Most of the settings which QGIS offers are directly supported by QField without any extra effort.

Style

All style settings from QGIS are directly supported by QField. This includes all renderer types like graduated, categorized, rule based, 2.5D as well as data defined symbology.

Display Expression

In QField, objects are identified with a name. The expression to generate this name can be defined by opening the attribute table in QGIS and switching to the form view. Choose the appropriate field or an expression in the list there. Starting from QGIS 3, this can be done directly from the Vector Layer Properties --> Display{.interpreted-text role="menuselection"} page.

The display expression is also used to search in layers.

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The display expression will be used to represent features with an identification string throughout QField.

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Read only, non-identifiable and searchable layers

Some layers in a project are just there for pure visual purpose. Such layers should not show up when a user taps somewhere to identify objects.

Some other layers serve as source of information and shouldn\'t be modified by the user. It is possible to protect layers from editing attributes or adding and deleting features.

It is also possible to configure which layers are searchable.

To configure identify, readonly and searchable behavior, go to the Project --> Project Properties --> Identify Layers{.interpreted-text role="menuselection"} page and activate the checkboxes to match your desired behavior.

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Configuration of layers that will not be identifiable, not modifiable and/or not searchable.

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Forms and Fields

QField creates forms similar to, but not equal to QGIS.

Suppress Feature Form

The setting suppress feature form is directly applied to the QField form.

Field widget

The field widgets from QGIS are supported on a best effort basis.

+---------------+-------------+---------------------------------------+ | Field type | Support | Notes | +===============+=============+=======================================+ | Text Edit | [✔]{.yay} | - HTML is not supported | | | | - Numerical input is enforced based | | | | on the type. | +---------------+-------------+---------------------------------------+ | Check Box | [✔]{.yay} | | +---------------+-------------+---------------------------------------+ | Value Map | [✔]{.yay} | | +---------------+-------------+---------------------------------------+ | Hidden | [✔]{.yay} | | +---------------+-------------+---------------------------------------+ | External | [\~]{. | This field is combined with camera | | Resource | moreorless} | integration. Only images can be | | | | viewed so far. | | | | old_make_it_grow{.interpreted-text | | | | role="ref"} | +---------------+-------------+---------------------------------------+ | Date Time | [✔]{.yay} | | +---------------+-------------+---------------------------------------+ | Relation | [✔]{.yay} | | | Reference | | | +---------------+-------------+---------------------------------------+ | Relation | [✔]{.yay} | | | Widget | | | +---------------+-------------+---------------------------------------+ | Others | [✘]{.nay} | old_make_it_grow{.interpreted-text | | | | role="ref"} | +---------------+-------------+---------------------------------------+

Relation Widget

For more information refer to the relations chapter of the official QGIS Documentation.

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The relation widget shows all the referencing child features in a list. It\'s possible to add, delete and open them.

The visual identification of the list entries are done a Display Expression on the child layer.

Key handling

Since the parents primary keys are used as foreign keys on the referencing child features, these primary keys must be save to use even after the synchronization back to the original data. Therefore we recommend to use stable values such as UUIDs for primary keys.

Child features can be added before the parent is finaly saved - means while adding a parent. But it\'s blocked if there is no valid primary key on the parent or the constraints are violated. In case the adding of the parent feature is canceled after there have been some childs added already, the childs are deleted by cascade.

Many-To-Many relations

On many-to-many relationships, according to the cardinality setting in the QGIS Vector Layer Properties, on adding, deleting or opening an entry in the list effects directly the child layer (on direct cardinality) or the linking table (on many-to-one cardinality).

The second case is usually used when there are additional relation information (e.g. percentage) in the linking table.

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In case of the many-to-one cardinality on many-to-many relations the Display Expression needs to be set on the linking table.

External Resource (photo settings)

The widget type \"Attachement\" is used to store the path to collected photos.

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The path should be set to relative. Means the pictures are stored then in a sub-directory of the project, where the link stored in the textfield is pointing to.

In QField the picture is displayed. By clicking the camera symbol the camera is started to update the picture with a new photo.

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On synchronization the sub-directory with the pictures has to be copied as well.

Drag and drop designer forms

Groups and Tabs from Drag and Drop designer forms are supported.

Conditional visibility

Groups can be hidden based on an expression. This is useful when certain attributes are only required under certain conditions. As an example imagine mapping trees. Some of them might have a disease and you have a list of possible deseases. To not clutter the form with many fields, make a group and configure a visibility expression for a group \"diseases\". Add a field \"desease\" with a checkbox. Only when the checkbox is checked, the list of diseases will be available to the user.

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Configuration of a group box that will only be shown if the checkbox \"measures_taken\" is checked.

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Constraints

Attribute fields can have constraints attached. Constraints are expressions that needs to evaluate to True (or 1) in order to be able to save the form. Constraints are configured on a per-field basis and a description can be added that will be shown to the user if a constraint is not satisfied.

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Configuration of a constraint within a range

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Common use cases

You cannot enter an elevation value higher than the highest mountain in this country.

"elevation" < 5000

It is required to fill in an identifier.

"identifier" IS NOT NULL

Default values

Fields can have default values configured. Default values are inserted into the attribute form when digitizing a new feature. They are visible to the user and can be modified as long as the field is editable. They can be based on the geometry or expression variables.

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Configuration of a formatted date as default value

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Additional variables

In QField, there are some additional variables available regarding the current positioning information.

• [position_coordinate]{.title-ref} (Geometry in WGS84!) : Lon, Lat, Altitude as delivered by the sensor. Is also available when the crosshair is not snapped to the sensor.
• [position_timestamp]{.title-ref} (DateTime) : Timestamp of the position information
• [position_direction]{.title-ref} (float) : Direction in degrees from true north.
• [position_ground_speed]{.title-ref} (float) : Groundspeed in meters / second.
• [position_magnetic_variation]{.title-ref} (float) : The angle between the horizontal component of the magnetic field and true north, in degrees. Also known as magnetic declination. A positive value indicates a clockwise direction from true north and a negative value indicates a counter-clockwise direction.
• [position_horizontal_accuracy]{.title-ref} (float) : The horizontal accuracy of the coordinate (in meters).
• [position_vertical_accuracy]{.title-ref} (float) : The vertical accuracy of the coordinate (in meters).
• [position_vertical_speed]{.title-ref} (float) : The value of the vertical speed in meters per second.

Common use cases

Insert positioning information as variable:

@position_horizontal_accuracy

Insert the current date and time:

now()

Insert the length of the digitized line:

length($geometry)

Configure global variables on the device and insert them.

@operator_name

If you want to assign a region code based on the location where a new feature is inserted, you can do so by using an aggregate expression:

aggregate( layer:='regions', aggregate:='max', expression:="code", filter:=intersects( $geometry, geometry( @parent ) ) )

Editable

The editable flag of fields is respected.

Remember last values

QField offers a much more fine-grained control over the last used values and ignores the QGIS setting.

Snapping

While digitizing new features, new points can be snapped to existing geometries.

All configuration can be done in Project --> Snapping Settings (Settings --> Snapping Settings{.interpreted-text role="menuselection"} in QGIS 2.x).

Snapping Types

It is possible to snap new points

• only to nodes of existing geomtries
• only to segments of existing geomtries
• to nodes and segments of existing geomtries

Snapping to layers

It is also possible to only snap to one or a few layers.

Snapping tolerance

The snapping tolerance can be specified in map units or pixels.

In almost any case, the units should be set to pixels. We made good experiences with a tolerance value of 20.

3D Coordinates

GPS devices are capable of measuring the altitude next to the current 2D position on the earth surface. This information can be saved