Invisible layers and groups

QGIS plugin to make some layers and groups invisible in the QGIS Layer Tree (aka Layers panel). E.g., domain tables.

Invisible layers/groups will not appear in the Layers Panel, but they can still be seen in the canvas or used in joins/relations with other layers.

This plugin allows you to:

• Make selected layers/groups invisible (plugin button).
• Make layers/groups (that are invisible) visible again (plugin button).
• Store layers/groups visibility in your QGIS project.
• Recreate layers/groups visibility when you open your QGIS project.
• Make a particular layer invisible (by code).
• Make a particular group invisible (by code).

NOTE: There is an issue you should be aware of. If you make a layer invisible and then move its parent group, the invisible layer will be visible again. My recommendation is to make only top-level layers/groups invisible (after all, you cannot move the root).

For example, you could have a 'black hole' group where you put all layers/groups that should be invisible.

root
   |.. layer 1
   |.. layer 2
   |.. Black-hole-group  # Make this group invisible (all its children will be invisible too)
       |.. layer 3
       |.. layer 4
       |.. sub-group
           |-- sub-layer

You could even keep adding layers/groups programatically to the Black-hole-group after invisible:

root = QgsProject.instance().layerTreeRoot()
blackHole = root.findGroup('Black-hole-group')
QgsMapLayerRegistry.instance().addMapLayer( myLayer, False )
blackHole.insertLayer( 0, myLayer ) # myLayer will be invisible too!

Making a layer invisible (by code):

if 'InvisibleLayersAndGroups' in qgis.utils.plugins:
    ilg = qgis.utils.plugins['InvisibleLayersAndGroups']
    ilg.hideLayer( layer )    # layer is a QgsMapLayer

Making a group invisible (by code):

if 'InvisibleLayersAndGroups' in qgis.utils.plugins:
    ilg = qgis.utils.plugins['InvisibleLayersAndGroups']
    ilg.hideGroup( group )    # group is a QgsLayerTreeGroup
    ilg.hideGroup( 'group2' ) # You can also pass a group name