Preview

Preview lets you publish layers to Topologis without an account and without a token. It’s the fastest way to see what your QGIS data looks like on a Topologis map, and it’s the right pick for one-off shares, sketches, or trying the plugin out before you sign up.

If you already have a Topologis project you want to publish into, use Export instead.

How it works

Open the export dialog (Topologis toolbar icon, or Web → Topologis Exporter → Publish to Topologis...). Pick your layers the same way you would for an Export (see Configuring an export).

Leave the Import Token field empty. The bottom-right button switches from Export to Preview.

Click Preview. The first time you do this, the plugin creates an anonymous account for you on the spot. There’s nothing to sign up for and no email is involved. The dialog will tell you what’s happening before the upload starts.

After the upload, your map opens in your default browser (if Open map in browser is checked) on a view tied to that anonymous account.

Repeat previews land in the same anonymous workspace

The plugin caches the anonymous session, so the next time you click Preview, layers go into the same anonymous workspace. The info box under the empty token field reflects this: on the first preview it says a new anonymous account will be created, and on follow-ups it tells you the data will land in your existing one.

The anonymous session eventually expires. When that happens, the next Preview click silently mints a fresh one. Anything you previewed under the old session stays where it was, but you won’t see it in the new workspace.

What Preview doesn’t do

Preview is intentionally lightweight. There are a few things it isn’t:

• Not collaborative. Only you (and anyone you send the resulting URL to) can see the map. There are no projects, no team, no permissions.
• Not permanent. Anonymous workspaces are best-effort and not backed by an account you can recover. Treat preview maps as ephemeral.
• Not styleable across sessions. Once the anonymous session expires, you can’t go back and edit the layers from QGIS through the same workspace.

If any of that matters, the path forward is to sign up, create a project, grab an import token, and republish via Export. The QGIS side of the flow is identical, you’re just pasting a token before clicking the button.

The Replace existing and Create new options still apply

Preview uses the same operation dropdown as Export. Replace existing overwrites a previously previewed layer in your anonymous workspace. Create new adds a fresh one. For first-time previews, switch the dropdown to Create new so the plugin doesn’t try to replace something that isn’t there yet.