Publish a street-trees map

Prepare the project folder

Create one folder for the project and its data:

street-trees/
+-- street-trees.qgs
`-- trees.geojson

Then, in QGIS:

1. Make trees.geojson the layer that people will maintain.
2. Set its display field to the field that names a tree.
3. Style the layer with a categorised renderer on species. Groundwork draws the map in these colours, and your team can filter by species from the legend.
4. Pan and zoom the canvas to the area that the map must open on.
5. Save the project as street-trees.qgs, in the .qgs format, beside the GeoJSON file.

Put the folder in Dropbox

Copy the full street-trees folder into Dropbox. Keep the .qgs file and the .geojson file together. Use a private Dropbox folder, and add each editor to it as a member.

If your team only views the map, a public folder link is enough. But with a public folder link, Groundwork cannot save edits to the folder.

Create the map in Groundwork

1. Open Groundwork.
2. Click the map name at the top of the right-hand panel.
3. Choose Create new map.
4. On the page that opens, under Or connect your own data, choose Dropbox.
5. If Groundwork asks you to sign in, sign in.
6. Choose street-trees.qgs from the folder.

The map opens on the view that you saved with the project, with your QGIS styling. Groundwork names the map after the project file, in a tidier form: Street trees. To change the name, use Rename in the settings menu.

Check what opened

1. Make sure that the map shows the tree points, and that the Data panel lists the same features.
2. Open a feature. Make sure that its title shows the species from the display field that you set.

If a layer is missing, or the styling or the titles are wrong, fix the QGIS project first. Then reload the map. Prepare data in QGIS has the detailed checks.

Configure the shared view

1. Use the layer menu to set the fields that people get.
2. Choose the sort order.
3. Move the map to the area that it must open on.

To open the shared map on a subset, click values in the legend. Or choose fields from the Filter list, and tick values in them. If you choose a field and tick no values, the link includes that filter button, but the map shows all the features. Configure the map gives the details of each setting.

Copy the share link

1. Open the settings menu in the map header.
2. Press Share.
3. If recipients need the editing tools and the folder gives them access, tick Require sign-in to open. For a view-only map, do not tick it.
4. Copy the link.

Check it, then send it

Open the copied link in a private browsing window. The map opens as a recipient sees it. If you required sign-in, the Dropbox sign-in screen shows first. Then send the link. The User Guide shows your team what to do next.