Publish data
############


Supported Layers
================

GeoCat Bridge supports the following layer types:

-   Vector layers from any source
-   Raster layers from any source
-   Layer groups

How to publish
==============

In the Bridge dialog, move to the *Publish* section.

.. image:: ./img/publish_section.png

You can select the layers from the list to publish:

.. image:: ./img/publish_layers_list.png


In the *Layer panel*, for each layer you can:

-   Edit the metadata (see :ref:`MetadataEditing`)

-   Select the attributes to publish as part of the map service.
    Attributes can only be selected for vector data.

.. image:: ./img/publish_metadata.png

.. image:: ./img/publish_fields.png


When you have finished configuring the properties for all map layers, select the destinations server(s) that you want to use.

You can publish your layers to a geodata server, or their metadata to a metadata server, or both. Those servers must be selected from the two available drop-down lists. Servers in this list are added using the *Servers* section on the Bridge dialog. See :ref:`ServerConnections` for more information about how to add new servers.

When a data or metadata server is selected and there are issues connecting to it, the server
box appears framed in a red box.

.. image:: ./img/publish_server_error.png

Once you have selected what to publish and the destination servers, click
on the *Publish* button to start the publishing process. During this
process, a progress bar is shown to indicate the status of the
publication process:

.. image:: ./img/publish_layers_progress.png

When the publication process is finished, a summary of the result is
shown:

.. image:: ./img/publish_layers_report.png

If you have already uploaded your data and only want to update the symbology of your server layers without uploading layer data again, check the *Only symbology* option. The styles of the selected layers willbe published, but no layer data will be uploaded.

When you are uploading a large number of layers, or your layers are large, the publishing process might take time. If you want to continue working with QGIS while layer data is uploaded, you can click the *Publish on background* button instead of the *Publish* one. The Bridge will close and you will be able to use QGIS normally. Once the publishing process is finished, the summary dialog will be shown.

View published layers on server(s)
==================================


The context menu in the layers list provides a quick access to view the
published data on the server(s):

.. image:: ./img/publish_layers_context_menu.png

-   *View metadata*: If the metadata is already published in a catalogue
    server, this option opens a browser to show the metadata from the
    server.

.. image:: ./img/preview_gnmetadata.png

-   *View WMS layer*: Opens up a layer preview page for the selected map
    server with the selected layer.
-   *View all WMS layers*: Opens up a layer preview page for the
    selected map server with all published layer in the map project
    (MXD).

.. image:: ./img/preview_layers.png


Unpublish data and metadata
===========================

Remove data and metadata all layers
***********************************

|remove| removes both the metadata and map data of all
selected layers from the publishing server(s).

.. |remove| image:: ./img/remove.png

.. image:: ./img/remove_all.png

.. tip:

	When removing data from GeoServer, Bridge does not remove the spatial
	data files, such as Shapefile, GeoPackage and GeoTIFF. GeoServer does
	not allow to remove these files through the REST API. When publishing to
	GeoServer with PostGIS, Bridge will not remove the data tables from
	PostGIS.


Remove data and metadata individual layers
******************************************

If you want to withdraw only metadata or map data for a specific layer,
use the context menu in the layers list.

-   *Unpublish metadata*: remove the metadata from the selected
    catalogue server.
-   *Unpublish data*: remove the map data from the selected map server.

.. image:: ./img/publish_layers_unpublish_data.png

Export files
************

To export your files locally, use the offline export options in Bridge.
The offline export makes it possible to export the metadata and
symbology in the following formats:

-   SLD (symbology)
-   Geostyler (symbology)
-   MapboxGL (symbology)
-   ISO19319-XML (metadata)

.. image:: ./img/offline_export.png

Select a folder and the corresponding files will be created in it for
all the layers currently selected when you click on the Publish button