Whenever you start QGIS you basically do it because?
Right, because you need to do GIS work. Ah, how I love rhetorical questions to start a post.
And most of the time one continues to work on a QGIS project which he has prepared before. For me 99% of the time, I start QGIS, move the mouse to the top left over “Project” go to “Recent Projects” and select the one I want. If I am lucky my hand is stable enough to hover “Recent Projects” and not “New From Template” which I actually never use.
No longer!
At OPENGIS.ch we just introduced a nice “Welcome Page” to QGIS which lists the recently used projects. With a screenshot next to it!
That’s how my QGIS looks at start right now:
Screenshot from 2015-08-18 21-01-13
Instead of the filename it will show the project title if one is defined.
And you get some recent information about the QGIS project just next to it.
I would never want to miss this feature again.
… Coming soon to a QGIS near you …

Categories: QGIS

13 Comments

Stefan · 2015-08-19 at 07:34

Nice feature. That’s the power of open source SW to follow closely the needs of the users.
BTW: Can you point to some explanations what QGIS project templates are and how they can be generated?

    Matthias Kuhn · 2015-08-19 at 13:44

    No idea, but if you find out, please let us know 🙂

Kostas · 2015-08-19 at 12:10

Hello Matthias,
Thanks for you amazing work.
I got one question for you regarding this welcome page feature. How would the project screenshot affect the loading speed of qgis?
If there is a way, the most optimal (I think) would be to create a small snapshot every time the project is closing and then the software could use this snapshot, instead of creating a new snapshot every time qgis is loading.

Nelson Silva · 2015-08-19 at 13:10

Nice work Matthias 🙂
You will share a small explanatory tutorial?
Regards

    Matthias Kuhn · 2015-08-21 at 15:38

    Hi,
    I think it should be completely self-explanatory, but I’ll be happy to answer questions.

Matthias Kuhn · 2015-08-19 at 13:15

Hi Kostas, that’s exactly how it works, whenever you save the project a sample from the mapcanvas is taken. No extra rendering, no performance penalty.

Régis Haubourg · 2015-08-20 at 11:42

Nice! first use here on osgeo4w nightly. Couldn’t find a way to close the panel, and QGIS news and recent Project remain empty even after opening a project and reopening QGIS. Screenshot is saved in my profile though. Cheers
Régis

    Matthias Kuhn · 2015-08-21 at 15:41

    Hi Régis,
    The panel will be closed when either the first layer is added or a new project created.
    I think the entries are saved in the registry on Windows?
    On linux I have a QGIS2.conf file with entries in the following format:
    recentProjects\1\title=/home/mku/Documents/qgep_de.qgs
    recentProjects\1\path=/home/mku/Documents/qgep_de.qgs
    recentProjects\1\previewImage=/home/mku/.qgis2///previewImages/32cba61c22af5fca3c7cdf262ad6e853.png
    Can you check if similar entries are generated in the appropriate Windows-Format?

underdark · 2015-08-27 at 19:59

Very nice work! I wonder if it’s also possible to show this screen when the user closes a project by clicking the new project button. It would be a convenient way to swap to previously opened projects.

    Matthias Kuhn · 2015-08-28 at 15:51

    It would be very nice to have the possibility to switch back to the welcome screen.
    I fear that it could be confusing to connect this to the “New Project” button. But at the same time I cannot see a better approach (adding yet another button to the cluttered toolbars may not be the best solution)

SLM66 · 2015-09-04 at 13:58

It’s a nice job. But how can i get this ? It’s a plugin you created ? How can i hve this on my qgis ?

    Matthias Kuhn · 2015-09-08 at 08:24

    Hi, it’s core functionality which is currently in testing stage. It is included in any recent “development” (qgis-dev) version. It will be included in QGIS 2.12 which will be released later this autumn. So no need to manually install something, just wait for it to appear at your place.

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