---
id: ch5-guide-hub
type: spine
title: "How to use Hub4Everybody: find, publish, contribute"
readingTime: 2
standalone: true
core: false
teaser: "The front door of the platform: one sign-in, a library that feeds JackDaw, and a route from your QGIS layer to a shared map."
parent: null
diagram: fig-guide-hub
recallQ: "What can a regional user do in Hub4Everybody, and why does adding a document to its library matter for the AI tools?"
recallA: "Hub4Everybody is the entry point: you find documents, outputs and service links, sign in once through its OAuth2 provider, publish map layers (for example from QGIS with the Layman plugin) and submit content that editors approve. Documents added to the PoliRuralPlus library feed the retrieval layer behind JackDaw, so the Hub is part of the evidence infrastructure."
highlights:
  - "Address: hub.polirural.eu; one OAuth2 sign-in is trusted by the other components"
  - "Layers go from QGIS to the Hub with the Layman plugin, as WMS/WFS"
  - "News, articles and events pass an editor review before they become public"
  - "A document added to the library becomes retrievable by JackDaw"
status: accepted
concept: tool-ecosystem
lang: en
lens: generic
depth: intro..standard
formalism: none
visuality: balanced
lengthBand: standard
genre: worked-example
state: edited
carriers: prose|diagram
---

**When to use it:** you need project documents or service links, or you want to publish your region's material and map layers where the other tools can reach them.

## What you need

- A browser: **[hub.polirural.eu/home](https://hub.polirural.eu/home)**
- For publishing, a project account. Components share one security model: the OAuth2 provider in the Hub environment issues tokens, and the other services trust them (D4.2 §5.4).
- For your own map layers: QGIS with the **Layman plugin**; for field work, QField on an Android device (D1.1 §3.3).

## Steps

1. **Browse.** The Hub combines page navigation with repository-style access to project documents, outputs, library resources and service links (D4.2 §3.1).
2. **Sign in once.** The token you receive is sent with requests to the other services, which check its issuer, expiry, scopes and roles before answering (D4.2 §5.4).
3. **Find geodata.** The Micka catalogue searches metadata, lets you create and edit INSPIRE-compliant records, and harvests from portals that share data through CSW or WMS (D1.1 §3.2).
4. **Compose a map.** HSLayers NG combines WMS, WFS and vector data in one interactive map (D1.1 §3.2).
5. **Publish your layer.** In QGIS, the Layman plugin publishes vector or raster layers to the Hub's Layman server, pushes later edits, sets who may view or edit, and stores metadata. Layman serves the result through WMS and WFS (D1.1 §3.2–3.3).
6. **Contribute content.** News, articles, blogs and events go through a Wagtail workflow: submission, editor review, approval. New contributors stay invisible until an editor approves them; approved authors publish with a "non-approved" label until review (D1.1 §3.1).
7. **Add documents to the library.** They are passed through an integration into the retrieval layer behind [JackDaw](#c/jackdaw) (D4.2 §3.1).

## What you get

Curated, searchable access to project material; layers that other GIS software can read through OGC services; pages with embedded interactive maps (the Wagtail map widget); and documents that the AI tools can cite.

## Pilot use

D4.2 lists Hub4Everybody among the core services in eight of the nine pilots, from Monaghan to Malta, as the common place for communication, visibility and access to platform resources (§6.2–6.3).

## Watch out

- As content grows, its value depends on **consistent classification, metadata and curation**; without them a larger repository is harder to navigate. D4.2 plans harmonised metadata and taxonomy (§3.1).
- A badly described document or layer is also badly found by the AI tools that read from the Hub.

**Sources:**
- D4.2 PoliRuralPlus Platform Beta, §3.1 Hub4Everybody evolution; §5.4 Shared authentication; §6.2 Pilot-specific use cases; §6.3 Usability observations. [PDF](https://www.poliruralplus.eu/docs/421/D4.2_PoliRuralPlus_Platform_Beta.pdf)
- D1.1 Project Web Pages Update, §3.1 Wagtail CMS; §3.2 Map management; §3.3 External tools. [PDF](https://www.poliruralplus.eu/docs/139/Attachment_0_53.pdf)
- PoliRural+ Hub: [hub.polirural.eu/home](https://hub.polirural.eu/home)