Package Layers by City/Mun

The Package Layers by City/Mun tool splits five reference layers — MBI cases, building points, province PSA boundaries, province LGU boundaries, and the resolved province boundary — into one self-contained GeoPackage (.gpkg) per city or municipality, each placed in its own dedicated directory. It is engineered for generating local government presentation packages: instead of distributing a single large, province-wide dataset to every recipient, each LGU receives a clean, compact package containing exclusively its own administrative features.

Access

• Menu: Gemma → Others → Package Layers by City/Mun
• Processing Toolbox: GMD Pipeline → 1Map → Package Layers by City/Mun
• Algorithm ID: gmd_pipeline:package_layers_by_citymun

The tool is inherently interactive (allowing layer selection, field confirmation, and output folder browsing), so launching it from either entry point opens the same dialog.

When to Use

Use this tool when:

• Preparing municipal-level deliverables for LGU presentations, local boundary harmonization meetings, or data handoffs.
• Splitting province-wide reference datasets (cases, building points, PSA boundaries, LGU boundaries, and the resolved province boundary) into standardized per-city/mun packages.
• Automatically loading and grouping packaged layers in the QGIS Layers panel for immediate quality inspection with official QML styles applied.
• Cleaning duplicate layers or standardized display names across repeated packaging sessions.

Naming Convention

Item	Pattern	Example
Output Folder	pppmm_CITYMUN/	01317_Iriga/
GeoPackage	pppmm_CITYMUN/pppmm_CITYMUN.gpkg	01317_Iriga/01317_Iriga.gpkg

• ppp = 3-digit province code, mm = 2-digit city/mun code — combined, the first 5 characters of the geocode field.
• CITYMUN is the city/municipality name sanitized for filesystem compatibility (spaces replaced with underscores, special characters stripped).

Inside each GeoPackage, the five reference datasets are written into dedicated tables:

Role	Output Table Name	Geometry Type
Cases Layer	ref_mbi_cases	Polygon / MultiPolygon
Building Points Layer	ref_{citymun}_bldg_point	Point / MultiPoint
Province PSA Layer	ref_{citymun}_psa	Polygon / MultiPolygon
Province LGU Layer	ref_{citymun}_lgu	Polygon / MultiPolygon
Province Boundary Layer	2026_{citymun}_boundary	Polygon / MultiPolygon

Parameters

Inputs

Parameter	Type	Description
Cases layer	Vector Layer (Polygon)	The reference MBI cases layer (ref_mbi_cases) to split. Auto-detected from project layers matching mbi_cases.
Building points layer	Vector Layer (Point)	Province-wide building points layer to split. Auto-detected from project layers matching bldg_point or bldgpts.
Province PSA layer	Vector Layer (Polygon)	Province-wide PSA boundary polygon layer to split. Auto-detected from layers matching province_psa or _psa.
Province LGU layer	Vector Layer (Polygon)	Province-wide LGU boundary polygon layer to split. Auto-detected from layers matching province_lgu or _lgu.
Province Boundary layer	Vector Layer (Polygon)	The resolved authoritative boundary layer produced by Run Analysis (2026_province_boundary): LGU polygons kept wherever an LGU submission exists per city_mun, PSA elsewhere, duplicates removed. Auto-detected from layers matching province_boundary or boundary.
Geocode field name	Field Name	Attribute field on all five layers whose first 5 characters identify the city/mun code (pppmm). Auto-detected from geocode or sa_geocode.
City/Mun name field	Field Name	Attribute field providing the human-readable city/mun name used to generate folder and table names. Auto-detected from city_mun or citymun.
Output folder	Directory Path	Destination root directory where municipal subfolders (pppmm_CITYMUN/) will be generated.
Load packaged layers into QGIS after Run	Boolean	When enabled, automatically loads exported layers into QGIS under individual municipal groups (pppmm_CITYMUN) upon completion. Default is disabled for large national runs to preserve performance.
Add Google Satellite basemap below the layers	Boolean	Enabled when Load packaged layers is checked. Automatically adds the Google Satellite XYZ tile layer at the base of the layer tree. Requires the HCMGIS plugin.

Outputs

Output	Type	Description
Municipal GeoPackages	Directory & .gpkg Files	Individual GeoPackage databases written to pppmm_CITYMUN/pppmm_CITYMUN.gpkg containing filtered subsets of all five reference layers.
Municipal Layer Groups	Layer Tree Group	(Optional) Auto-expanded group hierarchy in the QGIS Layers panel containing municipal groups (pppmm_CITYMUN) and styled vector layers.

How It Works

1. City/Municipality Code Scanning:

   • The tool extracts unique combinations of the 5-digit city/mun code and name across all five input layers combined.
   • Scanning all five layers guarantees that a municipality present in only one input (e.g. LGU boundary without building points) is still packaged without data omission.

2. Attribute Query & Geometric Export:

   • Iterates through each detected municipal code and executes an attribute filter:$$\text{left}(\text{to\_string}(\text{geocode}),5)=\text{’pppmm’}$$
   • Matching features from all five reference layers are written into the corresponding tables inside pppmm_CITYMUN.gpkg.

3. Field Cleanup on Export:

   • System and temporary attributes (fid, layer, path) are automatically omitted during vector export.
   • Removing existing fid values allows GeoPackage to assign clean, contiguous primary keys per table, preventing unique constraint violations.
   • Leftover merge provenance fields (layer, path) are stripped to produce pristine deliverables.

4. Direct Layer Tree Loading & Styling:

   • When Load packaged layers is checked, tables are loaded into the project under direct municipal groups: {pppmm_CITYMUN}.
   • Applies matching QML styles from the plugin's bundled style library (ref_mbi_cases.qml, ref_province_psa.qml, ref_province_lgu.qml, 1. Base Layer Building Points.qml).
   • Automatically expands the group tree so results are immediately visible for verification.

5. Duplicate Cleanup Utility:

   • Provides a dedicated Clean Up Duplicates button that scans municipal groups, identifies duplicate layers referencing identical GeoPackage tables, and removes redundant instances while preserving the newest copy.

Supported Geometry Types

• Polygon and MultiPolygon (MBI cases, PSA boundaries, LGU boundaries, province boundary)
• Point and MultiPoint (Building points)

Geocode Attribute Data Type

Ensure the geocode attribute field is formatted as String/Text rather than an Integer. Numeric fields strip leading zeros (e.g. 01317 becomes 1317), which corrupts the 5-character municipal prefix extraction.

Municipal Grouping Is Owned by This Tool

This script (package_layers_by_citymun.py) is the only one that creates pppmm_CITYMUN layer groups at the project root, and the only one running the session-wide auto-organize listener that files newly-added packaged layers into their matching group. The Package Style Loader tool only lists existing top-level groups as scope options in its dropdown — it never creates, populates, or reorganizes them.

Verification via Run Log

The interactive execution log reports the exact feature count exported for each layer per municipality. If the feature count for a layer remains identical across all municipalities, verify that the selected geocode field actually differentiates municipal units.

Headless Execution

The algorithm (gmd_pipeline:package_layers_by_citymun) is interactive. Running headlessly (e.g. via qgis_process) logs an informational notice that QGIS Desktop GUI is required rather than halting with an unhandled exception.