: Add out-of-the-box connection to Mapzen Global Terrain tiles

QGIS now sports built-in support for the Terrarium DEM format for WMS/XYZ layers. In addition, we now have out-of-the-box ability to add Mapzen Global Terrain Tiles hosted on AWS. You can find the new MapZen option in the XYZ section of the browser panel. Users now have an immediately accessible global DEM source for their projects!! See also https://registry.opendata.aws/terrain-tiles/

image51

This feature was developed by Nyall Dawson

Feature: HMAC SHA256 auth method for MapTiler

We've added a new authentication method specific for MapTiler which allows you to use a token encrypted with HMAC-SHA256.

image52

This feature was funded by MapTiler

This feature was developed by Lutra Consulting (Vincent Cloarec)

Feature: Template parameter {usage} for XYZ raster and vector tiles

For XYZ tile-based raster layers and for vector tile layers, we now allow the possibility to insert {usage} template parameters (in addition to {x}, {y}, {z}). If present, this parameter will be replaced by the context in which the request is being made.

The possible context values are:

  • view - when the request comes from 2D or 3D map canvas
  • export - when the request comes from exporting a layer or exporting a print layout for high-quality output (map previews in print layout designer are classed as “view”)
  • unknown - when coming from some other context, but the source is unknown

This functionality is useful for MapTiler clients, where they need to recognize the context in which tiles are used in order to bill users accordingly.

This feature was funded by MapTiler

This feature was developed by Lutra Consulting (Vincent Cloarec)

Feature: Convert WMTS/XYZ raster tiles to terrain (DEM)

In QGIS 3.24 we've introduced the possibility to convert WMTS/XYZ raster datasets to a raster layer of single band float type following a predefined encoding scheme.

You can activate this option and choose an encoding scheme (for now, "MapTiler Terrain RGB" or "Terrarium Terrain RGB" are available) in the source settings of the XYZ connection or in the Data Source Manager when adding a WMST layer.

The selected converter will translate the RGB source values to float values for each pixel. After loading, the layer will be presented as a single band floating point raster layer, ready for styling using a pseudocolor or hill shade renderer!

image53

This feature was funded by MapTiler

This feature was developed by Lutra Consulting (Vincent Cloarec)

Feature: Array field types for scratch layers

You can now add array field types directly to newly created scratch layers. (While array field types have previously been supported by scratch layers, there was no way for users to add them when creating a new scratch layer.)

image54

This feature was developed by Mathieu Pellerin

Feature: JSON field types for new GeoPackage layers

We've added support for creating JSON fields directly to newly created GeoPackage layers. (While JSON field types have previously been supported by GeoPackage layers, there was no way for users to add them when creating a new layer.)

image55

This feature was developed by Mathieu Pellerin

Feature: Delimited text type overrides and other improvements

We've given some love to the delimited text data provider in 3.24, with several enhancements which include:

Boolean type support and automatic detection

Boolean data types are now first-class citizens, which are automatically recognized when all records in a column contain one of the following values (case insensitive):

  • t/f
  • true/false
  • yes/no
  • 0/1

Boolean fields are also detected from a CSVT file, a GDAL/GeoCSV format e.g.

Integer(Boolean)

You can also add custom string representations for TRUE/FALSE (for example a localized "yes"/"no" value).

Column type override

Column types are automatically determined (by an initial limited scan of the file for immediate feedback followed by a full scan of the file which happens in a separate thread to not block the GUI and is user-interruptible), the types are exposed to the GUI as combo boxes and the user can override the automatically determined types.

Enhanced CSVT support.

CoordX, CoordY, Point(X/Y), WKT are now recognized as specified in https://giswiki.hsr.ch/GeoCSV

image56

This feature was funded by Stadt Freiburg im Breisgau

This feature was developed by Alessandro Pasotti

Feature: New authentication method for HTTP header based authentication

A new authentication method is available for network requests which that supports user defined HTTP header authentication. Multiple custom headers can be included in these requests.

This is useful in various scenarios, such as when a WMS requires an API key that is to be used in a HTTP header with the header key being X-API-KEY, which can now be included in requests from QGIS to authenticate against the WMS endpoint.

image57

This feature was developed by Tom C

Feature: Expose secondary PostGIS geometry columns as referenced geometries

As discussed in this issue, we have added support for exposing additional geometry columns from the Postgres provider as QgsReferencedGeometry. This allows more efficient interaction with additional geometry columns through the API. For example, in label placement, the additional geometry column can be used instead of the feature geometry. The fields will be represented as WKT [CRS User-Friendly Identifier] in the attribute table.

