[gdal-dev] Metadata (FGDB)

[Frank Warmerdam]

On 11-05-06 07:46 PM, Paul Ramsey wrote:
> FGDB Fields can have an Alias. Presumably to provide a more human
> readable form. I could map these to PostgreSQL comments on the
> columns, but there is no slot for them in OGR to pass them through.
> FGDB Tables can have Metadata. There seems to be an OGR slot for this
> (GetInfo) but it's deprecated and highly freeform.

Paul,

I agree that metadata is a weakness of OGR.  Sometimes it can make
sense to treat some kinds of metadata as a special (non-spatial) layer.
I would discourage using GetInfo.

> FGDB Tables can have Indexes. I see in trunk there's some index stuff
> (GetIndex, InitializeIndexSupport) but not sure how far along it is.
> It would be nice to be able to tell OGR to create an index and have it
> magically happen.

Indexing is considered something internal to datasources and there
is no unified interface to them.  I believe the stuff you mention
relates to the attribute indexing done for the shapefile format
using "mapinfo indexes" somewhat ironically.  I did it in such a
way that I intended other non-RDBMS formats to use it too, but that
never was pursued.

> Actually, going over this, it's not bad, better than I thought when I
> started looking. I am assuming that, if/when I get past the basics
> I'll have to push my utility forward by adding some special methods on
> the Pg and FileGDB drivers to do things like set relationships and so
> on.

Those could potentially be represented by special layers (tables).

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
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and watch the world go round - Rush    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent