[Gvsig_english] SpatiaLite spatial DBMS support

[Benjamin Ducke]

Dear all,

first of all, I hope you had a good Christmas and a good
start into 2009!

Now take a look at this:

http://www.gaia-gis.it/spatialite/

It is a spatially enabled version of the great SQLite DBMS 
(www.sqlite.org). Basically, SQLite is an efficient, ACID DBMS
that uses a single file to store its databases yet is powerful 
enough for large and complex databases. No need to set up a 
client/server system like with PostgreSQL or MySQL.
This makes it ideal for mobile devices and embedded solutions.

SpatiaLite is an OGC conforming spatial extension of SQLite.
It is fully portable with minimal dependencies and includes 
binaries and a GUI for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. The website
has a wealth of useful documentation. It also has spatial
indexing built-in.

My question is: how hard would it be to take the code for
PostGIS support and adapt it to support SpatiaLite?

If it can be done, then we would have a way to store complex,
multi-geometry vector maps in a single file. This would be
as convenient and simple as Shapefiles, but without the all 
the limitations (2GB filesize limit, crappy DBF attribute table 
limits, no portable way of specifying projection systems, etc.).

Essentially, it would give gvSIG a better, open source alternative
to ESRI's proprietary Geodatabase stuff!

On a side-note, the newest GDAL/OGR 1.6.0 already has support
(marked "preliminary", no spatial index support yet) for SpatiaLite: 

http://trac.osgeo.org/gdal/wiki/Release/1.6.0-News
http://www.gdal.org/ogr/drv_sqlite.html

So, if gvSIG would support a generic interface to OGR for 
reading/writing geometries ...

All the best,

Ben

-- 
Benjamin Ducke
Senior Applications Support and Development Officer

Oxford Archaeological Unit Limited
Janus House
Osney Mead
OX2 0ES
Oxford, U.K.

Tel.: ++44 (0)1865 263 800
benjamin.ducke at oxfordarch.co.uk




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