Adding drawing effects to layer using query in QGIS

Question

I am working with a layer of administrative areas. The administrative area in focus needs to have no label and a drop-shadow around it; surrounding administrative areas do need to have the label. E.G. Andorra would have a drop-shadow and only 'France' and 'Spain' labels would be visible, 'Andorra' being filtered out. Currently, I am achieving this by duplicating the layer and applying to one layer just drop-shadow whilst hiding surrounding polygons and in the other layer I am hiding the polygon in focus and show the surrounding labels.

How, and where can I run a query like

if (name = 'a', 
    show labels for (name != 'a') AND apply drawing effects,
   )

This will avoid duplicating the layer for every administrative area I have to apply my styling.

Do you have any suggestions?

Answer 1

If you use QGIS, than set a rule based rendering for both the symbology as well as the label. Define two rules - for demonstration purpose, I use Czechia: one rule is "NAME" ='Czechia', than copy that rule and paste it, change it to "NAME" <>'Czechia'.

Than double click on the first rule, where you can set the style/label visibility accordingly for the administrative area in focus. When finished, double click the other rule and make the settings for all other areas. Repeat this for styling and labels.