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WIP: Docs: Describe how to connect QField to local QFC dev instance. #1447

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WIP: Docs: Describe how to connect QField to local QFC dev instance. #1447

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23 changes: 23 additions & 0 deletions README.md
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Expand Up @@ -305,6 +305,29 @@ Now connecting with `curl` should fail with a similar error:
establish a secure connection to it. To learn more about this situation and
how to fix it, please visit the web page mentioned above.

## Connecting QField to a local QFieldCloud instance

In order to connect the QField mobile app to your local QFieldCloud development instance, the following prerequisites must be met:
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@suricactus suricactus Dec 22, 2025

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In order to connect the QField mobile app to your local QFieldCloud development instance, the following prerequisites must be met:
QFieldCloud REST API is used across clients, including the QField app.
One can test their local QFieldCloud instance by running QField on their development machine.
[Install QField](https://qfield.org/get) for your operating system.
In order to connect QField from a device different from your development machine (e.g. your mobile phone), the following prerequisites must be met:

Not sure what was the use case, but 95% of the time you better test the APIs using the desktop client, because you also have (easy) access to the configuration files. I guess it needs a bit of reordering, so in the injected paragraph above we can point to the bullet with instructions - start, type ip etc etc.


- The QFieldCloud app container's ports must be exposed on the public interface (0.0.0.0) of your dev machine
To check this, run `docker compose ps app`. It should say `0.0.0.0:8011->8000/tcp`.
- Your dev machien and your mobile phone need to be on the same network (e.g. same WiFi)
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@gounux gounux Dec 18, 2025

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- Your dev machien and your mobile phone need to be on the same network (e.g. same WiFi)
- Your dev machine and your mobile phone need to be on the same network (e.g. same WiFi)

- Find out the external IP address of the interface that the app container's HTTP port is bound to.
E.g. something like `ip -f inet addr show eth1` (make sure to pick the right interface if you have several NICs, like Ethernet and WiFi)
- For easier access via hostname, you need to have an mDNS service like avahi running on your dev machine.
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@suricactus suricactus Dec 22, 2025

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- For easier access via hostname, you need to have an mDNS service like avahi running on your dev machine.
- For easier access via hostname, you need to have an mDNS service like `avahi` running on your dev machine.

On Linux, check that `avahi` is running: `systemctl status avahi-daemon`
If not, install `avahi-daemon` and make sure it's running. That should then allow you to access your dev machine as `<your-dev-machine-hostname>.local` from devices on the same network. E.g. if the hostname of your dev machine is `foo`, you should be able to reach it using `ping foo.local` from another machine on the same network.
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If not, install `avahi-daemon` and make sure it's running. That should then allow you to access your dev machine as `<your-dev-machine-hostname>.local` from devices on the same network. E.g. if the hostname of your dev machine is `foo`, you should be able to reach it using `ping foo.local` from another machine on the same network.
If not, install `avahi-daemon` and make sure it's running.
That should then allow you to access your dev machine as `<your-dev-machine-hostname>.local` from devices on the same network.
E.g. if the hostname of your dev machine is `foo`, you should be able to reach it using `ping foo.local` from another machine on the same network.

We tend to add new markdown with one sentence per line for better history tracking.

- In QFieldCloud's settings, the external IP address and hostname need to be added to `DJANGO_ALLOWED_HOSTS`

This should then be enough to connect the QField mobile app to your local QFieldCloud instance:

- Start QField
- When asked to sign in, double tap on the Nyuki logo to enter a custom QFieldCloud server URL
- Enter the URL using your mDNS hostname (or IP address, if mDNS doesn't work for you):
- `http://192.168.1.x:8011/` or
- `http://<your-dev-machine-hostname>.local:8011/`


## Code style

Code style done with [`pre-commit`](https://pre-commit.com):
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