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Publishing to Dropbox

Publishing to Dropbox

Publishing is simply putting the project folder in Dropbox and sharing it. There is no upload step in Groundwork itself — the Dropbox folder is the published project.

Folder layout

The shared folder must contain exactly one .qgs file plus the GeoJSON files it references:

street-trees/          ← this is the folder you share
├── street-trees.qgs
├── trees.geojson
└── parks.geojson

The rules Groundwork applies when opening the folder:

  • One .qgs per folder. Zero or more than one is an error — publish each project in its own folder.
  • Data files are matched by the relative paths saved in the project, with a tolerant fallback: matching is case-insensitive, and if a path doesn’t resolve, Groundwork looks for a file with the same name anywhere in the folder.
  • A data file that’s missing entirely doesn’t stop the project loading — that layer is skipped with a warning, and the rest of the map loads.

Sharing the folder

Put the folder in Dropbox

Copy the whole project folder into your Dropbox, keeping the project file and data files together.

Copy the share link

In Dropbox, choose Share on the folder and copy the link. A standard “anyone with the link can view” link is all Groundwork needs — view access lets it read the project and data files.

Test it yourself

Paste the link into Groundwork’s Cloud storage card (Add a layer → Cloud storage) and click Open. Your styled map should appear. Always do this before sending the link to anyone.

Public link or private folder?

  • Public link (“anyone with the link”): users open the map with no sign-in. Anyone who obtains the link can view the data, so use this only for data you’re comfortable being link-accessible.
  • Private folder: share the folder with specific people as members instead of creating a public link. When they open the link in Groundwork, they’ll be prompted to sign in with their own Dropbox account, and only invited members can load the map.
Coming soon: members with edit access will have their saved edits written straight back to the folder’s data files. If you want your team’s changes flowing into Dropbox, a private folder with editor members is the setup to choose — public-link maps will stay read-only.
OneDrive and SharePoint folders work the same way — share the folder, copy the link, paste it into the Cloud storage card. OneDrive users sign in with their Microsoft account on first use.

Updating a published project

To change the map, edit the project or data files and let Dropbox sync — the folder link stays the same. Users get the updated version next time they open the link. There’s no versioning inside Groundwork; Dropbox’s own file version history is your rollback.

Next: Sharing with your team.

Preparing your QGIS projectSharing with your team