How to share a QGIS map online as a web map

What GeoDrafter Publish does

GeoDrafter Publish is a plugin for QGIS 3.34 up to QGIS 4 that turns the map you see in a QGIS project into a web map. The map gets a fixed address of its own, ending in geodrafter.app, that you can send to a client, a colleague or a neighbour. They open it in an ordinary web browser and do not need QGIS, an account or any software. The plugin is free and open source (GPL 2.0 or later) and is still experimental, so keep your own copy of the project and data.

This is different from the map tools on the rest of GeoDrafter. The radius, distance and drawing tools run entirely in your browser and nothing you draw is sent anywhere. Publish has to store the map on a server, because that is the only way someone else can open it from a link.

Install the plugin and publish a map

The plugin is not in the official QGIS plugin catalogue yet, so for now it is installed from a ZIP file rather than by searching inside QGIS. Once it is in the catalogue, this guide will be updated.

1. Download the GeoDrafter Publish ZIP file and keep it zipped.
2. In QGIS, open Plugins ▸ Manage and Install Plugins ▸ Install from ZIP, choose the file and click Install Plugin.
3. Open the QGIS project you want to share and set up the map as it should look on the web – which layers are visible, their styles and the order.
4. Start GeoDrafter Publish and publish the visible map, with or without signing in to an account.
5. Copy the link the plugin gives you and send it to the people who should see the map.

What becomes vector data and what becomes tiles

The plugin looks at how each layer is styled. Layers with simple styles are published as vector layers: the web map gets the features themselves, with their exact coordinates, and draws them in the browser, so lines and outlines stay sharp when the viewer zooms in.

Everything else is rendered to image tiles by QGIS itself, using the same rendering engine that draws the map on your screen. That is why the web map looks like your QGIS map even for styles a browser could not reproduce, but those layers are pictures rather than features, and the tiles usually take up more space than vector data. If you are close to the size limit, simplify the styles of large layers or hide layers the web map does not need.

Only data and images are sent. Publish never accepts HTML or JavaScript from users, so what you publish is always shown by GeoDrafter's own map viewer.

With or without an account

You can publish without an account. The map is then public, may be at most 25 MB, keeps one version and is deleted automatically after 30 days. To stop abuse, one internet connection can create at most three maps a day this way. A free account raises the size limit to 50 MB per publication and gives you a dashboard at app.geodrafter.com, but a map on a free account is also public, keeps one version and is deleted after 30 days. Both allow one map at a time.

Accounts have no passwords. You sign in with a link sent to your e-mail address, and the link stops working after 15 minutes. In the dashboard you see your maps and can delete your whole account: choose Delete account, type your e-mail address and confirm. Everything about the account is removed at once, and the map files are removed in the next daily clean-up.

Who can see the map

A public map can be opened by anyone who has the link. Where your account allows it, a map can instead be protected with a password or shown only to invited viewers. Invited viewers are added by e-mail address or by a whole e-mail domain, for example everyone at a client's company; they sign in with a link sent by e-mail, valid for 15 minutes, and stay signed in for 30 days. A password can be tried at most 10 times in 15 minutes from one connection, which makes guessing slow.

To change a map, edit the project in QGIS and publish again. The link stays the same, so people who already have it see the new version.

Privacy, storage and reporting a map

Published maps are stored with Cloudflare in the EU: the files in Cloudflare R2 and the map's details in a Cloudflare D1 database. Login e-mails are sent by Resend from the EU (Ireland). IP addresses are not stored; to limit repeated attempts, a scrambled one-way hash of the address is kept only for the length of the counting window. The full details are in the privacy policy.

Every public map has a "Report this map" link. If you find a map that breaks the law or someone's rights, use it, or write to [email protected], and the map can be removed. You are responsible for what you publish, so only share data you have the right to share.