Serving web maps with the QGIS server
QGIS and the Web is not all about consuming data, it can also be used to serve data over the Web for others to view online or consume in other web clients (such as QGIS). Keep in mind that setting up your own web service is not the easiest way to make a web map (refer to the Hooking up web clients recipe in this chapter). This is, however, a great way to transition all the hard work that you've put into a QGIS project file into something other people can see and use.
Getting ready
For this recipe, you need a working installation of the QGIS server. This involves running a standard web server (such as Apache or Nginx). There are many ways to set up the server, so please see the official documentation at http://hub.qgis.org/projects/quantum-gis/wiki/QGIS_Server_Tutorial.
Once you have the QGIS server running, then you just need a QGIS project with the configuration outlined in this recipe.
How to do it…
Open QGIS.
Load up and style some layers:
You need at least...