Tutorial: Collect Open Data from online sources

Instead of downloading the groundwater_monitoring_wells_Coordinates layer we're going to make a connection between QGIS and the GeoNode of MASDAP to load the layer as WFS in our QGIS project.

1. Go back to the QGIS project.

2. Click the Open Data Source Manager button in the toolbar.

3. Choose the GeoNode tab.

4. Click the New button to create a new service connection.

5. In the Create a New GeoNode Connection dialogue type MASDAP as Name and http://www.masdap.mw as URL.

6. Click Test Connection.

If the test is successful you'll see this popup:

If the connection fails, check your internet connection and the URL.

7. Click OK to close the popup.

8. Click OK in the dialogue to close it and the new connection is added.

9. Click the Connect button.

You'll now see the layers on the GeoNode listed.

10. Type groundwater at Filter.

It shows the groundwater_monitoring_wells_Coordinates layer as WMS and WFS Web Service.

WMS (Web Map Services) are rendered pictures of the data. That's useful for quick visualisation of the data. WFS (Web Feature Services) are the vector features that you can further use in analysis in GIS. Here we're going to use the WFS layer.

11. Click the WFS layer and click the Add button. Close the dialogue.

The project should now look like the figure below.

In the next section we're going to export the GeoNode WFS layer to a local GIS vector file.