Disable storage of passwords in QGIS

Question

Is it possible to disable the option of saving passwords for web map services or web feature services in the QGIS data source manager?

There is a big warning for all users, but not all employees of our company heed this warning. Therefore I would like to disable the option completely.

Is there any possibility for deactivation, for example in the qgis_global_settings.ini or in the QGIS3.ini or elsewhere ?

Answer 1

Not a off-the-shelf solution, but a hint for a workaround:

You could edit the startup.py script to remove connection passwords each time QGIS is launched by a user.

A good starting point could be these questions:

Getting active PostgreSQL connection's username as variable in QGIS?

Getting active PostgreSQL connection username when stored through authentication configuration in QGIS 3

Info about startup.py:

https://docs.qgis.org/3.16/en/docs/pyqgis_developer_cookbook/intro.html#the-startup-py-file

Answer 2

You can create a button (in a toolbar or here in the code in the messageBar) to create a new WMS connection without this basic tab :

DLG_WMS_CONNECTION = None

def update_browsers():
    """Updates Browser DockWidgets to refresh WMS connections"""
    browsers_names = ["Browser", "Browser2"]
    for browser in browsers_names:
        iface.mainWindow().findChild(QDockWidget, browser).refresh()


def display_new_connection_dlg():
    global DLG_WMS_CONNECTION
    DLG_WMS_CONNECTION = QgsNewHttpConnection()
    DLG_WMS_CONNECTION.accepted.connect(update_browsers)
    tab_auth = DLG_WMS_CONNECTION.findChild(QTabWidget, "tabAuth")
    # Hide basic auth tab
    tab_auth.setTabVisible(1, False)
    DLG_WMS_CONNECTION.show()


msgbar_auth = iface.messageBar()
pb_auth = QPushButton("Create a new WMS connection")
pb_auth.setMaximumWidth(300)
# Orange, 12 points and bold text
pb_auth.setStyleSheet(
    "QPushButton {font-size: 12pt; font-weight: bold; color: #ff6600;}"
)
pb_auth.clicked.connect(display_new_connection_dlg)
msgbar_auth.pushWidget(pb_auth, Qgis.Info, 0)

Answer 3

As a workaround, I suggest deleting the credentials in the existing *.qgs file.

Here is the python code that does this:

import os  


def delete_properties(qgs_file, properties):
    """
    Only works with *.qgs (not *.qgz - it is a zipped *.qgs)

    :param qgs_file: Path to *.qgs file
    :param properties: Properties to be replaced with empty string => ''
    :return: Return a new *.qgs file without selected properties
    """

    dirname = os.path.dirname(qgs_file)
    name, extention = os.path.splitext(os.path.basename(qgs_file))
    new_path = os.path.join(dirname, name + '_NO_CREDENTIALS' + extention)

    with open(qgs_file, 'r', encoding='utf-8') as input_qgs, \
            open(new_path, 'w', encoding='utf-8') as output_qgs:

        for line in input_qgs.readlines():
            new_line = line
            for prop in properties:
                if prop in new_line:
                    new_list = []
                    first_part, second_part = new_line.split(f"{prop}='")
                    other_parts = second_part.split(f"'")
                    new_list.append(first_part + f"{prop}='")
                    new_list.extend(other_parts[1:])
                    new_line = "'".join(new_list)

            output_qgs.write(new_line)

    print(f'\nCredentials deleted, file saved:\n{new_path}')


if __name__ == '__main__':
    qgs_file_ = r"C:\QGIS_project.qgs"
    properties_ = ['password', 'user']
    delete_properties(qgs_file_, properties_)