GeoNode Django Apps

The user interface of a GeoNode site is built on top of the Django web framework. GeoNode includes a few “apps” (reusable Django modules) to support development of those user interfaces. While these apps have reasonable default configurations, for customized GeoNode sites you will probably want to adjust these apps for your specific needs.

geonode.base - GeoNode core functionality

Stores core functionality used throughout the GeoNode application.

Template Tags

num_ratings <object>

Returns the number of ratings an object has. Example usage:

{% load base_tags %}
{% num_ratings map as num_votes %}

<p>Map votes: {{num_votes}}.</p>

categories

Returns topic categories and the count of objects in each category.

geonode.documents - Document creation and management

Manages uploaded files that can be related to maps. Documents can be any type of file that is included in the ALLOWED_DOCUMENTS_TYPES setting.

settings.py Entries

ALLOWED_DOCUMENT_TYPES

Default: ['doc', 'docx', 'xls', 'xslx', 'pdf', 'zip', 'jpg', 'jpeg', 'tif', 'tiff', 'png', 'gif', 'txt']

A list of acceptable file extensions that can be uploaded to the Documents app.

MAX_DOCUMENT_SIZE

Default: 2

The maximum size (in megabytes) that an upload will be before it gets rejected.

geonode.layers - Layer creation and geospatial data management

This Django app provides support for managing and manipulating single geospatial datasets known as layers.

Models

  • Attribute - Feature attributes for a layer managed by the GeoNode.
  • Layer - A data layer managed by the GeoNode
  • Style - A data layer’s style managed by the GeoNode

Views

  • Creating, viewing, browsing, editing, and deleting layers and their metadata

Template Tags

featured_layers
Returns the 7 newest layers.
layer_thumbnail <layer>
Returns the layer’s thumbnail.

manage.py Commands

importlayers

python manage.py importlayers

Brings a data file or a directory full of data files into a GeoNode site. Layers are added to the Django database, the GeoServer configuration, and the GeoNetwork metadata index.

updatelayers

python manage.py updatelayers

Scan GeoServer for data that has not been added to GeoNode.

geonode.maps - Map creation and geospatial data management

This Django app provides some support for managing and manipulating geospatial datasets. In particular, it provides tools for editing, viewing, and searching metadata for data layers, and for editing, viewing, and searching maps that aggregate data layers to display data about a particular topic.

Models

  • Map - A collection of data layers composed in a particular order to form a map
  • MapLayer - A model that maintains some map-specific information related to a layer, such as the z-indexing order.

Views

The maps app provides views for:

  • Creating, viewing, browsing, editing, and deleting Maps

These operations require the use of GeoServer to manage map rendering, as well as GeoExt to provide interactive editing and previewing of maps and data layers.

There are also some URL mappings in the geonode.maps.urls module for easy inclusion in GeoNode sites.

settings.py Entries

OGC_SERVER

Default: {} (Empty dictionary)

A dictionary of OGC servers and their options. The main server should be listed in the ‘default’ key. If there is no ‘default’ key or if the OGC_SERVER setting does not exist GeoNode will raise an Improperly Configured exception. Below is an example of the OGC_SERVER setting:

OGC_SERVER = {
  'default' : {
      'LOCATION' : 'http://localhost:8080/geoserver/',
      'USER' : 'admin',
      'PASSWORD' : 'geoserver',
  }
}
BACKEND

Default: "geonode.geoserver"

The OGC server backend to use. The backend choices are:

  • 'geonode.geoserver'
BACKEND_WRITE_ENABLED

Default: True

Specifies whether the OGC server can be written to. If False, actions that modify data on the OGC server will not execute.

LOCATION

Default: "http://localhost:8080/geoserver/"

A base URL from which GeoNode can construct OGC service URLs. If using GeoServer you can determine this by visiting the GeoServer administration home page without the /web/ at the end. For example, if your GeoServer administration app is at http://example.com/geoserver/web/, your server’s location is http://example.com/geoserver.

PUBLIC_LOCATION

Default: "http://localhost:8080/geoserver/"

The URL used to in most public requests from GeoNode. This settings allows a user to write to one OGC server (the LOCATION setting) and read from a separate server or the PUBLIC_LOCATION.

USER

Default: 'admin'

The administrative username for the OGC server as a string.

PASSWORD

Default: 'geoserver'

The administrative password for the OGC server as a string.

MAPFISH_PRINT_ENABLED

Default: True

A boolean that represents whether the MapFish printing extension is enabled on the server.

PRINT_NG_ENABLED

Default: True

A boolean that represents whether printing of maps and layers is enabled.

