[fdo-internals] Multiple geometries per table

[Mike Toews]

Hi,

I'd like to clarify the scope of FDO capabilities (if any) for tables
with more than 1 geometry. (http://trac.osgeo.org/fdo/ticket/648)

I've defined several tables with more than 1 geometry, as this best
suits the needs of storing certain kinds of data.[1] For PostGIS and
Quantum GIS, this type of geodatabase schema works quite effectively,
and there have been no complications implementing it. However, I have
not had any success with either the FDO providers for PostGIS
(http://trac.osgeo.org/fdo/ticket/443) or the newer (and mostly
impressive) Generic RDBMS-derived PostgreSQL Provider. Only the first
geometry column is recognized, and any other column is ignored
(despite the appropriate metadata in geometry_columns). I wonder if
this is a limitation of these providers, the base Generic RDBMS
Provider, or is it a limitation of the FDO Core API? If it is a
limitation in the API, are there any plans to extend it?

[1] examples: excavation top-of-bank and bottom-of-bank polygons;
features with either geographic or unreferenced/relative coordinates;
feature and manual label placement geometries

-Mike