[Qgis-user] Question on default file formats

[Árni Geirsson]

Thank you Alex - that answers my question completely.

Arni


Árni Geirsson
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On Tue, Jul 28, 2015 at 4:15 PM, Alex Mandel <tech_dev at wildintellect.com>
wrote:

> It's more elaborate than that. Not all applications in the toolbox can
> read Spatialite yet either (e.g. SAGA). So the intermediate is something
> all the tools can use. At some point the toolbox might get developed to
> were any ogr data source can be used for the intermediates, but it isn't
> there yet. I ran into this issue with Postgis a couple of years ago, and
> the whole point of using Postgis was to escape the limitations of the
> shapefile (particularly file size).
>
> In some ways if you use Spatialite or Postgis you don't actually need a
> lot of the basic tools as those can all be done with SQL via the DB
> Manager or QSpatialite.
>
> As for Geopackage, keep in mind it's an exchange format. Even with 2.8
> I've had no issues reading GPKG files in, though I've been creating them
> with ogr2ogr on the command line to convert whole databases at a time
> between Spatialite and other formats.
>
> Shapefile still remains the lowest common denominator. I agree other
> formats should be suggested first by the save dialog since shp can cause
> data loss (date/time, field names, etc).
>
> Thanks,
> Alex
>
>
> On 07/28/2015 09:04 AM, Árni Geirsson wrote:
> > Thanks for the answer Jim. I understand that the shapefiles are lingua
> > franca but to me that would imply that they should be used when exchange
> > with other applications is needed - which is not always. But I had not
> > realized that I might be constraining the set of available tools if I use
> > SpatiaLite. Does this mean that if I have my date in SpatiaLite, many of
> > the tools in the Processing toolbox would not be available to me?
> >
> > Arni
> >
> >
> > Árni Geirsson
> > *Alta ehf* // +354 582 5000 // +354 897 9549
> > www.alta.is  // Alta á Twitter <http://twitter.com/alta_ehf> // Alta á
> > Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/pages/Alta/161795813838691?v=wall>
> >
> > On Tue, Jul 28, 2015 at 3:54 PM, James Keener <jim at jimkeener.com> wrote:
> >
> >> More tools support it. Spatialite wasn't supported in esri until very
> >> recently and other tools may not support anything but shape files. It's
> >> become a lingual franca, and like English: it's terrible, but works well
> >> enough.
> >>
> >> Jim
> >>
> >> On July 28, 2015 11:38:24 AM AST, "Árni Geirsson" <arni at alta.is> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Hello
> >>> I find it interesting that the ancient shapefile format is (or at least
> >>> appears to be) the default file format for QGIS when SpatiaLite seems
> to be
> >>> a much more capable format. I have been using mostly shapefiles and
> when
> >>> using for example the tools under the vector menu, intermediate
> results are
> >>> saved as shapefiles, leading to a big pile of files after a short
> session
> >>> of vector processing. Now, I have discovered that by using the
> processing
> >>> tools the intermediates can be temporary files (still shapefiles, just
> >>> hidden away in a temporary folder). After saving a temporary file as a
> >>> SpatiaLite file, I can enter field names longer than 10 characters but
> I
> >>> can not add a text field that accommodates more than 255 characters.
> >>> So my question is: Why is the shapefile format the default?
> >>>
> >>> I have also noticed that with 2.10 I can save in Geopackage format.
> Does
> >>> that mean that support for this format has improved?
> >>>
> >>> Any insights are highly appreciated.
> >>>
> >>> Arni Geirsson
> >>>
> >>> ------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> Qgis-user mailing list
> >>> Qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org
> >>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user
> >>>
> >>>
> >> --
> >> Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
> >>
> >
> >
> >
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>
>
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