GEONODE_SECURITY_ENABLED

Default: True

A boolean that represents whether GeoNode’s security application is enabled.

GEOGIT_ENABLED

Default: False

A boolean that represents whether the OGC server supports GeoGig datastores.

WMST_ENABLED

Default: False

Not implemented.

WPS_ENABLED

Default: False

Not implemented.

DATASTORE

Default: '' (Empty string)

An optional string that represents the name of a vector datastore that GeoNode uploads are imported into. In order to support vector datastore imports there also needs to be an entry for the datastore in the DATABASES dictionary with the same name. Example:

OGC_SERVER = {
  'default' : {
     'LOCATION' : 'http://localhost:8080/geoserver/',
     'USER' : 'admin',
     'PASSWORD' : 'geoserver',
     'DATASTORE': 'geonode_imports'
  }
}

DATABASES = {
 'default': {
     'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
     'NAME': 'development.db',
 },
 'geonode_imports' : {
     'ENGINE': 'django.contrib.gis.db.backends.postgis',
     'NAME': 'geonode_imports',
     'USER' : 'geonode_user',
     'PASSWORD' : 'a_password',
     'HOST' : 'localhost',
     'PORT' : '5432',
  }
 }
GEOSERVER_CREDENTIALS
Removed in GeoNode 2.0, this value is now specified in the OGC_SERVER settings.
GEOSERVER_BASE_URL
Removed in GeoNode 2.0, this value is now specified in the OGC_SERVER settings.
CATALOGUE

A dict with the following keys:

  • ENGINE: The CSW backend (default is geonode.catalogue.backends.pycsw_local)
  • URL: The FULLY QUALIFIED base URL to the CSW instance for this GeoNode
  • USERNAME: login credentials (if required)
  • PASSWORD: login credentials (if required)

pycsw is the default CSW enabled in GeoNode. pycsw configuration directives are managed in the PYCSW entry.

PYCSW
A dict with pycsw’s configuration. Of note are the sections metadata:main to set CSW server metadata and metadata:inspire to set INSPIRE options. Setting metadata:inspire['enabled'] to true will enable INSPIRE support. Server level configurations can be overridden in the server section. See http://docs.pycsw.org/en/stable/configuration.html for full pycsw configuration details.
SITEURL

Default: 'http://localhost:8000/'

A base URL for use in creating absolute links to Django views.

DEFAULT_MAP_BASE_LAYER
The name of the background layer to include in newly created maps.
DEFAULT_MAP_CENTER

Default: (0, 0)

A 2-tuple with the latitude/longitude coordinates of the center-point to use in newly created maps.

DEFAULT_MAP_ZOOM

Default: 0

The zoom-level to use in newly created maps. This works like the OpenLayers zoom level setting; 0 is at the world extent and each additional level cuts the viewport in half in each direction.

geonode.proxy - Assist JavaScript applications in accessing remote servers

This Django app provides some HTTP proxies for accessing data from remote servers, to overcome restrictions imposed by the same-origin policy used by browsers. This helps the GeoExt applications in a GeoNode site to access various XML documents from OGC-compliant data services.

Views

geonode.proxy.views.proxy
This view forwards requests without authentication to a URL provided in the request, similar to the proxy.cgi script provided by the OpenLayers project.
geonode.proxy.views.geoserver
This view proxies requests to GeoServer. Instead of a URL-encoded URL parameter, the path component of the request is expected to be a path component for GeoServer. Requests to this URL require valid authentication against the Django site, and will use the default OGC_SERVER USER, PASSWORD and LOCATION settings as defined in the maps application.

geonode.search - Provides the GeoNode search functionality.

This Django app provides a fast search functionality to GeoNode.

Views

  • search_api- Builds and executes a search query based on URL parameters and returns matching results in requested format.

geonode.security - GeoNode granular Auth Backend

This app provides an authentication backend for use in assigning permissions to individual objects (maps and layers).

settings.py Entries

LOCKDOWN_GEONODE

Default: False

By default, the GeoNode application allows visitors to view most pages without being authenticated. Set LOCKDOWN_GEONODE = True to require a user to be authenticated before viewing the application.

AUTH_EXEMPT_URLS

Default: () (Empty tuple)

A tuple of URL patterns that the user can visit without being authenticated. This setting has no effect if LOCKDOWN_GEONODE is not True. For example, AUTH_EXEMPT_URLS = ('/maps',) will allow unauthenticated users to browse maps.