This can be used in expressions and in the label placement properties tab where you can link the label placement to the second geometry column using the Point property. In the case where you using it for labelling, the second geometry column will be updated automatically if you use the move tool and the columnt type is Geometry. If the column type is text, you could also use that as a second geometry by doing e.g.

geom_from_wkt("my wkt string field")

In this case however, the column will be read only.

So e.g. now in expressions if you have secondary geometry column you can do:

buffer("my_second_geom_column", 10)

and it will work.

⚠️

Warning

This changes the behavior of existing projects.

image58

This feature was funded by OPENGIS.ch

This feature was developed by Matthias Kuhn, OPENGIS.ch

QGIS Server

Feature: Allow better control of the response flow chain from server filters

New filters allow control of the call chain by implementing new filter callbacks that allow returning a control value for stopping propagation. This allows for the better control of streamed data and response flow.

  • Deprecate bool QgsFilter::onRequestReady(), bool QgsFilter::onSendResponse(), bool QgsFilter::onResponseComplete()
  • Add new methods bool QgsFilter::onRequestReady(), bool QgsFilter::onSendResponse(), bool QgsFilter::onResponseComplete() which return boolean values for controlling data flow
  • Handle flow control in QgsFilterResponseDecorator::flush()

This feature was developed by David Marteau

Notable Fixes

Bug fixes by Alessandro Pasotti

Bug TitleURL issues.qgis.org (if reported)URL Commit (Github)3.22 backport commit (GitHub)
Wrong raster projection on HIDPI screens#46882PR #46931TODO
Data Source Manager title not translatable#46929PR #46932TODO
QGIS 3.22 - Identical map names in print composer#46927Works for me
Bold and italic attributes of labels that reinitialize#46896Works for me
NameError: name 'QGISAPP' is not defined when using stop_app()#46883Works for me on Linux/master, might be windows only
Virtual layer not loaded correctly after re-opening a project#46834PR #46938TODO
QGIS crashes while calling readLayerXml()#46741Works for me
Crash when changing orientation of page in layout#46575PR #46972TODO
"sort" funcionality of attributes table sort numeric fields as text#34935PR #47035TODO
OAPIF: api-key not included when requesting /collections endpoint#46535PR #47145TODO
XML notation if missing from tooltips in vector file writer dialog#46508PR #47148TODO
Ignore out of range option in interpolated symbol renderer creates artifacts if start value is out of range#46362PR #47174TODO
start width > end width is ignored when using the "exact" color interpolation method#46371PR #47195TODO
QGIS Layouts: using "Data defined override" for HTML Source URL not working#34395works for me (closed - not a bug)
(Un)force hide form in relation widget#47226PR #47245TODO
Oauth2 authentication protocol does not honors the defined port number in redirect URL in QGIS 3.22.1#46354works for me (left open)
HTML/String-ish QByteArray as result of expression function breaks expression preview display#46174PR #47229TODO
Raster layer exported to GeoPackage with the character 'ß' in the name is not immediately loaded in the project#45965works for me (closed)
Layout Attribute Table sorting does not work in Print Layouts when column name has spaces#43744PR #47249TODO
Incorrect scale range legend after applying logarithmic graduated symbology to a vector layer#45454PR #47259Risky?
fix server crashunreportedPR #47271TODO
Load QGIS project from command line from a PostgreSQL project#47270PR #47272TODO
Aggregate function with filter doesn't work in layout manager#45552Works for me (closed)
Value map widget: "value"/"description" inconsistency when table added to print layouts#41798PR #47300TODO
Missing entries in attributetable in layout with atlas at page break#44086PR #47303TODO
Server OAPIF: bbox filter isn't working if data source CRS is not EPSG:4326/WGS84#47302PR #47318TODO
Drag & Drop designer control visibility by expression with field IS NOT NULL doesn't work if the field is configured with html#47363PR #47432Risky?

