Its great to see so many people enthusiastic about making maps with their children, as a kid I would love nothing more than making treasure maps, who would have known that I am still doing it *ahem* years on?!

So you have a map and the kids can find their treasure, what could be cooler?…….How about a web map that they can use on their mobile phone or tablet FOR FREE?

Step 1 – Add QGIS Cloud

Okay, I am assuming that you saved your map and that you have it all started up and ready to go….do you remember how we added the OpenLayers plugin?…We are going to do the same with a plugin called QGIS Cloud.

First off, go to the plugins tab and select “Fetch Plugins”.

Look for the QGIS Cloud plugin and then select the “Install plugin” option. You may need to restart your QGIS project, so best save where you are!!

Go to the “manage plugins” option under the plugins tab and ensure that the QGIS Cloud option is turned on.

Once you have turned on the QGIS Cloud option and gone back to the map, you should notice that you now have some new options!! You are now cloud enabled!!

Step 2 Using the Cloud

Now, don’t be afraid, the “cloud” is just a hard drive attached to the internet somewhere. Some companies charge money for storing your data on their hard drives/ servers but the kind guys at QGIS Cloud allow a bit of storage for free, enough to make 20 or 30 treasure maps anyhow!!

What we are going to do now is make this map available on the internet, it will have its own internet address which is based on the user account name you set up in the next step, so think carefully about that name!!

So, first let’s set up an account with QGIS Cloud. Select the “account” tab and the select the “signup” link

Once signed up, you should find the screen changes to show you logged in.

Now we need to send the data in the map to the cloud, to do this, we first set up a new spatial database so that the web map can read the data away from your computer.

We then need to upload the cross to this database

Once done, hit refresh and upload to the cloud!

You will be asked if you want to save changes, hit yes. Note that when you save the map, you must not leave any spaces in the name and also that the name will be the name given to the web map.

Step 3 All Done!!

That’s it!! Select the “Services” tab and then you will find a list of links to your map! Enjoy!!

Just a small note, you can now download Mobile Data Collection for Android (FREE)…once logged in you can view your map(s) easily online and then add more crosses and even find your current location in relation to the cross…..maybe this could form part 3….

Nick D