Template Tags

geonode_media <media_name>

Accesses entries in MEDIA_LOCATIONS without requiring the view to explicitly add it to the template context. Example usage:

{% include geonode_media %}
{% geonode_media "ext_base" %}
has_obj_perm <user> <obj> <permission>

Checks whether the user has the specified permission on an object.

{% has_obj_perm user obj "app.view_thing" as can_view_thing %}

geonode.people - User account registration and profile management

This app provides functionality related to user accounts and user profiles.

User authentication is based on django-allauth, with some geonode-specific customizations. Users can register to a geonode instance by either creating a new account or by using one of their social providers, such as linkedin, facebook, etc.

User invitations are leveraged via `django-invitations`_.

Adding authentication with a social provider

Configuring geonode user authentication with a social provider is a multi-step process:

  • Create an application on the provider’s developer site. For example, for

linkedin:

  • Go to https://developer.linkedin.com/apps and select Create Application
  • Proceed to create an application, referring to django-allauth’s documentation where needed. Be sure to select the r_basicprofile and r_emailaddress application permissions. These will enable geonode to access some information regarding the user’s linkedin public profile. Once created, take note of the Client ID and Client Secret parameters which linkedin assigns to your new application

  • Follow the post-install instructions on django-allauth’s documentation. These basically instruct you to:

    • include the relevant app in geonode’s INSTALLED_APPS setting for the social provider that you are using. For linkedin this means adding allauth.socialaccount.providers.linkedin_oauth2.
    • Access geonode’s admin interface and add a new Social App for the provider. Add the previously gathered Client id and Secret key parameters that were obtained when creating a linkedin application.
    • Optionally add relevant value to geonode’s SOCIALACCOUNT_PROVIDERS setting. Consult django-allauth’s provider-specific documentation for more information on this setting

  • Optionally add a profile extractor entry to geonode’s SOCIALACCOUNT_PROFILE_EXTRACTORS setting. This setting is specific to geonode and is not part of django-allauth. The expected value is a dictionary with the provider’s id as key and the python path to a data extractor class as the value. Example:

      # settings.py
  SOCIALACCOUNT_PROFILE_EXTRACTORS = {
    "linkedin_oauth2": "geonode.people.profileextractors.LinkedInExtractor"
  }

A profile extractor class can retrieve information from each social account
provider and use that to enhance a user's profile information on geonode.
Look into the ``geonode.people.profileextractors`` module on geonode's
source code for more information.

settings.py entries

ACCOUNT_OPEN_SIGNUP

Default: True

Whether the geonode site allows new users to register for an account. When set to False new users cannot register, they must be created by a staff member

ACCOUNT_APPROVAL_REQUIRED

Default: False

Whether new user registrations must be manually approved. When set to True, the site’s staff must manually approve every new account. The approval flow goes like this:

  • User registers in the site (either with a local account or by using a social login);
  • Staff users receive an email notification that a new user is requesting access;
  • Staff users manually approve the user by using geonode’s administration interface;
  • User receives an e-mail notification when the account has been approved;
  • User can now login to the geonode site.
ACCOUNT_ADAPTER

Default: geonode.people.adapters.LocalAccountAdapter

This is a django-allauth setting. It allows specifying a custom class to handle authentication for local accounts.

ACCOUNT_CONFIRM_EMAIL_ON_GET

Default: True

This is a django-allauth setting. It allows specifying the HTTP method used when confirming e-mail addresses.

ACCOUNT_EMAIL_REQUIRED

Default: True

This is a django-allauth setting. Controls whehter the user is required to provide an e-mail address upon registration

ACCOUNT_EMAIL_VERIFICATION

Default: optional

This is a django-allauth setting.

SOCIALACCOUNT_ADAPTER

Default: geonode.people.adapters.SocialAccountAdapter

This is a django-allauth setting. It allows specifying a custom class to handle authentication for social accounts.

SOCIALACCOUNT_PROVIDERS

Default: None

This is a django-allauth setting. It should be a dictionary with provider specific settings

SOCIALACCOUNT_PROFILE_EXTRACTORS

Default: None

A dictionary with provider ids as keys and path to custom profile extractor classes as values.

Django’s error templates

GeoNode customizes some of Django’s default error templates.

500.html

If no custom handler for 500 errors is set up in urls.py, Django will call django.views.defaults.server_error which expects a 500.html file in the root of the templates directory. In GeoNode, we have put a template that does not inherit from anything as 500.html and because most of Django’s machinery is down when an INTERNAL ERROR (500 code) is encountered the use of template tags should be avoided.

3rd party apps

pinax.notifications

This application enables users to receive notifications from specific events within GeoNode. For user-specific configuration, see Setting notification preferences. For settings, see User notifications settings.