Publishing your maps

Publishing a map means uploading your QGIS project and its data to the instance's file space. You can do it from QGIS with the LizPack Publisher plugin, or from the customer area with the file manager, as below.

1. On the instance page, click Files. The file manager opens at the Root of the space.
2. Create a folder for the project with the New folder button in the toolbar, then open it.
3. Click Send: the Send window offers Upload a folder, to send the project folder in one go, or Upload files. You can also drag files or folders straight into the list.
4. The progress window shows the transfer, then the Server processing step, which checks the projects. Close it when it shows Done.

The project must be saved in .qgs format and come with its Lizmap configuration file (see the next page). Its data travels with it: files stored in the same folder and referenced by relative paths, or tables in the instance's database. For large volumes, the database is better: rendering is faster and several projects can read the same table without copying it.

What the upload checks

Every .qgs project is examined on arrival. Two defects get it refused: PostgreSQL connections that do not target this instance's database (host, database, port, user and password shown on the instance page), and layers that do not all share the same coordinate system, basemaps aside. The window is then titled Upload incomplete and lists, under Details, the layers and values at fault. The other files of the upload are saved.

Other defects do not prevent publication. The window says Publié and names the layers to keep an eye on, those that will make the map slow.

You have nothing to change in the database connections. Your project keeps the database's public address, the one on the instance page; on upload we route it through the instance's internal network, and a project downloaded from Files gets the public address back, ready to reopen in QGIS.

The portal's home page groups projects by Lizmap repository. If an uploaded project does not appear there, check that it has its configuration file, then, in the Lizmap administration, that its folder is declared as a repository and that your account is allowed to see it.

A published project is made of two files side by side: the QGIS project, for example commune.qgs, and its Lizmap configuration, commune.qgs.cfg. The second one says how the map behaves online: layers visible at first, tools offered to visitors, initial extent, basemaps.

This file is produced in QGIS with the Lizmap plugin, when you set up the web map. That plugin is not ours; its documentation describes every option.

After any change in QGIS or in the Lizmap plugin, upload both files together. The file manager reports Files already exist; Replace overwrites the old version, with no way back.

If your project shows layers from your LizPack GeoServer space, we adjust the configuration on upload: those layers go through your instance instead of being called directly by the browser, so your GeoServer credentials never reach your visitors.

Every published project is also served through the standard protocols of online mapping. Other software can display or query your layers without copying the data.

A project's address always follows the same pattern: https://your-name.lizpack.com/index.php/lizmap/service?repository=repository&project=project, where repository is the Lizmap repository and project the file name without .qgs. In QGIS, add it as a WMS/WMTS or WFS connection. The QGIS Server card on the instance page recalls the instance's address and the announced Protocols.

A public project can be used without credentials. A restricted project requires an account on your portal, with the matching rights.

The validator examines a QGIS project without publishing it: nothing is saved, nothing goes online. It reads the project and queries the tables it uses in the instance's database. Use it before an upload, or to understand why a map already published displays badly.

1. In the instance's file manager (Files on its page), open More actions, the three dots of the action bar, then choose Validate project.
2. If the open folder contains a single .qgs project, the analysis starts right away. Otherwise the Project validation page asks Which project should be analyzed?: pick a project from the instance, or drop a .qgs file from your computer.
3. Wait a few seconds while the analysis runs: the page shows the current step.

Only .qgs files are accepted. A .qgz project analysed from your computer must first be saved again in .qgs format in QGIS.

Reading the report

If the project's connections do not target the instance's database, a banner says so at the top: Ce projet serait refusé au dépôt, with the list of faulty connections. A row of filters follows: All, then one filter per severity with its number of findings. Clicking a filter shows only that severity; clicking it again, or All, brings back the full list.

Findings of the same kind are gathered in a single section: the table of affected layers, what was found for each, the Impact and the Solution to apply in QGIS or in the database. Beyond five layers, a link under the list shows the others. When the solution is a command, Copy copies it, for all layers at once. Fix the Blocking sections first, save the project, then run the analysis again. When nothing is left, the page shows No issues detected.

Export as CSV and Export as JSON save the report to your computer. The CSV opens in a spreadsheet; attach it to your message if you write to support about this project. Back to files takes you back to the file manager.