[gdal-dev] Is the SOSI Norwegian driver still useful?

[Tachon Mathieu]

Hi again,

I am not and have never been a contributor the to (Open)FYBA library. When it comes to challenges inherent to keeping an updated version of the SOSI driver in GDAL/OGR, I am not the best person to elaborate on that matter.

The statement "SOSI will no longer be used as exchange format in just a few years" is based on internal discussions in the organisation. I am also not aware of any national regulations that clearly state that SOSI will not be used as exchange format, and with a given date for when it comes into effect.

I am also not aware of any other OSGeo tool that enables working with SOSI files. That said, I think most people that work with SOSI files use FME, or GIS solutions developed by Norconsult/Norkart/Geodata AS.

It is true that SOSI is still used extensively as distribution format from Kartverket. However, most vector datasets available from geonorge.no are also distributed in the GML format. I am not aware of any vector datasets distributed from Kartverket at the SOSI format only, but I do not have a complete overview.

For some data deliveries from external organisations, Kartverket may ask the data to be in the SOSI format. However, I doubt that these organisations use the SOSI driver from GDAL/OGR to produce these files.

There was a major version update for SOSI earlier this year (from 4.6 to 5.0). Datasets in earlier versions than 5.0 will still be available for some time, but they will not be updated as far as I understand it. I am not sure what the consequences of the version change are for a driver, I did not dig much into it.

Stefan, the files that you worked with in 2022, were they generated/downloaded in 2022? And did you manage to work with them with the SOSI driver based on OpenFYBA? Also, could you give us more information on what kind of dataset you were working with?

I will try to get more information on my side and keep you updated. I also hope that more people working with the FYBA library get involved in this thread, so that we get more detailed information on what keeping an updated version of FYBA in GDAL/OGR implies.

Kind regards,

Mathieu
On Saturday, November 18th, 2023 at 8:33 PM, Stefan Blumentrath <Stefan.Blumentrath at gmx.de> wrote:

> Hei,
>
> flesh-and-bones-user from Norway here too.
>
> When the OpenFYBA library and the OGR-SOSI driver were revived roughly 10 years ago, Kartverket already had plans to replace the SOSI format and communicated what you now heared at the community sprint, Even. I see that Mathieu confirmed that "SOSI will no longer be used as exchange format in just a few years". Then, like now, I have not seen a clear time-line / roadmap.
>
> In consequence, the OGR-SOSI driver has been the primary (if not only) available option to consume significant parts of the open data delivered via GeoNorge in OSGeo tools for the last ten years. I am very grateful to Even and others for all support during that time! Currently, I do not work that much with SOSI files (but may do so again soon). My experience with SOSI files and the OGR SOSI driver is as follows:
>
> 1) SOSI is still a mayor - if not the main - distribution format from Kartverket and not all public vector data is provided in an alternative, OGR-readable format (Mathieu, please correct me if I am wrong).
> 2) Encoding is indeed an issue, as Methieu mentioned, when opening newer SOSI files. These use increasingly UTF8 encoding which is not supported by the OGR driver, but that can be worked around (e.g. here: https://gitlab.com/ninsbl/osgeonorge/-/blob/main/osgeonorge/sosi.py?ref_type=heads#L15) as SOSI files are basically siimple text-files,
> 3) I was never bothered by the other issues Mathieu mentioned, but I also have to admitt that the latest SOSI files I opened with OGR are from late 2022... Mathieu, do you know if there have been any significant changes to the format since then? If not, we may assume, that also currently provided files can still be handled with OGR.
>
> That said, if Kartverket one fine day finally follows through and abandons SOSI or provides all vector data in an alternative OGR-readable format, I would be happy to abandon the OGR-SOSI driver as well! Historic data could be accessed with historic versions of libraries... However, until that is the case, I would love to see the SOSI driver as part of GDAL distributions...
>
> Mathieu, could you keep us informed if Kartverket provides a full replacement for SOSI? That would be very useful information.
>
> Kind regards,
> Stefan
> Gesendet: Mittwoch, 15. November 2023 um 11:48 Uhr
> Von: "Tachon Mathieu via gdal-dev" <gdal-dev at lists.osgeo.org>
> An: "gdal-dev at lists.osgeo.org" <gdal-dev at lists.osgeo.org>
> Betreff: Re: [gdal-dev] Is the SOSI Norwegian driver still useful?
> Hi,
>
> The SOSI driver (fyba) integrated in GDAL is an old version and has not been updated for many years. We have an updated version of it in the GIS software (in-house) developed by the National Mapping Authority in Norway (Kartverket), that many people in the organisation use. There are major changes in the updated version: use of wchar data type instead of char data type for dealing with strings, it can handle UTF8 encoding, the object types and properties tables have been updated, amongst other things. As the latter were hard-coded and that the SOSI data model change rather dynamically, this is one of reasons for which newer versions of fyba have not been ported to GDAL, as it would require much time and resources. fyba has now extended its internal use of GDAL, which may rely on different versions of GDAL from the latest ones (not sure about that), and the people working with it find it challenging to keep an updated version of the SOSI driver in GDAL. We do not really have resources internally (at Kartverket) for doing such work. At the same time, SOSI will no longer be used as exchange format in just a few years. We also have currently a discussion internally about whether the SOSI driver should be removed from GDAL or not.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Mathieu
> _______________________________________________ gdal-dev mailing list gdal-dev at lists.osgeo.org https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/gdal-dev
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