These bugfixes were funded by QGIS.ORG (through donations and sustaining memberships)

Bugs fixed by Alessandro Pasotti

Bug fixes by Sandro Santilli

Bug TitleURL issues.qgis.org (if reported)URL Commit (Github)3.22 backport commit (GitHub)
DistanceWithin algorithm failing with PostgreSQL provider#45352PR #46971PR #47076
GH_WORKSPACE -> QGIS_WORKSPACEPR #47060
Improve documentation about running testsPR #47057
Use variables to set postgresql connection config in authmanager testPR #47059
Re-use possibly cached postgis_version from pgsql description methodPR #47393PR #47401
Trust primary key of layers setup by DBManager TopoViewer plugin#47389PR #47390PR #47403
Improved debugging output in QgsPostgresConn classPR #47396

These bugfixes were funded by QGIS.ORG (through donations and sustaining memberships)

Bugs fixed by Sandro Santilli

Bug fixes by Even Rouault

Bug TitleURL issues.qgis.org (if reported)URL Commit (Github)3.22 backport commit (GitHub)
QGIS 3.21.0: preset transform required "nehpgn.gsb" but downloads "nehpgn.tif" which does not work#45470PR #46918PR #46952
Raster layer misaligns when bbox bigger than projected raster layer#34518PR #46939PR #46956
Filter for WFS layer: The "Tables" button is missing#46887Not a bug
Something simpler than SQL to filter a WFS layer#46888PR #47056PR #47132
renaming/deleting columns takes a lot of time on large vectors#47012GDAL PR 5193GDAL PR 5204
Opening a Vector Geopackage in QGIS alters its file even when no changes are done by user#23991PR #47098PR #47301
MapInfo CRS not correctly recognizedGDAL issue #5217PR #47149PR #47157
Crash exporting dxf using "Symbol layer symbology"#46245PR #47277PR #47297

These bugfixes were funded by QGIS.ORG (through donations and sustaining memberships)

Bugs fixed by Even Rouault

Bug fixes by Denis Rouzaud

Bug TitleURL issues.qgis.org (if reported)URL Commit (Github)3.22 backport commit (GitHub)
Trying to add GPKG from data source manager crashes QGIS master#46463PR #46928not relevant
Display name in layer properties is not automatically filled#28353PR #47016
Fixes to QgsGeometry::addPart + new test casesunreportedPR #47009

These bugfixes were funded by QGIS.ORG (through donations and sustaining memberships)

Bugs fixed by Denis Rouzaud

Bug fixes by Alex Bruy

Bug TitleURL issues.qgis.org (if reported)URL Commit (Github)3.22 backport commit (GitHub)
Layout picture: data-defined svg parameters should be disabled for incompatible pictures#26524PR #46976
TypeError in MetaSearch when adding WFS data#46135PR #46993PR #47003
Split Vector Layer algorithm does not export both null and empty values#38105PR #46997PR #47030
data source manager not opening with correct sub menu for point cloud datasources#42881PR #46998PR #47002
SLD import doesn't recognize html enconding in ttf font references#27263PR #46975PR #47040
Error opening data loader dialog from MetaSearch#40490Works for me
Display name in layer properties is not automatically filled#28353PR #46978
No way to add mbtiles file-based MVT package except drag and drop#36449PR #47028PR #47068
"GDAL rasterize overwrite with attribute" does not refresh/reload output#45729PR #47055PR #47105
Delete Column in Matrix Parameter in Graphic Modeler not Working#45694PR #47064PR #47067
Wrong signature of the QgsProcessingParameterMeshDatasetGroups when exporting to PythonunreportedPR #47152PR #47156
Error message when GRASS tools cannot be run is (now) wrong#46052PR #47163
"Ignore invalid input features" processing setting location is misleading#42557PR #47163
Inconsistent number of decimal places in Identify tool#27929PR #47173
qgis_process is not showing algorithm providers installed via a python plugin#41120PR #47258PR #47263
Unable to delete files .shp and .dbf using python code (removeMapLayers, deleteShapeFile)#39428Works for me
QgsProcessingParameterFile extension option#45633Not a bug
Make the labels "edit rule" widget a real dialog with buttons#36761PR #47305
Edit form python editor tabs/spaces confusion#46988PR #47345PR #47352
Error when making buffer from empty layer with 'Dissolve result' option checked#46396PR #47348PR #47384
QGIS does not replace commas in layer names when exporting to DXF (so is incompatible with AutoCAD)#47381PR #47418PR #47430

These bugfixes were funded by QGIS.ORG (through donations and sustaining memberships)

