QGIS Plugin: Remote DB

The Remote DB plugin for QGIS allows users to establish SSH tunnels to remote database servers, which can then be used for querying or other database operations within QGIS.

Usage

1. Install the remote_db plugin in QGIS.
2. Open the plugin menu and click "Add Connection".
3. Enter a name for the connection and fill in the required connection parameters such as host, ssh_port, remote_port, local_port, username, and password.
4. Click "OK" to save the connection.
5. To connect to the remote machine, select the connection from the list of connections and click the "Connect" button.
6. Once the connection is established, you can access the remote database through the forwarded local port.

Note that it is the responsibility of the user to manage their local ports, ensuring that different database connections in their QGIS browser use different local ports.

Add a new connection

Let's say you want to connect to a remote PostgreSQL database server with the following connection parameters:

• Host: example.com
• SSH port: 22
• PostgeSQL service port: 5432 , this is the port that the database server is listening to.
• Local port: 5433 , this is the local port to which the remote port will be forwarded. In your local machine, you can access the remote DB server in this port.
• Username: john_doe , a user on the remote machine, with ssh privileges
• Password: my_password , user's password

To set up a connection with the remote_db plugin in QGIS:

1. Open QGIS and go to the "Plugins" menu.
2. Click "remote_db" to open the plugin menu.
3. Click "Add Connection".
4. Enter a name for the connection, e.g. "Example Database". This is just a label for you to known which connection is which.
5. Enter the host name or IP address of the remote server, e.g. example.com.
6. Enter the SSH port number, e.g. 22. Most machines listen for ssh connections in port 22. Server admins may change this setting for security reasons
7. Enter the remote port number, e.g. 5432.
8. Enter the local port number, e.g. 5433. This will forward example.com:5432 to 127.0.0.1:5433
9. Add the Database connection from the QGIS Browser Panel, like you normally would. The host address should be 127.0.0.1 , and the port should be the local_port you selected previously. Attention, YOU are responsible for managing your local ports. If you want to have many ssh connections to different servers open at the same time, you should configure them to use different local ports. You have to make sure that the local ports defined in the plugin's connections match the ports that are specified in QGIS's database connections parameters.
10. Enter the SSH username, e.g. john_doe.
11. Enter the SSH password, e.g. my_password.
12. Click "OK" to save the connection.
13. The new connection should now appear in the list. Click Connect and you are good to go!

Advanced usage

For advanced users, it is possible to edit your connections.json file directly. Click the button 'Open Settings Folder' from the top of the plugin panel. A new window will open within the settings folder. Open connections.json with your prefered text editor and add your connection/s parameters manually. Available parameters are:

Requirements

• QGIS 3.0 or later
• Python 3.6 or later

Issues

This is a new plugin. Although it has been tested in several machines, it is still very likely that bugs may arise, especially in installation. Please report any issues you have in the repository's Issues , or send me an e-mail .I ;ll be more than happy to troubleshoot with you!

Suggestions & pull requests are more than welcome.