[postgis] SFSQL Metadata Views

[Frank Warmerdam]

Folks, 

Some of the core capabilities of SFSQL are now being handled by PostGIS.
However, currently there is no real support for metadata of any kind. 

The SF-SQL specification includes two "Feature Table Metadata Views":

 o GEOMETRY_COLUMNS: Associates geometry columns with a spatial reference
   system id, a geometry type (restricting the columns to lines for instance),
   and a dimension. 

 o SPATIAL_REFERENCE_SYSTEMS: Associates spatial reference system id with
   their well known text equivelent. 

The document also talks about AddGeometryColumn(), and DropGeometryColumn()
stored procedures, which would help maintain the above views when adding
a geometry column to an existing table. 

My question then is, do we want to pursue implementation of GEOMETRY_COLUMNS
and SPATIAL_REFERENCE_SYSTEMS tables within PostGIS, and if so, what sort of
help in the form of stored procedures or other automation can we provide to
ensure they are maintained and consistent?

Also, who has experience with other SF SQL implementations? (Oracle? SDE?)
I want to get to the point that a client program can work with only minor
twiddles against PostGIS or some other SFSQL compliant database environment.
What do we need to make that happen?  Does anyone else implement and maintain
GEOMETRY_COLUMNS and SPATIAL_REFERENCE_SYSTEMS?  

Best regards,

---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent

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