Bugs fixed by Alex Bruy

Bug fixes by Paul Blottiere

Bug TitleURL issues.qgis.org (if reported)URL Commit (Github)3.22 backport commit (GitHub)
Fixes WFS EXP_FILTER parsing in GetFeature requestmailing listPR #47029Too risky
Fix output filename when a raster is saved in a format without extensionunreportedPR #46992TODO
WFS GetFeature document and exceptionsunreportedPR #47198TODO
Exluding a print layout in project propteries -> server do not avoid that a GetPrint request can be done for that layout#46140PR #47199TODO
Server: Can't enable WFS3 API update endpoint (PUT/PATCH) on layers without geometry#46119Works for me

These bugfixes were funded by QGIS.ORG (through donations and sustaining memberships)

Bugs fixed by Pau Blottiere

Bug fixes by Matthias Kuhn

Bug TitleURL issues.qgis.org (if reported)URL Commit (Github)3.22 backport commit (GitHub)
Fix HTTP Post with MultiPart#46989PR #47006not needed

These bugfixes were funded by QGIS.ORG (through donations and sustaining memberships)

Bugs fixed by Matthias Kuhn

Bug fixes by Nyall Dawson

Bug TitleURL issues.qgis.org (if reported)URL Commit (Github)3.22 backport commit (GitHub)
Add .tsv extension to delimited text supported files filterreported on youtube screencastPR #47181pending
Fix line anchor placements are reversed for labels which sit below linesunreportedPR #47181PR #47181
Fix incorrect return code from QgsProcessingModelAlgorithm::fromFile when file does not existunreportedPR #47161PR #47162
Fix many georeferencer regressionsmultipleunreportedpending
Avoid some unwanted "unhandled exception" message boxes which can pop up while moving the mousereported on youtube screencastPR #47138PR #47154
Don't use custom palette in crash handler dialog, this results in unreadable text on dark themes#47065PR #47110PR #47136
Don't slightly colorise the icons for selected items in lists#47065PR #47133not suitable
Fix python exception raised after running in-place algorithm which requires no parametersreported on youtube screencastPR #47108PR #47130
Fix labelling shown for features out of range of temporal controller dates#45160PR #47119PR #47126
Fix line dependent orientation rendering of curved labels#45051PR #47118PR #47137
When processing is initialized in external scripts, ensure the GRASS, SAGA and OTB providers are included by default#45935PR #47114PR #47121
Show descriptive error when label rotation tool cannot be used because of invalid expressions#47091PR #47112not suitable
QgsRasterDataProvider.block() returns invalid QgsRasterBlock if requested block size exceeds a certain threshold#47097PR #47106PR #47129
Fix missing icons for array field types#47078PR #47086not suitable
Use correct approach to unset data defined field for label position when auxiliary column is removed#46403PR #47085PR #47088
Fix atlas sorting with complex field names#40332PR #47083PR #47103
improve field handling when converting to rule-based#46459PR #47081PR #47104
Fix 'Save all Styles/Save current Style' only appears after close/reopen the layer properties window#46596PR #47080not suitable
Fix readability of text when using dark themes#47065PR #47071PR #47074
Fix sqlite errors on startup caused by default style database import logicunreportedPR #47070not suitable
Fix color widgets incorrectly change colors when mouse is hovered over widgetunreportedPR #47069PR #47077
Avoid crs definition errors when closing options dialog#47014PR #47061n/a
Fix duplicate shortcut registered warning on startupunreportedPR #46983not suitable
Fix scroll wheel events get "stuck" when scrolling to bottom of areasunreportedPR #46958PR #46987
Flag a lot of situations where ballpark transforms are appropriate so warnings are not shown#45621PR #46957PR #46961
Fix crashes when saving layer styles#46954PR #46955not suitable
Fix broken merge features toolunreportedPR #46924n/a
[mssql] Fix provider on case-sensitive database locales#46907PR #46923PR #46949
[mssql] Fix inserting features when pk attribute name contains special chars#42290PR #46876PR #46903

These bugfixes were funded by QGIS.ORG (through donations and sustaining memberships)

Bugs fixed by Nyall Dawson

Bug fixes by Damiano Lombardi

Bug TitleURL issues.qgis.org (if reported)URL Commit (Github)3.22 backport commit (GitHub)
Fix #47089 wrong rotation point for rotate label tool preview#47089PR #47124

These bugfixes were funded by QGIS.ORG (through donations and sustaining memberships)

Bugs fixed by Damiano Lombardi