QGIS plugin: LizPack Publisher

LizPack Publisher is a QGIS Desktop extension that links QGIS to your instances. Without leaving QGIS, you browse an instance's files, open a project stored there, publish the open project to your portal and work in the instance's PostgreSQL/PostGIS database.

Its window has five tabs.

At the bottom of the window, the Journal records every operation. It opens when you click its title, and by itself when an error occurs. Its Copy button puts the whole log on the clipboard: that is what to attach to a request to support.

LizPack Publisher is published in the official QGIS plugin repository. It is installed and updated from QGIS, like any other plugin.

1. In QGIS, open the Plugins menu, then Manage and Install Plugins.
2. In the All tab, search for LizPack.
3. Select LizPack Publisher and install it.
4. Open the plugin with its icon in the Web toolbar, or from the Web menu, LizPack submenu.

QGIS 3.16 or later is required. The plugin adds no library to your QGIS installation.

The Marketplace's QGIS plugins page presents the plugin, but its button reads Coming soon: there is no file to download there. Go through QGIS.

The plugin uses the credentials of your customer area: your email address and your password. Signing in takes two steps, in the Sign in tab.

1. Enter your email and password, then click Sign in. Tick Se souvenir de mes identifiants so you no longer have to type them: the password is handed to the QGIS authentication store, which encrypts it.
2. Choose an instance in the list. Each one shows its state, for example In progress or Stopped.
3. Click Connecter à l'instance. The Instance connectée notice confirms the connection, and the Projects tab shows the instance's files.

Only a started instance accepts the connection: a stopped (Stopped) instance must first be started from Instances, and an instance suspended for its subscription is unlocked by renewing the subscription. A Suspendue (quota) instance stays reachable so you can free space in its database, but publishing, file uploads and imports are refused.

Once you are connected, and if your plan gives access to the database, the plugin adds to QGIS a PostgreSQL connection named LizPack followed by the instance name. It shows up in the QGIS Browser after a right-click on PostgreSQL, then Refresh. Déconnexion removes it.

The database credentials, the quota and your permissions are read when you connect. After a change made in the customer area, the Rafraichir button reads them again without signing you out.

A team's instances

If you are a member of a team, an Espace list appears above the instances: My account, then each owner who invited you, with your role. There you work with the rights they gave you. Without the Manage the files right, the Projects tab shows no files and the Upload tab stays greyed out; the PostGIS tab remains available.

The Projects tab opens on the Gestionnaire de fichiers: the instance's folder tree, the same as in its file manager in the customer area. A double-click enters a folder, ← Retour goes up one level.

Below the list, icons act on the folder shown; their name appears on hover: New folder, Uploader des fichiers ici, Uploader un dossier ici, Supprimer la sélection, Rename. The right-click menu offers the same actions, plus Copy and Cut, then Paste or Déplacer ici in the target folder. Ctrl+click selects several items; deleting always asks for confirmation.

Opening a project in QGIS

Select a .qgs or .qgz file and click Open, or double-click it. The plugin asks where to save it on your computer, then downloads the project's whole folder, subfolders included, so that its relative paths stay valid. QGIS then opens the project, and that folder becomes your working directory.

On the way, the project's PostGIS layers are reconnected to the database address reachable from your computer, and the database password is handed to the QGIS authentication store. For a project at the root of the instance, opening it means downloading the whole instance: the plugin asks for confirmation first.

The Upload tab

The Upload tab sends a whole folder: choose it in Dossier local, then click Uploader le dossier. It always lands at the root of the instance, under its own name. To put it elsewhere, use Uploader un dossier ici from the folder you want instead.

Publishing is done in the Projects tab, in the Publier vers Lizmap block. It sends the project open in QGIS, whether it comes from the instance or from your computer.

1. Open or save your project in QGIS. Its name appears next to Projet actif.
2. In the file list, go to the target folder. The Destination field suggests that folder followed by your project's name. Clicking a file in the list replaces it with that file.
3. Optional: click Validate project. The server examines the project without publishing anything, and its report opens in the Valider un projet tab.
4. Click Publier vers Lizmap. The plugin saves the project, then sends it in one go.

The project travels with its Lizmap configuration file (.qgs.cfg) if it sits next to it and, for a .qgs project, with the data files it points to through a relative path; a shapefile travels with its companion files. PostGIS connections are rewritten to the internal address of the instance's database. The portal picks up the new version straight away.

What does not travel: data pointed to by an absolute path, and the data of a .qgz project, which goes alone with its configuration. Save the project as .qgs with relative paths, or send its data separately.

Checks before sending

The server refuses a project in only two cases: layers in different projections, and PostgreSQL connections that do not lead to the instance's database. For projections, the plugin offers to reproject file layers before sending; a copy is created next to each file, the originals stay untouched. A PostGIS layer, on the other hand, is reprojected in the database.

The plugin also warns you from three filled print layouts upwards: the server reads them all every time it opens the project, a few seconds each, and the map may stop loading. The Valider un projet report sorts the other findings by severity; choose a line to read its consequence and its fix. They degrade the map without preventing publication. The same check exists in the customer area: see Publishing a project.

The PostGIS tab works directly in the PostgreSQL/PostGIS database of the connected instance. It needs access to the database, which is reserved for the Pro plan and above; in a team's account, you also need the View the databases right. Without that access, the tab shows PostGIS non disponible pour cette instance.

Adding a table as a layer

Charger les tables lists the database's tables and views, with their schema, geometry column and SRID. Double-click a table, or select it and click Ajouter à QGIS: it arrives in the project as a layer. A table without geometry arrives as an attribute table.

Importing a layer into the database

The Importer une couche dans PostGIS block copies a vector layer of the project into the database. Choose the Couche QGIS, check the suggested Schéma and Table name, then click Importer dans PostGIS. The table list reloads at the end.

Database health

Diagnostiquer la base analyses the database without writing anything to it: missing spatial indexes, tables without a usable primary key, stale statistics, overly detailed polygons. The Correction column says what the plugin can do: Automatique, Sur confirmation or À la main.

Tout optimiser applies only the risk-free fixes, such as an index or statistics. Those that change a table are selected in the list and run with Optimiser la sélection, after a confirmation that spells out their effect. Every fix applied leaves in the log the statement that undoes it. Exporter saves the diagnosis as CSV, or as a replayable SQL script.