Orion Connect for QGIS

Orion Connect is a free, open-source QGIS plugin that connects QGIS Desktop to OrionGIS. Use it to:

• search the datasets hosted on OrionGIS,
• add any of them to your QGIS project as a live WMS (raster) or WFS (vector) layer,
• upload a layer from your computer to your OrionGIS workspace,
• open your OrionInsights dashboards.

Current version: 0.2.0 (31 October 2026). It is marked experimental in QGIS until version 1.0.

#Requirements

• QGIS 3.22 or newer. QGIS 4 is supported.
• No other software or Python packages.
• An OrionGIS account only if you want to upload. Searching and adding public layers works without signing in.

#Install

#Option 1: add the OrionGIS plugin repository (recommended)

With this option QGIS tells you when a new version of Orion Connect is available.

1. In QGIS, open Plugins → Manage and Install Plugins….
2. Go to Settings. Under Plugin repositories, click Add….
3. Enter the name OrionGIS and the URL https://orionterrametrics.com/qgis/plugins.xml, then click OK.
4. Still in Settings, tick Show also experimental plugins.
5. Go to All, search for Orion Connect and click Install Plugin.

#Option 2: install from the ZIP file

1. Download orion_connect.0.2.0.zip.
2. In QGIS, open Plugins → Manage and Install Plugins… → Install from ZIP.
3. Choose the file and click Install Plugin.

After installing, you will see an Orion Connect toolbar, and the same actions in the Web → Orion Connect menu. If the toolbar is hidden, right-click any toolbar and tick Orion Connect.

#Search and add a layer

1. Click Browse Catalogue / Add Layer….
2. Type a word from the dataset's title or description (for example counties) and press Search.
3. Select a dataset and click Add. Vector datasets are added as WFS layers and raster datasets as WMS layers.

The layer is live: it is served from OrionGIS, so it always shows the current version. To keep a copy on your computer, right-click the layer and choose Export → Save Features As… (vector) or Export → Save As… (raster).

Orion Connect searches the datasets hosted on OrionGIS. The Global Data Index also lists datasets hosted by other publishers; open those from the Data Explorer in your browser.

#Sign in

You only need to sign in to upload.

1. Click Sign In….
2. Leave the OrionGIS URL as https://orionterrametrics.com unless your organisation runs its own OrionGIS.
3. Enter your OrionGIS username and password and click OK.

If you sign in to OrionGIS with Google or Microsoft, set a password first with Forgot password on the OrionGIS sign-in page.

Orion Connect keeps your password in memory for the current QGIS session only. It remembers the URL and username for next time, never the password.

#Upload a layer

1. Click Upload Layer to OrionGIS….
2. Choose a file: GeoPackage, zipped Shapefile, GeoJSON, KML or GeoTIFF. See Supported formats.
3. Orion Connect uploads it and checks the import. When it finishes, the dataset is in your OrionGIS workspace, ready to use in Map Studio, OrionAI and dashboards. Uploads are private to you until you share them.

#Open your dashboards

Open OrionInsights Dashboards opens your dashboards in your web browser.

#Use OrionGIS without the plugin

Every hosted dataset is also available through the standard OGC services, so you can add it to QGIS, ArcGIS Pro or any other GIS without a plugin. See API and web services.

#Troubleshooting

#Source code and updates

Orion Connect is open source under the GPL-2.0-or-later licence: github.com/godwinmurithi/orion-connect-qgis. The changelog is in the repository and in QGIS's Plugin Manager. Report problems on GitHub Issues or at info@orionterrametrics.com.